POSTED: Sunday, Jan. 31, 2010

Whatcom businesses finding fun, success on social media pages

Interacting with customers is a key to business success, and many local companies are finding an enthusiastic fan base on social media Web sites.

Scrolling through the hundreds of Whatcom County business fan pages on Facebook, it's interesting to see the different ways local businesses post information and respond to comments from fans. There are several local businesses that attract quite a following: Boundary Bay Brewery has more than 6,500 fans, making it the most popular Whatcom County business Facebook fan page I could find. Other popular local fan pages include The Woods Coffee (more than 2,800 fans) and Village Books (more than 2,300 fans).

The popular business fan pages seem to have found a balance between informing fans about its products/brand and having fun. Milagro Ayala, who manages the Grant's Burgers Facebook fan page, said posting comments that get a response is important. The business itself re-opened in Ferndale in November and has already drawn more than 1,500 fans. When they announced they were bringing back onion rings for a limited time, they had fun with the postings and Grant's ended up selling out of those rings.

"I've learned Grant's fans mostly want to post funny things, not talk about their personal life," Ayala said. "I try to find fun things online and try to tie it to the business."

Maintaining a consistent voice and being creative also help, said Amy Jones, who is in charge of Boundary Bay's social media. They didn't have a big marketing strategy when they started Boundary's fan page two years ago; they just jumped in to see what worked and what didn't.

"I'm continually surprised at how big social media is," Jones said. "We have a far-flung audience, with many of them who used to live in this area saying how they miss us and where they can find our beer."

The fan pages allow businesses to get demographics on the people following them. At Boundary Bay, the brewery has Facebook fans as far away as New Zealand and Japan, but what surprised Jones is their biggest group of fans on Facebook are women who live in Ferndale.

The social media fan base has become another broad outlet businesses need to pay attention to, said Wes Herman of The Woods Coffee. Woods has used its fan page to promote events, introduce new products and partner with non-profits for various causes. Last week Woods put up a post about employees donating the tips they made to the Red Cross to help Haiti. It drew an immediate response from customers at its cafes.

"I can't quantify the advantage of having a fan page because it is still so new (Woods has had its page up about six months) but we do get a lot of comments," Herman said. "This is a time when people want more information than ever, and social media is an effective way to provide it."

While viewed as "fan" pages, companies also get negative comments from people who had a bad experience. Jones said if someone publicly complains about something, it's important to publicly respond and address the issue so it doesn't happen again.

"This helps people feel like they have a forum and they learn to trust you," Jones said. "I would rather have someone talk to me about a problem rather than anonymously complain to others."

Ayala agreed, saying some posts are printed out for employees to see so they can make changes.

For those interested in learning more about social media, there's the Social Media Conference NW 2010 in Mount Vernon on March 25, organized by the Technology Alliance Group and the Center for Economic Vitality. Details at socialmediaconferencenw.com. There are also classes on the topic at Whatcom Community College.