Business - Dave Gallagher

POSTED: Sunday, Jul. 19, 2009

Maple.St helps downtown Bellingham merchants engage with social media

Social media sites are taking off these days, with people busy putting up posts and tweets, but Scott Pierce noticed something missing: A link between local businesses and customers.

Whatcom County residents regularly on Facebook and Twitter may have stumbled across Maple.St., something Pierce put together on Twitter in October that has picked up momentum in the past three months, he said.

Pierce regularly sends out posts and tweets to fans and followers about what's happening in retail in Bellingham. Maple.St. will fire off messages about a sale or some event happening right now at a downtown store, and the Maple.St. fans and followers provide feedback about what they are seeing, particularly in the downtown district.

"There is so much happening with social media, people can get overwhelmed. I wanted to make sure social media and downtown Bellingham have some sort of relationship," Pierce said. "Businesses are realizing that they need to be on and engaged, and this is a way of communicating with customers."

This isn't something that Pierce makes money on; his consulting business generates income. He's more interested in what's going on and what people are talking about when it comes to downtown Bellingham, and his passion becomes apparent in the multiple posts and tweets he sends out every day.

Part of it extends from his own experience: He became a fan of Northwest Computers, and was surprised and a bit disappointed when the store closed suddenly last fall.

"In that case there was probably nothing that could have been done, but if there's a business thinking about closing down and that is communicated early, maybe something could have been done," Pierce said, noting that a campaign could be launched to save a business that the community values.

What gets Pierce juiced about this project is the time element. Someone could be hanging out at a local café and get a tweet about something happening right then at a nearby business. He believes there is value in that, and it does seem to be generating an audience: Pierce has about 1,500 followers on Twitter, and he estimates he reaches 7,000 people a week.

It'll be interesting to see how things develop with Pierce's Maple.St., as well as following how other local businesses do when venturing into social media sites. Pierce admits that social media is still very much a Wild West situation, and no one is sure where it will go.

It has certainly caught the interest of the business community, however: Whenever I'm talking to business owners, the topic of social media almost always comes up. Many seem to have the same question, however, of where this is going and in what way will it be effective.

"The key, though, is that people are trying to communicate in some way," and that will drive the upcoming changes, Pierce said.

This week, Maple.St. plans to unveil some new e-mail marketing tools as well as its own blog. Pierce is also tinkering with other marketing ideas, such as mob deals, where a certain number of people have to sign up in order to get a promotion.

"For me, the challenge is how (Maple.St.) can be useful in something that is evolving so fast," Pierce said. "The advantage is there is room for everyone. The tools are there to connect a community."

There are a variety of ways to find Maple.St., including http://maple.st/ and http://twitter.com/MapleSt.