Social media becomes online marketplace for some businesses
It’s common to see James Gilcrease texting between customers or answering messages on his iPad during a break. You might even see him snap a photo.
As sole owner of Day Old Blues record store in Shreveport, his job is to sell and promote vinyl music. He said the photo-inspired social media platform Instagram has become one of the fastest-growing marketplaces for him to do that. Most of the stores that benefit from social media posts are small businesses.
“I check Instagram before I check my Facebook,” Gilcrease said.
And he should. That’s where many of his sales have begun showing up.
With more than 600 followers on Instagram, Gilcrease ships across the United States, most frequently to California.
“If they really want it, they’ll find a way to get it,” he said. He also uses Square Marketplace and Facebook, which has more than 1,100 “likes.”
Gilcrease said it is pertinent to continue using social media as a means to sell his product, whether it be an unknown Deaf Heaven album or the popular Jack White. He works off supply and demand, but he promises to always include lagniappe for musiclovers.
“You feed off your customer base, and you have to do your own research,” he said. “One day, I’ll sell to a middle-schooler, and an hour later, I’ll be selling to a 63-year-old man. It’s across the board in here.”
Misty DeLong, owner of Campus Collectibles, also has a wide range of customers, but she is just getting her feet wet as far as social media goes. Her business has only been in the online world for a few months, though the store has been open for more than 15 years in Shreveport.
She said one of her No. 1 goals as a business owner is to bring the store into the digital age, one post at a time.
“We’re literally starting from the ground up on advertising,” DeLong said. She reopened the antique store in March and started with a blank marketing canvas. From watching her friends and family, she created a Facebook page and Instagram account.
While she hasn’t made any sales yet via Instagram, the store’s Facebook is quickly growing and getting attention.
“We have people who call in who say ‘I want to buy something I saw on your page,’” she said. “That’s pretty cool.”
The store has just more than 400 “likes,” but DeLong said she has just scratched the surface as far as social media goes. She said she is eager to continue growing her brand.
“There are so many things your page can do for you,” she said. “You just have to be willing to work it.”
Uptown Cheapskate, a popular franchise retailer, has more than 6,000 Facebook “likes.” A mix between grassroots word of mouth and a sprinkle of paid advertising, the new and used clothing store has become one of the most popular retail destinations in just over a year.
Ashley Hill, manager and co-owner of Cheapskate in Bossier City, said she tries to make everything about her store eye-catching and appealing, including Facebook.
“We have a lot of people who will call us and ask us to post certain things. We make sure to tag them in it and make it personal. We try to respond super quick,” she said.
Like DeLong, many of Hill’s items are one-of-a-kind (and designer). Hardly ever are there two of the same in Uptown Cheapskate.
“Designer bags are a hot commodity,” Hill said. “They’re getting an expensive bag for a third of the price.”
She said she uses Facebook’s analytics to research her customer base, a group she said is age 25-30.
“We go over our Insights. We look at everything,” she said.
Facebook’s new Insights feature for Pages features a simpler metrics view of page likes and engagement, tools to publish better content (post-specific functions) and insights about people interacting with your page. She said she uses the analytics to not only drive traffic to the store’s page but to increase sales through advertising.
“Right now, they can call and pay for it over the phone,” she said. “Paypal will come in the future. It’s just been getting really busy with people calling all the time paying for stuff.”
She said she frequently ships to Oklahoma and Texas and all over Louisiana.
Even nonprofits such as Robinson’s Rescue use their Facebook page as a means to sell their service.
“It helps sell our mission and our education. It helps sell and bring our volunteer team together,” said Dr. Andrea Everson, Robinson’s president and medical director.
The nonprofit provides affordable spay/neuter service with a mission to educate pet owners about the importance of spay/neuter as a means of ending pet overpopulation.
Everson said with the help of Facebook and now Instagram, she and her team can continue to sell Robinson’s Rescue to donors and customers. “It helps us communicate with other animal organizations that are doing amazing things,” she said. “It helps us instead of having meeting everywhere, we can virtually interact about what’s going on with our pet community.”
– Derick Jones
