There’s a restaurant in my neighborhood called Moody’s that’s been in business more than 40 years, and I’ve seen it written up in Chicago magazine as the “insider” spot. Only the locals know about this gem.
You might be thinking that Moody’s must offer world-class cuisine to have this kind of success. Nope. At Moody’s you can order a hamburger, a cheeseburger or – as of about 10 years ago – a grilled chicken breast on a bun. On the side, french fries or onion rings. To drink? A pitcher of beer. (Or soda – or even milk!) So it’s not the diversity of the menu that gets people coming back.
It should be noted, a Moody Burger is one of the best burgers you’re ever going to taste. And that’s an important marketing lesson – your products need to be way above the competition – but that’s not the lesson of today’s blog post.
Rather, today’s lesson is about just being friendly, and letting your customers know you as a person.
Moody’s was started by a guy by the name of John Moody, and he had an apartment above the restaurant back in the day. My dad as a young man (before I was born) used to frequent Moody’s, and because they were both young single guys, he and John Moody struck up a little acquaintance. As the years went on, John stopped working in the restaurant, but could often be seen on his balcony, overlooking the outdoor seating area.
My dad would always wave up at John, and John would wave back. Were they “friends?” Did my dad know the personal details of John’s life? No not at all. But there was a friendliness in just that little wave that made my dad feel welcome, and those good feelings transferred over to his feelings about the restaurant. And, of course, kept him coming back over and over again.
Now here’s the really important part of this story. How do I know all of this? Because my dad re-tells this story time and time again! His friendship, if you can call it that, with John Moody ended more than 20 years ago, when John gave up his little apartment over the restaurant and bought a big house in the suburbs. But to this day, my dad tells the story about how he would always wave to John Moody, and John would wave back. And, whenever he comes to visit me in the city, Moody’s is STILL my dad’s favorite place to go.
“Well that’s great,” you might be thinking to yourself, “But I don’t have a balcony overlooking my store. I can’t wave at my customers like that.”
Maybe not. But you know what you CAN do? You can “wave” at them on Facebook. When you post a little comment “Looks like you had fun” on one of your customer’s wall posts, it goes an incredibly long way to cementing your relationship with that customer, and getting them to come back to you time and time again.
Will it last for 40 years, like my dad’s fondness for Moody’s? Only time will tell …
To set up your Facebook account so that it’s only got your customers and potential customers, you’ll want to check out my free DVD at http://www.FreeSocialMediaDVD.com
Lee Odden asked this interesting question of several dozen social media insiders. Their answers make up his latest blog post, which you can find here:
http://www.toprankblog.com/2010/04/social-media-strategy-tactics/
The overwhelming majority said “Of course you need strategy first.” But Guy Kawasaki had a different answer. He said,
“Get more followers, make them happy, promote your stuff to them once in a while. That’s all you need to know about strategy right now.”
What’s most interesting to me about his statement is that it reveals perspective. For someone like him – the big Apple corporate evangelist – “planning a strategy” could be a year-long process in his world.
But for small business owners or anyone with a limited base of technology resources, his simple advice of “Get more followers, make them happy, promote your stuff,” can seem daunting.
If you set out to “get more followers” would you know the first step to take? Or does the thought of figuring out the first step give you a headache and cause you to look for the next item on your to-do list? Doesn’t it feel much more reassuring to get someone who knows the ropes to develop a simple strategy for you?
(By the way, throwing a few hundred bucks every month at some VA to post tweets for you does NOT count as “developing a simple strategy.” That’s the worst example of tactics without a strategy.)
I agree that spending months of time or thousands of dollars on simply “creating a plan” is overkill with your social media efforts, no matter who you are or what size your business. By the time your 3-month analysis and write-up is complete, the market will have shifted beyond recognition. Again.
But that’s exactly the same reason why most business owners do themselves a tremendous disservice when they attempt to do their social media themselves – or hire an assistant to manage it for them. You’re in business to do your business – not to stay on top of every twist in the marketing landscape, and figure out how to capitalize on every new opportunity.
Do yourself a favor and find yourself someone who knows marketing and who also knows social media and have them help you with your strategy before spending a penny on your tactics.
Someone like me, for instance. 
Email me at JuliaKlinePersonal@gmail.com to continue the conversation.
