This is an archived blog from when I ran Conscious Public Relations Inc. from 2008-2018. Excuse the potential outdated-ness!
Sedo’s Butcher Shop and the Fraser Valley Food Show vendors
The last week took a very interesting turn as we prepared for the final push to our client event, the 7th annual Fraser Valley Food Show. Our client asked us to manage their social media accounts on a whim on show day. So we took on the challenge.
Having never monitored the show’s Twitter feed before, I was very surprised not only to see the amount of engagement the account had, but the support that the vendors of the show gave each other. Seeing this was the turning point for me on Friday:
Salt Spring Sea Salt company responded as follows:
Many times people tell me “I just don’t get Twitter” and this is the only page of the book you have to see. It’s offline engagement going online. Here’s how it all went down, people:
– At the show, someone at Sedo’s goes over to Salt Spring Sea Salt and tries something out. They like it.
– They tweet the fact that they like it. (Including the Fraser Valley Food Show’s Twitter handle, because this account has 1700+ followers and if we retweet the message, it’s likely others will see it.)
– Salt Spring Sea Salt responds on Twitter.
– Now, I have no evidence of the offline interaction, but I would assume they headed over to Sedo’s to return the favour by tasting their sausages.
Over and over I saw things like this go on while reading the Twitter feed. What these vendors GET – no matter how small of a business they are – is that tracing your offline actions online is what gets you the extra mile. It’s not enough just to introduce yourself and meet people at the show. Sedo’s had the most online engagement out of any vendors that I saw, including a ton of photos. This is what helps to draw people in the Twitterverse (and same goes for Facebook, Instagram, etc) into an offline event.
I also saw vendors using the hashtag #FVFoodShow even though there was no official hashtag for the event. So people were taking the initiative even without being asked.
You don’t have to have a social media team or be a huge company to use social media. Tribute to the little guys for showing us how it’s done.
