This past weekend I was strolling the upper East Side of Manhattan under chilly, dark and drizzly skies when down a side street I caught a whiff of fresh baked bread. “Mmmm, gotta have it”, I said and paused spinning in 360 motion to find my target escape from the rain. It was a bakery that I’ve never seen before in all my years trodding these NY streets. Orwasher’s bakery has been around since 1916 … and it was about to get a new customer.
I selected a couple of loaves of fresh baked artisan bread from smiling employees and headed home to try it. A couple of rips, tears and bites in, I was hooked and declared, “This is awesome stuff- best bread in New York!”
After my bread sampling I immediately headed to my laptop to look up Orwasher’s online. I’m a pretty heavy social user, so rather than heading to Google, Yahoo! or some other such likely web search source, I pulled up Twitter and searched for “Orwasher’s Bakery”. While there wasn’t too much tweeting going on yet about this wonderful bakery, I did find that they have an account on Twitter. As a social media user I couldn’t help but appreciate that just as much as the bread they so lovingly and rightly just baked. I was now an empowered brand loyalist, like I could connect with the ownership and the experience. I followed them and now I felt like I became an “insider” with Orwasher’s. I was ready to spread the good word!
1. Twitter
I immediately tweeted to my audience of nearly 800 twitter followers that this is one of the best breads I’ve ever tasted.
2. Website
I then clicked on their main website URL from twitter and discover they had a really nice, simple website.
3. StumbleUpon
One more bite of the Pumpernickle inspired me “thumb up” their main website and write a brief review in StumbleUpon, thus exposing them to tens of thousands of foodies channel surfing on StumbleUpon; not to mention the nearly 10 million general members of StumbleUpon who may search for “food” releated websites.
4. Delicious
A crunchy corner of the Miche Chardonnay slice lead my social media fingers to my Delicious (no pun intended) to bookmark the main website with relevant keyword tags.
5. Facebook
After I cleaned up the slew of crumbs around my plate I turned to my Facebook account and posted to my wall that I simply love this bread. Approximately 100 or so of my 400 Facebook friends are from the New York City area and there’s a good chance they’ll go there as a result of my recommendation – or I’ll end up taking them to Orwasher’s when they visit me.
6. SMS Text
As the vestiges of the fresh bread smell started to leave my home, I made one last social media outreach to express my love for this new-found bread. I picked up by blackberry and texted my brother, my father and 2 other friends to give them the trusted good word of mouth.
Other social users have obviously contributed to Orwasher’s great and deep information at Yelp and this is fantastic for web search. I’m personally not a heavy user of Yelp, but that would be a logical step for others as well.
Orwasher’s bakery doesn’t have a huge social media presence; but they did have a presence and that’s what counts. I didn’t even check to see if they have a Facebook page; Twitter was enough to set me off spreading word. This previously “undiscovered” (in bookmarking sites) business and website are now found and have positive information, tags and reviews online all because they provided a remarkable product, service with a smile and made the effort to set up a twitter account. Their presence on Twitter alone inspired me as a social media user to go one step further saying “these guys rock” and tweet, bookmark them and share it with my audience, thus further spreading the positive word of mouth about their business. It’s no wonder they’ve been around for 94 years!
And they'll receive a boost when I RT this to my 10,000 twitter followers, a fair number living in the NYC metro area.
That's the power of the web. One glowing recommendation travels at the speed of light through multiple channels if they're established.
Great read Jake.
Thanks Ryan. It's inspiring always to see great products/services thrive. When a company ventures into social it's amazing to see how word can spread like wildfire. Truly remarkable.
Very nice and didactical article ! Thanks.
This is a good example of why companies, regardless of their industry, should embrace social media. I must say after reading this article I have a uncontrollable craving for freshly baked bread. I think your article also shows how much influence one customer can have on a company's image. Enjoyed the read!
i like how you mention, "regardless of their industry" b/c that's so true. there are many companies that overlook the importance of social media b/c they focus only on twitter and facebook, when in reality, there are thousands of niche communities that are extremely important for different verticals.
Once upon a time, word of mouth was just that, what one person said to another face-to-face, and your bakery experience may have only been shared with one or two people in that amount of time. It's amazing that now the same experience can be shared to a much wider audience with a similar amount of effort. This should be a wake-up call to most businesses that every customer experience could be literally make-or-break for them. Imagine if you didn't like the bread! But then again, would you have spent the same amount of effort expressing your disgust?
I appreciate social media websites due to their opportunity to unite pleasure with profit – an opportunity to communicate with a chance to promote your web products!
Thanks for sharing – that's cool!
This is a great article, and I definitely think you should start using Yelp because it's becoming really popular. People pick their restaurants based off of that a lot.
I definitely think you should start using Yelp because it’s .
i will try too
To effectively use Twitter for marketing, without spending all your time on Twitter, you need to set up a system. An efficient system that builds your Twitter following will turn you as an authority in your niche, and will effectively promote your product, service, business.
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