Social networking for marketing

[TreverT]

FWIW, I posted an article on our pipe blog covering my impressions of the usefulness of the various social networks for marketing, from the specific perspective of an artisan pipe shop:

http://talbertpipes.blogspot.com/2012/0 ... ation.html

Basically it's an overview of Facebook, G+, Chime, Twitter, & Pinterest looking at how useful each is for anyone looking for a way to market their wares. I do take into account their enjoyment factor as general social hangouts, too, but that's a secondary focus. Might be interesting for anyone debating over how much of a social network presence they want to have, and where.

I must admit I kind of miss the days when all you had to do was post an ad on ASP...

[Sasquatch]

It might have been "simpler then", as they say, but as a guy who has grown up from a total newbie to selling a couple pipes a week over a period of about 4 years, and who did the first 3 years without a website of his own.... I'd say the social network side of things, and for me particularly the forum side of things has been crucial.

You have to make decent pipes - I think that's the most important factor in any and all of this, but assuming a guy makes a half decent pipe, the social network side of things takes care of a lot of marketing for you: brand awareness, immediate quality-control updates, an ability to communicate with buyers and prospective buyers.... it's easy!

If you asked me whether I'd rather have only a dedicated website to sell pipes and no access to forums and facebook, or whether I'd take the forums and facebook and NO dedicated website.... man, that's an easy choice. I'll take the face-to-face high profile forum action.

If I'd have had to rely on old school sales methods - local B+Ms or supply contracts with larger vendors.... hell I wouldn't have ever got off the ground.

[TreverT]

If I'd have had to rely on old school sales methods - local B+Ms or supply contracts with larger vendors.... hell I wouldn't have ever got off the ground.

True story - Back in the 90's, when I thought I'd try my hand at selling a pipe or two, I took my first three sellable ones to a local B&M at the usual 50% discount. The pipes sat for a week while I wrote my first website. At the end of the week, the B&M owner said, "You may as well take these home, no one has been interested in them." I photographed them and put them on my website and they sold in 2 days. Ever since then, I've been direct market and never looked back. And at the time, MAN, was I hated for it by the traditional establishment... The same guys who were shrugging and saying, "Eh, no one is interested in this weird stuff" were the ones who were cursing my name for bypassing the traditional tier structure when I started selling a lot. There was quite a lot of heat back in the 90's for anyone who dared go the web route instead of finding B&Ms or a national distributor, "the way it was supposed to be done".

[Sasquatch]

I'm too dumb to know there's a way things are supposed to be done.

Hell I may have left a trail of stepped-on toes in my "real" business or with my pipes.... I don't hope so, and I don't really think so, but it is what it is. I've taken pipes to B+Ms around here who claimed to sell a pipe a day or so, and got pretty lukewarm responses and certainly no "help" at all, even with offers of maybe setting up a "meet a pipe maker" sort of day where I could bring in some unfinished pieces, show off some tools and raw materials, maybe generate a little interest in the whole idea.... they didn't really care, not enough to actually do it, anyhow. So.... fine. I sell with no retail mark-up (or wholesale discount, or whatever). No retailers, no mystery. Just pipes and shitty photographs. And I don't think any retailers are thinking that they let one "slip away" in terms of selling 2 of my pipes a year or something.

My worst mistake in all this was using the name "Sasquatch" on these and other forums, and making pipes as "Sasquatch" rather than as Todd Bannard or even as BriarSweatandTears or BST Pipes or some thing that was in any way related to the pipes themselves. There's a funny schism in my stuff, and a few guys have had a moment of revelation "Oh I see - YOU'RE Sasquatch... cool, now I get it." I never really realized that almost every single artisan just sold pipes under his own name. The name is the brand. (See above about not knowing there's a way things are supposed to be done.) I thought Briar Sweat and Tears was... well, funny. So I used it. I don't know if I would do so, to do it again, although BST is an anagram of my initials too (STB) so it's not totally random stamping.

So either I'm a marketing genius, putting one product out under 3 brands, or I'm a retard and will eventually have to retool my whole operation, sell the name to Beatus Liebowitz, and move on as something else. Paterson Pipes, maybe. Or maybe Castallo. That has a nice ring to it....

I actually think that there's been (being) a huge switch in the pipe market too. A few pioneers of the "handmade" briar pipe (guys like Tinsky come to mind) opened doors for a whole whack of us - I'm the beneficiary of the hard work of the makers who went before me and got the market established in the first place. Now I see the big companies shutting down (Big Ben) or gearing down (Stanwell) and more and more the artisanal approach is being sought out by the community. Lucky me to ride such a wake, I suppose.

[Alden]

Fascinating discussion, and one that answers a few questions I didnt even know to ask... I must be on the wrong site.