HBA of Greater Springfield Associate Member Herrman Lumber was featured recently in PROSALES magazine for its leading edge use of Twitter and other social media to promote its business. An excerpt is provided below, and the full article can be read by clicking here.
Dealers across the country are exploring how social media like Twitter and Facebook can boost their business.
Source: PROSALES Magazine
Publication date: 2010-12-30
By Brendan Rimetz
Dustin Burke just wants to be popular, and Twitter is his scorecard.
Burke, who manages the Twitter feed for Herrman Lumber, which operates 10 stores in Missouri and Kansas, may be construction supply’s King of Tweets. Every business day he sends an average of four to five 140-character messages on everything from This Day in History to weather-related store specials. Both the volume and variety of topics “tweeted” outpace virtually all other dealers.
“People want to follow you if you are interesting,” says Burke, whose Twitter feeds for Herrman are read by more than 750 “followers,” as subscribers to the feeds are known. “So I use Twitter basically to get tons of followers and get our name out there.”
Herrman Lumber is among a growing number of LBM operations integrating social media tools into their marketing. ProSales research turned up more than 160 Twitter feeds and 150 Facebook pages created by LBM companies. We also found an abundance of interest in social media, sharp differences on whether these new tools are worthwhile, and scant hard evidence regarding social media’s impact on a business.
“It’s an emerging media. I believe that if you do not take interest in it and you do not apply it to your marketing plans right now, you are going to be left behind,” says Chris Byrd, corporate IT manager for Potters Ace Home Centers, which operates 18 stores in Tennessee and Kentucky. “It’s an affordable way to attract a lot of folks to your promotions you are offering each month.”
Byrd doesn’t have solid numbers on the effect of using social media, but a recent experiment leaves him encouraged…