How do you use social media to engage with your community?

Each week RN speaks to three retailers to find out how they use social media to market their stores and build stronger ties with their communities. This week Darren Rackham talks to Siera Ali, Emma Cameron and Andrew Howell about how they use Facebook and Twitter to engage with their customers, build important ties and establish themselves as part of the community.

Siera Ali, daughter of owner Ashraf Ali, The Gothenburg, West Lothian

“Me, my sister Shazia and brother Ahmed keep the shop Facebook page up-to-date for dad (Ashraf Ali, pictured). It’s really useful for promoting the business with local people but we’re also looking into using a little pop-up thing which Facebook is developing which should enable us to tell people we’re here if they’re from outside the area and just driving through. The feedback we get on the page about the shop is really encouraging and helps us make the shop better. In February we had a curry tasting evening and a wine tasting and Facebook made it really easy for us to get the word out there. It also helped us get a conversation going about our first year anniversary last November and enabled us to get quite a crowd to celebrate. We’re not using Twitter yet but we will look to in the future if it’s going to be of use to us.”

Emma Cameron, people & marketing manager, Gravelle’s Budgens, Sawbridgeworth

“Paul (pictured) runs a community involvement programme where people can bid for money through the store’s website. People can let us know about something they need money for and then we can help them. Most recently we helped buy books for the library at High Wych Primary School. We’ve also been supporting the Sawbridgeworth-based Helen Rollason Cancer Centre. Being involved in this way raises our profile locally and gives the right impression of the business. It also means we can link the stories through to Facebook and use pictures that were taken by the local newspaper. Paul uses Facebook and Twitter a lot to talk with customers, anyway, and we get a lot of interaction that way. Social media, for us, is another way of getting ourselves out there. We think of it as free advertising.”

Andrew Howell, owner, Loch Lomond News, Balloch

“We have set up our own Facebook and Twitter accounts, and we have been using these to get in contact with local groups. For example, we have linked up with a quilting group and knitting and sewing groups, who we promote certain titles to. We also now have 20 tattoo magazines because we found that there are a lot of tattoo parlours nearby. We also use social media when there is a local event on. We’re not too far from the T in the Park festival, so we will highlight our range of music titles. We now have about 150 shop-saved magazines under the counter.”