50 Shades of Facebook

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Want more Facebook “Likes,” “Shares” and traffic? At the 2014 NAMM Show, Cris Behrens, sales, marketing and store manager for Summerhays Music Center, presented creative ways to make that happen. Like most music retailers, Behrens wears multiple hats at his store, so he passed along ideas that don’t require lots of time or money. Highlights from the video: Facebook Contests Summerhays Music’s Vote for Your School contest has become one of the company’s key Facebook promotions. On average, Vote for Your School generates 1,800–1,900 new ‘Likes’ for the company’s Facebook page per contest . Also, roughly 2,000–2,300 people vote in each contest. “They go to this poll, vote for their favorite school, and the school with the most votes after two weeks wins a $1,000 retail shopping spree at our store,” Behrens said. “We use an app called Opinion Polls.” The company promotes the contest via e-blasts to every customer and teacher in the Summerhays database. School Sponsorship Requests With Facebook, Behrens has found a cost-effective way to help schools that approach him with sponsorship requests. Instead of constantly doling out sponsorships, he asks schools to send JPEG or PDF images of their events. He then posts the images on Summerhays’ Facebook page and includes them in e-blasts. “So instead of giving them $100, I posted it to my Facebook and emailed it—all of which takes, what, 30 seconds these days?” Behrens said. “Then, I would pay $10 to help promote it, so it shows up on other people’s timelines. That’s a lot better than $100.” Customer Relationships “Did you know Facebook is a great customer relationship management tool?” Behrens asked rhetorically. “Half the time, I don’t even send [directors] an email. I just send them a message on Facebook because I know I’ll get a faster response.”