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Raspberry Kids Inc. is a Vancouver-based online store for unique children’s clothing, toys and accessories. To learn more about the company, please visit them:

Online: www.raspberrykids.com
on Twitter: @raspberrykids
on Facebook: Raspberry Kids

1. What made you decide to start using social media as part of your marketing strategy?

   As a start up small business with limited funds for marketing or advertising, social media was a no brainer for us. The other main reason was that as a mom, I already had a number of friends who were online and using social media and it was a really logical place to connect with them with respect to Raspberry Kids. When you have young children at home, it is often harder to get out and you can feel quite isolated at times which is why I think a lot of us turn to online communities for support, entertainment and to communicate with one another. Social media allows you to stay connected with friends and loved ones from across the globe and we simply expanded these connections to our customers, suppliers, media contacts and friends by using several social media applications.



2. Tell us about a time when you won business because you were using social media.

   As an online retailer, it is hard to narrow down where we won business but we believe we win business through social media All. The. Time! We’ve seen instant conversions when we post new products and our fans purchase them right away, to much longer sales cycles where we’ve seen people interact with us for some time before making a purchase. We’ve never intended for social media to be about winning business though. We see it as an offering and a value add we can provide our fans, customers as well as anyone who chooses to interact with us. It’s an extension of our e-commerce site and helps us to demonstrate our personality, and obviously over time, we hope that translates into success for Raspberry Kids.

3. Which social media marketing effort got you the most results? What did you do, and what did you get out of it?

   We’ve had a great deal of success with a variety of different campaigns we have tried. We created a virtual party on Facebook which was a ton of fun and we have since co-hosted two other of these parties and expect to do more. We’ve run large giveaways as well but we often find we get the biggest results from the simplest things we do or the off-the-cuff posts we make. Our vision for social media is to have a sustained effort and not just be a one hit wonder. We want to continue to communicate with and engage our fans over and over and believe this will garner us the results we desire in both the short and long term. Having said that, we are also always looking at ways we can innovate and stay on the leading edge of social media trends. The key to results is evolving and finding out what works for your business. We like to create and stay fresh (healthy & fun) and try to be a bit of a risk taker and pioneer when it comes to applying social media to our business.

4. How do you control the use of social media within your company? Do you have any rules or policies?

   We currently have two administrators for our Facebook page and the understanding of our culture and our message is something that is very key. We do not currently have any rules or policies and as we grow, we may require them but for right now, it is as simple as “Don’t post unless you are comfortable with having this on the 6:00 news.” We also do not post if we have nothing to say believing that with a lot of things, quality always trumps quantity.

5. What’s your biggest social media pet peeve?

   People or companies that only talk and don’t listen or engage with others. Another pet peeve is when people or companies assume that what you’ve done with your social media will also work for their companies and take a “cut & paste” approach. The companies using social media I admire most are the ones that innovate, lead and use social media in creative ways. Being unique and having your own style/voice is critical and when you “borrow” ideas without modifying them or tailoring them for your own message, it looks and sounds lame.

6. If you could give one really good tip to social media newbies, what would it be?

   You never know what the best form(s) of social media is for your business until you try them. Watch, listen and learn and then create, tailor and apply and don’t be afraid to try new applications or ideas.

7. Name three people on Twitter that you think our readers should follow.

   @coachfelicialee: Felicia is a business coach, Chapter Director for EMN, Langara Instructor and one super duper smart lady!

   @lisaborden: Great insight into green living, so creative and doesn’t pull any punches!

   @cybelenegris: Great tips on business happenings, networking opportunities and events as well as links to interesting articles!

8. Name three Facebook pages that our readers should check out.

   Yoyomama.ca: An amazing resource for families living in Vancouver & Toronto but also in general. Very diligent, great researcher and funny!

   Zappos.com: What Raspberry Kids aspires to be! Amazing customer service and incredible business success story!

   Seth Godin: A marketing guru that I cannot get enough of.

Tags: Q&A, Raspberry Kids, Social Media, Sue Sinclair

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 15th, 2011 at 1:00 pm and is filed under Facebook, Social Media, Twitter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.