When Helen Evans of New Covent Garden Market checked her Twitter account a few weeks ago, a greengrocer from Herne Bay had got in touch. He was trying to track down a particular squash variety for one of his customers and wondered if any stall holders sold it. Thanks to social media, the Herne Bay shopper got his squash, and the greengrocer was introduced to a new supplier.
Since Evans started tweeting from Covent Garden Market Authority in March, she says the benefits have been numerous. “It has been fascinating,” she explains. “I started it to raise our profile, but I’ve been surprised at the amount of other information I’ve picked up. I have had conversations with the driver who delivers Nutbourne tomatoes from Sussex and we’ve discovered some really interesting customers that we would never have known were out there. There is a guy called Marc Demarquette, who is an amazing chocolate maker. He buys really good quality soft fruit from the market to make his caramels and his chocolates, which sell at Fortnum & Mason. We are building up a network of small- and medium-sized customers who use the market through Twitter; it is just about connecting with the foodie world.”
Others in the fresh produce industry have also discovered the benefits of using social media, such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Rick Sanderson, commercial manager at From My Farm, uses Twitter to chat with others in the industry, share useful information and build a network of contacts.
“I follow all the supermarkets and every now and then you get a snippet of what is happening,” he says. “What’s interesting is I find out what some of our competitors are doing.” He says LinkedIn tends to have a wider following among those in the industry, who value the fact that content isn’t public, as it is with Twitter and some Facebook pages.
Carol Ford of Growing Direct is a big proponent of the power of social media. She uses Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to talk to others in the industry and says it enables her to be contactable even when she is in a meeting or can’t answer the phone. “When I was setting up the business in March, I found a social media professional who gave me three hours of training,” she recalls. “I discovered that not only was it free, but it was a way to network where you didn’t have to be present. I tweet about fresh produce on a daily basis.”
According to the Forum of Private Business, 52 per cent of its members now use websites like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. However, of that 52 per cent, some 27 per cent have expressed doubts about the value of social networking.
“We believe that social media does hold a great deal of potential for many SMEs,” says spokesman Phil McCabe. “It’s conversational, real-time nature makes it ideal for entrepreneurs and small, dynamic firms which often have much more relaxed attitudes towards public relations than big corporations. Also, sites like Twitter can provide valuable and cost-free feedback on customer and client satisfaction.”
Some believe that the reason some SMEs have doubts about the value of social media is that they don’t fully understand its uses and how it works.
According to Matt Rebeiro of social media consultant RMM, for businesses that aren’t sure where to start, social media should be viewed as a conversation. “When you are new to a conversation you have to listen to what people are saying, so imagine you are at a cocktail party. You have to listen to what people are saying before you start talking or else it will be tangential or meaningless.
“The first thing we always say is to listen to what conversations are happening online and the great thing about social media is that those conversations are so often happening in public, whether on blogs or Facebook or Twitter. You can find out what is being said about fresh produce in a number of different locations online, and from those conversations fresh produce companies can work out what people are talking about. So when you do actually start doing something, whether that be setting up a Facebook page or starting a blog, you can have a better idea of what you can talk about and the issues you can address.”
The important thing to remember is not to overtly try to sell yourself, but allow conversations to develop with potential customers. “Going back to the dinner party analogy, no-one would turn up at a dinner party trying to sell something,” says Rebeiro. “But later in the conversation if someone asks for a recommendation about what apple to buy then you can join in and say, ‘Well, I represent an apple growing company’ and talk about it, but you need to respond to what people are talking about rather than pushing it on them.”
Ford says she was surprised when she started the business at how few in the fresh produce industry had caught on to the fact social media was a powerful, and free tool. “I reckon 95 per cent of fresh produce businesses are not using social media in a proactive way,” she says. “We’ve got a massive gap between the generation coming through - our consumers, employees, entrepreneurs - that are using this as a matter of course. This is not anything that is new to them, it is as normal as talking, they use it all the time.
“I was truly gobsmacked by the lack of engagement by the fresh produce industry, but then there are a lot of people who barely use email, so I’m not sure why I am surprised.”
Rebeiro recommends companies should start small and think about what objectives they have. “There is no point doing any social media activity if it doesn’t link back to an actual business objective, be it from a marketing perspective to increase interest or to increase customer retention or to improve sales efficiencies,” he says.
“You need to make sure whatever business objectives you have, social media links to that. That might be to increase the discussion around a specific thing you’re selling or to increase the number of people recommending your service, or it might be people becoming involved in the sales process and becoming an advocate, so there are a lot of ways that social objectives can latch on to business objectives. It is not about how many Facebook fans or how many followers you have on Twitter, it has to link back to business objectives so you can then start to work out what you’re getting.”
While the world of social media may seem confusing at first, for those who have adopted it, such as Ford, the sentiment is clear. “The resource that is there is so rich and rewarding in terms of the networking opportunities and getting to know people,” she says. “Any company that thinks social media can’t benefit their business is I think being quite shortsighted.”
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