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How Blogging Saved a Cookie Business
Liz Fuller has an interesting find today about a small business owner in Minnesota who was able to save her business by using the power of the company blog. The name of the business is "St. Paul Classic Cookie" and the owner is Katherine Novotny (pictured to left). Katherine is facing higher ingredient costs along with a slower demand and was close to needing to close her cookie business. This is where social media stepped in to help.
Katherine posted a blog entry explaining her dilemma and asking for support. Her blog community came out in full force, both to buy cookies but also to spread the message. At the end of the day, she surpassed her income goal to keep the cookie business going.
Katherine’s story even made the local newspaper (photo courtesy) and now she appears to be on track to help make some changes to help the local business district.
As Liz notes in her post, the reasons that Katherine’s call for action worked is because of trust and sincerity. The trust comes from blogging since 2006 and the sincerity comes from the trust Katherine has built with her readers (customers) along with a specific call to action.
I’ve written before that every company should have a blog that is more than just a marketing vehicle. So many blogs I read only push company updates when they could create trust and a leadership position by offering more. Using your blog for marketing is just like any 30-second ad spot on tv – cold and meaningless. When you sit down to create your corporate blog strategy, remember that it’s all about creating a relationship between you and your readers. The readers may not be customers of your product or service today, tomorrow, next week or next year but over time you will convert them at least to trial users. Get them hooked on your knowledge before you get them hooked on the taste of the cookies.
This is right, blog are used to engage your users directly but lately I start to think that blog aren’t enough.
I am not sure how to really say that but I think that a blog is only a partial way to engage your users and that something can be done on that level.
It feels like you’re able to interact only on a very low level with your customers and you cannot take that interaction on a higher level.
Blog aren’t creating stickiness or loyalty anymore, there are too many of them on the web to really care about them, even feeds aren’t good since you probably added zillions of them and you’re not reading them all.
Great and unique style, interesting content isn’t good enough as well, since we (internet users) wants more than just a simple story.
I wouldn’t say that blogs are dead, but please someone shrink that Internet by 80% and call me, I am tired to cut my way through so much noise.
Thanks,
It’s so true, Allen, and it’s something people totally overlook. The power of the blog is simply enormous and so few people understand or appreciate that. For those of us that do, we’re just lucky. :)
I had no idea what kind of response I would get when I post that blog, the generous support of the community was amazing.
Thanks to Lisa Cotter Metwaly at the Q Kindness Cafe, Michael Belean of the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce, Linda LaBarre and Ashley Olds of Organize Life, and the St. Paul community, we are still here today, a year later.
Not only have we been able to connect with new customers, we have also been able to connect with other local and independent businesses as well.
Networking and social media are just the kind of tools that are hard to quantify, but they are necessary for business survival.
If your blog is going to stay relevant, I believe you have to understand what your readers and customers are looking for in your blog, but also keep it fresh and updated so people keep coming back.
Because of what happens after I posted that blog post, I have continued to use our blog to communicate with our customers, but have gone on to include using Facebook and Twitter as well. What is interesting is that all three seem to accentuate each other and serve their own purpose and I believe they are all useful to use, rather than choosing one over the other.
If there were ever a time networking and social media were needed, it would be now. During this kind of economic climate, we need each other now more than ever.