A few months ago I got together with David Segal of Davids tea, a chain of tea shops around Canada. They’re opening up stores all over the place these days– tea is the new coffee, I’m told.
We talked about what they were doing on the web, got along well. I came and did a consultation with them about how to improve web sales and augment word-of-mouth. I didn’t see David again, though we continue to drink the tea he gave me to try out (it’s actually very good).
Fast forward to the other day, where I saw David is opening a location on Mont-Royal street– right next to Starbucks– nice job, giving Sbux clients an alternative. 🙂
So here’s the thing.
Let’s say you’re a decently-funded company (one that can open a nice retail store or chain, say). I think it’s almost worth it to engage with, and maybe hire, any social media person that is in the environment they’re in. Not to bring them out to lunch and “pick their brain,” but to say, “I will pay you for this advice.” That way it’s clean.
So if you’re in Montreal, hire everyone locally that does that kind of work, even if it’s just one hour. Montreal is actually great, because it’s such a cheap city, but it could be done anywhere.
That cost will give you good advice, but more importantly, a relationship with every one of them, all sneezers to a certain degree. They may blog it, they may not. They may love your tea, or hate it. But they’ve tried it, and you’ve created an intimacy with them by being in business with them.
It’s a shotgun approach, but I think it would still be effective. What do you think? It’s got to be more effective than “blogger outreach.”
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