FROM THE FLOOR...
G
ary Bennett Music is a music store
and school serving the commu-
nity of Corner Brook, NL; however,
owing to Newfoundland and
Labrador’s geography and population
density, the store services an unusually
wide radius and is the closest music store to
some communities that are literally hours
away. Because of that, the store’s social
media presence – Facebook in particular –
is a valuable tool that helps them to keep in
constant contact with customers who can’t
just drop in on a whim.
We caught up with Gary Bennett Mu-
sic’s Nick Hamlyn to talk about the store’s
approach to Facebook and how it’s serving
their needs.
CMT: Gary Bennett Music’s Facebook
page gets a good amount of engage-
ment across all kinds of different posts.
First off, I’m wondering if you think
Facebook and other social media plat-
forms are particularly valuable tools to
you since the store serves a very wide
geographic area, and thus may not
have the opportunity for consistent
contact with some regular customers
as retailers in denser urban areas?
Nick Hamlyn: The Facebook page has
become invaluable. It’s great for advertising
new products and specials, but everybody
knows that. The major advantage that
we draw from it comes from putting up
everyday items that are always in stock
and that regular drop-through customers
have seen a hundred times. Almost half of
our client base lives more than a one-hour
drive out of town, so they may only get to
walk through the shop once or twice a year
when they happen to be in town. Putting
up older items basically allows us to provide
the browsing experience for our remote
customers through their phones or com-
puters, which leads to new sales – whether
it’s remembering they need new strings,
or realizing it’s time for a new keyboard or
guitar they may have seen.
I specifically remember that when
I started at the shop, I’d get yelled at for
being on my phone. Now, I respond to
Keeping Close with the
Community on S ocial Media
Q&A with Nick Hamlyn of Gary Bennett Music
more Facebook messages
every day than I do emails.
It’s become an important
part of our daily opera-
tions and overall success.
CMT: You’ve got a
great balance between
shots of products and
promotions, along with
instrument demos, fun
community-related
posts, and even utili-
tarian announcements
like lessons being
cancelled on account of
weather. How do you
plan the frequency of
the posts, what type of
content to share, and
so on?
NH: We try to have at
least one new product,
a few staples that have
been in the store for a
while, and a video of
some sort every week.
Then, we amp up the
frequency leading into
Christmas, music festivals, and before our
various summer camps.
CMT: How do you strike a balance
between sharing product-based posts
that are interesting and appeal to
people’s curiosity vs. being overly
“selly,” which is a common social media
faux-pas?
NH: Basically, we try to keep the post to a
sentence or two. Anyone looking for specs
or more information will Google the prod-
uct, or hopefully make direct contact with
us for any questions they might have.
CMT: You’ve also benefitted from some
cool posts thanks to your suppliers,
either sharing content they’ve generat-
ed, or having someone like Terry Hume
from Yamaha demo a product in the
store for an informative vid. How do
you suggest retailers go about engag-
ing their suppliers and other partners
to get more substantial social media
content?
NH: Just ask! In the example of the demo
video we did with Terry, he was in the
middle of training us on the Yamaha Silent
Piano, and I thought to myself, “You know
who would find this interesting? Literally
everyone.” So we shot the video with a
good mic to capture the best sound from
the instrument, and it is now one of our
most viewed posts.
To go along with that, make sure you
follow all of your suppliers and brands on
Facebook and check their feeds regularly
for new content. They typically love when
content they’ve created gets some extra
mileage, and it’s a good way to get more
interesting stuff in front of your followers
without taking up much time or resources.
CANADIAN MUSIC TRADE
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