America's Best Jewelers forum
The (social networking) world according to Gordon
By Michelle Graff
July 06, 2010
Oklahoma City--Dan Gordon is a retail jeweler who also maintains a blog, controls two Facebook pages, manages a duo of feeds on Twitter and regularly visits sites that are foreign to social-media neophytes, including Blip.FM, Daily Booth, Foursquare, FriendFeed and Gowalla, among others.
Feel intimidated by what one of the industry's most prolific social media experimenters is doing? Don't.
Retailers who have yet to open a Facebook account need not compete head-to-head in the social media space with Gordon, chief executive officer of Samuel Gordon Jewelers in Oklahoma City. But they may want to consider how building a social-network-savvy brand, à la Gordon, might help their businesses.
Gordon's first rule of thumb? Don't get into social networking unless you have an honest interest in socializing. Social media sphere inhabitants are there to connect and converse, and they will see right through a retailer who is there to sell.
"People are so smart these days--there's no hiding or tricking or lying," Gordon says. "You have to make a decision that you're going to go fully into this and you're not looking for anything in return."
But will accumulating friends on Facebook and followers on Twitter bring results to your business?
"There's no way you can't," Gordon says.
'Brand me first'
One of Gordon's first steps into the social networking world was a bit of a stumble. Knowing only that he "needed to get involved" in social networking, the jeweler created a personal profile page on Facebook instead of a fan page for his store. When Gordon realized his error, however, he kept his personal page, deciding to "brand me" first, he says.
This turned out to be a smart move. Establishing ties as an individual first builds trust for a business.
Gordon's decision to reach out on a personal level did not go unnoticed among industry peers, including Ben Bridge Jeweler's executive assistant and self-proclaimed social media evangelist Veronica Wei Sopher, better known to Twitter users as @benbridgegirl.
"I love the way Dan has really built a great persona online and connected with people on a personal level before he started doing business promotion," says Sopher, who followed his example. "People want to know that you've heard them first. Over time, they get to know that you're not just a logo. There's a person behind that brand."
For Gordon, that meant posting a personal profile photo rather than a store shot, adding family photos, links to intriguing online articles and, occasionally, pictures of jewelry, like that of a beer stein-shaped ring that caught his eye online.
"I started realizing that if I post photos of unique things that I don't carry, it gains credibility because [people] know 'He's not trying to sell me that,'" Gordon says. "I'm just sharing what I like, and as a result, you gain trust."
While building his personal Facebook persona, Gordon also migrated to micro-blogging site Twitter as @dangordon. There, his "followers" view Gordon's message "feeds" of 140 characters or less.
"Facebook is a more guarded platform," he says. "I think with Twitter the push and the inclination is to be open because you're meeting new people. I think in different ways, they're equally important."
Bye bye, billboards
After he gained a strong personal following in social media, Gordon decided to launch the official Samuel Gordon Jewelers Facebook fan page and Twitter account, @samuelgordons. When the fan page first launched, one of the first 500 Facebookers to "fan" the store won a gift certificate. The promotion was repeated with the next 500. As of press time, 3,100 people are fans of, or "like," the page.
Gordon says some might argue that the number of Facebook page fans or Twitter followers pales beside a TV commercial audience, but he disagrees.
"When you drop this little seed on all these people's pages, even if just 10 percent of their friends see it, then that's a lot of people," he says. "It's endorsing you and it's putting your name in front of eyeballs without paying for it."
Gary Gordon, Dan's father, a four-decade industry veteran, says that as a young man, he was "the classic counter guy," forging long-standing relationships by waiting on customers, running newspaper ads and mounting billboards. Now, he estimates that social networking lets his son communicate with an astounding 5,000 to 10,000 people a day.
If that sounds crazy, do the math: At press time, Gordon boasted 4,328 friends on his personal Facebook page, 3,100 fans on the Samuel Gordon Jewelers page and 3,200 people following him on Twitter, both as @dangordon and on the store's account, @samuelgordons.
That doesn't even take into account Gordon's other online activities, including the store's blog, nor the friends of friends he reaches on Facebook.
Gordon's online reach is so vast, in fact, that it has prompted the family-owned, 106-year-old store to almost completely abandon traditional advertising save some print ads in the local newspaper and country club publication and perhaps some radio and TV spots for the holidays. Despite this, the store isn't hurting for fresh clientele.
"We're seeing new faces like we never have before," Gary Gordon says. "This is all because of [Dan's] presence on the Web. It's a very welcome, healthy way to promote our business. It's absolutely a wonderful thing."
A multi-tier plan
Before jewelers take the social media plunge, they need to clearly define what they want to gain from the experience and how it ties into their store's larger goals, says Gordon, who mapped out a multi-tier plan for capitalizing on his social media efforts. The plan includes launching e-commerce on the store's Web site, polishing up the Facebook fan page, aggressively pursuing e-mail marketing and installing an in-store customization program, such as Stuller's CounterSketch Studio, to simulate the online experience in-store.
"You can customize your Nike shoes [online] now," he says. "That is just something that has been completely non-existent in our industry."
The final step in Gordon's master plan is to hand off some of his social media responsibilities so he can concentrate on the next steps. Gordon says he has a tech-savvy and trusted employee taking over the Samuel Gordon's blog, Twitter account and Facebook fan page.
This well-groomed understudy, of course, will get a proper introduction, and no one seems too worried about Gordon's followers accepting a new man-behind-the-machine now that he's spent the past several years making a name for himself in social networking while gaining the trust of thousands.
"Daniel's carved out a reputation in the industry with this, there's no doubt about it," Gary Gordon says.
Tips and tricks for social networking
- Relax. Use Twitter as if you are having a one-on-one conversation. "Talk as you would if someone were standing right there with you in real life," Dan Gordon says. "Don't try to act a different way because you're representing your business."
- Respond. One of the biggest mistakes jewelers make is to send out Twitter feeds or update their Facebook status but never interact afterward. Dan Gordon recommends retailers set aside time to respond after they post a photo or link that could inspire conversation. Don't just post it and log off immediately.
- Listen. Gary Gordon says that even jewelers who lack a next-generation social networking whiz can consult younger salespeople or bring customers in for a roundtable on social media usage. "There's a way to get into it, you can be my age and get into it," he says.
- Share. Want to post links to interesting but relevant articles on your Facebook page or Twitter feed? Use a service like StumbleUpon or Digg to help you find them.
Editor's note: This story first appeared in the June 2010 print edition of National Jeweler.
