Personalizing your Business Facebook Page with Videos with Annie from M&M True Value Hardware
Participants:
Francesca Halberg – General Manager/CPO of New Media Retailer
Annie Campbell – Corporate Treasurer of M&M True Value Hardware
Video Transcript
[Please excuse any grammatical errors, transcript is machine generated]
Francesca (00:02):
Hello, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. My name is Francesca and I’m with the new media retailer podcast. I am super excited today to be joined by Annie from M and M true value hardware and rental. Annie, thank you so much for joining us.
Annie (00:17):
Yes, of course.
Francesca (00:18):
We’re so excited to have you. So Annie is the corporate treasure / social media, extraordinary / Jack of just all general trades but we’ll kick it off. Tell us a little bit about the business yourself, your role there, however you want get started.
An 100 year old hardware business
Annie (00:34):
Okay. So we are a family owned business. We were established in 1914, so we’re a little bit over a hundred years old. We have one location. It is my brother, my dad and I in the family. My mom is too, but she’s really just babysitting my daughter. That’s her.
Francesca (00:59):
Hey, that’s an important role,
Annie (01:00):
Right? So yeah, it’s three of us. We’re here. We own and manage we have about 20,000 square foot of retail space. I think I said single store. We probably will never expand because we just the way we operate all three of us have our own little niche inside the store that we take care of. So, and it seems to be flowing and working really well. Let’s see. So my job my title is corporate treasurer, like you said. But there’s a lot more behind that. So I kinda, I used to do the books and now we hired a lady she’s been in there, Audrey. She’s been doing that. So I kind of manage that a little bit. I also do a lot of the floor displays. I actually purchase all of our seasonal goods, which are outside vendors other than true value or, you know, the other hardware stuff. So I do that. We do spring, summer, Christmas fall. I’m trying to think.
Francesca (02:18):
Where are you guys located?
Annie (02:20):
Student, Ohio? Sorry,
Francesca (02:21):
I forgot. And what’s your like, population about how big of a town is that?
Annie (02:27):
I looked it up not too long ago and I think it’s close to like 90,000.
Francesca (02:31):
Oh, that’s bigger than where I live.
Annie (02:35):
So we’re like we’re probably like the little city, but then 45 minutes is Pittsburgh downtown Pittsburgh. So it’s kind of like, not a huge city. We’re just a small little town. So,
Francesca (02:51):
Well, my town has one red light, so to get really small town,
Annie (02:56):
Think
Francesca (02:56):
Twice before you.
Annie (03:01):
So yeah, that
Francesca (03:03):
Optimism about like, what is your like, competition? Like, like what’s created like a, for us
Set apart from the big box stores with personal touches
Annie (03:08):
Right out our back door. We have a close. Oh, okay. We can literally throw, throw golf ball, they behind us.
Francesca (03:15):
Have you ever done that?
Annie (03:17):
I think my brother has no he’s the golfer. So and then there’s Harbor freight came in Royal king just came in a few years ago. Walmart, of course everybody has a Walmart. Well, maybe you don’t.
Francesca (03:35):
Oh, we actually do even have a okay.
Annie (03:41):
Busy beaver. And then once you get up to Pittsburgh, you have home Depot, lows, you know, all those other big stores. So sure.
Francesca (03:50):
So something I talk to a lot of businesses about is setting yourselves apart, right? From like the competition. I mean, EV at there’s a lot of lows, there’s a lot of Walmarts around, but setting yourselves apart from them, the customer service the in-store experience like you come in, you’re gonna talk to people that know what the heck they’re talking about. They’re gonna care about you and guess what? You’re probably gonna know them. So you’re gonna feel really comfortable. Talk to us a little bit about like your guys’ take on that and maybe kinds of things you try to do a little differently at the store to, to get people to come into you instead. Okay.
Annie (04:27):
So, you know, we’re always big on customer service, which all small independent retailers kind of are. Yeah. So, you know, you do wanna talk to them, you do wanna be personal. I notice whenever I see the same person coming in, I’ll, you know, talk to them at a different level, even though I’m still nice secret bonus now. But we all try to, you know, engage your customers when they first come in and they like that. Some people get a little irritated because we have in our departments we have lawn and garden when you first come in. So there’ll be guys standing there asking you if you need help. So then once you get back to plumbing, there’ll be guys asking you if you need help. So we’re kind of a little bit overwhelming, but at the same time, a lot of people would like that rather than to be ignored.
Annie (05:18):
Cause totally. There’s so many comments while we were just in Lowe’s and we couldn’t find any help. So we came up here. Okay. Well, you know, we’re glad that that’s how, you know, people see us. We do send out birthday cards. So if you, if you happen to purchase like a grill or a tractor push mower, weed whacker, like a big ticket item, maybe patio furniture we collect your information for your warranty purposes. And then we take that information and put it into our own document where each month it’ll we have a list. So during that month we put out the whole list and send out a $10 coupon. Cause I don’t know when I check my mail now it’s like, okay, what bill do I have to pay now? No,
Francesca (06:09):
It’s not. Mail’s not fun anymore. No,
Annie (06:11):
It’s not, not adulting. So, you know, it’s like a kind of like, oh, well here’s $10. I can go get something I need, like everybody needs household items, light bulbs, cleaner, you know, stuff like that. So a lot of people do like that. We get a lot of feedback from that. I love that. I’m trying to think, cause you know, we do do the deliveries free deliveries on certain items. So we talked to our customers about that. But I would say the most important feedback we get that we stand out in our community is our customer service.
Francesca (06:49):
That’s great. Just
Annie (06:50):
Little friends with you.
The demographic of a hardware store
Francesca (06:52):
That’s that’s so great. And I feel like I don’t work with you and obviously I’m not local to you by any means, but I feel, I can feel that when I look at your guys’ social media page, like I feel like you guys are very invested in educating your customers and kind of like taking that next step, but you do it with such a fun. I mean, we’ll get into that is that are a lot of fun on social media, but one that really caught my eye. And I think it was kind of a fairly longer one. But you did like a whole segment where like you introduced your team and like gave them shoutouts and highlights and things like that. Which when I saw that, I’m like, yes, this is what I’m talking about. Like, this is why people shop local because it’s a face, you know, like they know those people. So that out there was like, so, and whether it was like intentional or not, it was so strategic. So talk to us a little bit about like social media and getting started there. And also just really quickly, what is your shopping demographic like between male and female? And are you, is it all ages or is it
Annie (08:03):
So it’s male and female at times if the male has to come in, they always say, well, my wife wanted to come along to see all the goodies in the middle of the, so, so at certain times of the year, I would say we have a bigger female. Okay. But to all male,
Francesca (08:22):
Mostly male. Okay. Okay, great.
Annie (08:25):
So our problem, sorry,
Francesca (08:27):
Go ahead. No, go our
Annie (08:28):
Problem with we attract a lot of older people, which isn’t a bad thing, but to stay in business, you know, you gotta attract that new crowd, like, and we couldn’t figure out how to reach them. Because you know, regular TV, so many people don’t watch that radio, a lot of people do podcasts now or you know, Sirius XM or Spotify, or there are so many different ones. So at the beginning we couldn’t figure out how to reach those people. And that was the only, you know, that’s what we needed to work on. So then that’s kind of how I started getting more involved with the social media side, which seems to help out a
Find a social channel what works for the industry and business
Francesca (09:15):
Awesome, so yeah. Talk to us about your journey there was it and how, like you felt comfortable like getting started. I mean, you put your face on a lot on social media. Did you just like one day you’re like, what the heck I’ll rip the bandaid off or were you like walking other people’s things to kind of get some ideas?
Annie (09:34):
Well, well I started, I did Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram. Okay. Which Pinterest really, wasn’t a good one for us. And then I didn’t get a whole lot of feedback with Instagram. Okay. Which I don’t know why, but I didn’t, but I think it’s because a lot of older people follow Facebook. So we reached a lot of people that way. So then I kind of got, I didn’t get rid of, but I stopped doing the Instagram, the other social medias. So with Facebook I started a while ago and I wasn’t sure what to do. So that’s when we partnered with you guys, new media retailer. And so they started doing like the basic, you know,
Francesca (10:19):
Industry,
Annie (10:20):
I mean, yes. Yeah. So then every now and then I would post pictures of like our personal stuff at the store or, yeah, just to be more personal with the audience that was watching. So more recently a lot of people follow these influencers and these influencers just talk and you know, and I’m like, I mean, I feel like a lot of people, people have to follow them or else they wouldn’t be influencers. So I was like, eh, well, you know, let’s just go for it and do some crazy stuff. And see if it works. And honestly, we’ve gotten a lot of feedback. I was out shopping before vacation vacation, trying to get stuff ready. And a lady, I didn’t know, she said, oh, you’re not doing any commercials today. I’m like, not today. So I mean, and then
Francesca (11:18):
Hate it.
Annie (11:19):
Yeah. That’s,
Francesca (11:20):
You’re a celebrity now.
Annie (11:23):
So the people in the store, some guy, which I don’t, I’ve never seen him, but he could have been in, you know, you don’t see everybody. Sure. He goes, Hey, when’s your next little commercial? And I’m like, oh, I don’t know. We gotta figure out. He goes, well, you know, there’s so much negativity in the world. And I actually have something to look forward to now to gimme a little chuckle. And I’m like, oh, well, I’m glad, you know, that’s why, you know, I kind of started doing that also because all you see on Facebook is people complaining politics, the weather, like all kinds of stuff. So you get on there and you just try to make people laugh a little bit, but be personal about it. And they love it. So you get a lot of feedback that way.
Francesca (12:00):
That’s awesome. That’s awesome. But it’s not, it is all fun, but I, there is like an approach to it too. Like a lot of your videos are fun, but like when we were chatting before I mention like the screen repairing video. So for everyone who hasn’t seen it yet this one was maybe five minutes, seven minutes, I think, a little longer. But this one was you guys a group of you, there was four of you talking about and teaching your customers how to replace screens. Now what, and I saw that I literally was like, oh, I, I have screens. I like, literally would’ve just assumed you have to buy me once. Like, I, first of all, I didn’t even know that that was an option, but you guys really like broke it down and because you guys were like laughing and having fun with it, I was like, I can do this. I haven’t started yet. Yeah,
Annie (12:52):
I,
The momentum of successful social media
Francesca (12:53):
Yeah. But like talk to us about like that kind of stuff. Like how do you guys like, think about that stuff in advance or like a customer comes in, asks a question and you’re like, I can make a video about that. Like, cuz there is a strategy too, you know?
Annie (13:06):
Yeah. I just think there’s some areas that people don’t know we do. Okay. and then the SCR for me and Martina, which Martina’s in a lot of the videos with me.
Francesca (13:20):
Oh, okay. She’s the other. Okay. Yes. Yeah.
Annie (13:22):
We talk and we discuss things of what we could do or what would be fun or you know, different things. And I kind of wanted to get certain things out there that we do or that we have that people might not know we have or carry because we’re a hardware store. But we also have to be a hardware store first and then move past it with my frilly stuff. So I was like, eh, I know we do some windows screens. I’m wondering, you know, if people knew or it’s like that spring cleaning to time, you know, let’s get this out there and done. And I talked to Fred he’s back in plumbing and electrical and I was like, Hey, can we, you know, maybe do a video with you and you show us how to do the window screen and we’ll break it down and work it from there. And he’s like, yeah, sure. You know, that’ll be fun. I’m like, okay. So we did the video, we did this green and it was all fun. And after that we got some window screens we’re actually making like 48 new windows screens for somebody and
Francesca (14:29):
Oh my gosh.
Annie (14:30):
So it definitely helps for people to know that you do.
Francesca (14:34):
Yeah. Real
Annie (14:35):
Things.
Francesca (14:35):
Yeah. Do, do you feel like that momentum has helped excite like other employees to get involved? Cause I know like in my experience, sometimes it’s a lot of like twisting arms to get people comfortable to be like on camera and stuff. But when you have that like, aha moment, does it excite like your team and other people too to keep going?
Annie (14:55):
We do.
Francesca (14:56):
Yeah.
Annie (14:57):
So when we first started doing that, like everybody’s like, oh, keep me off. Oh, keep me off. I’m like, you know, it’s really not that they see you in the sore acting this way. So what’s the big deal. Cause we don’t like to have fun. I mean, there’s a serious side to us. We’re not all goofy, but oh no, we do have some goofy employees. The one in particular, Leslie she’s she’ll video for us, but she goes, I am never getting on there. I’m like, okay. And then the cashier, they said the same thing. They’re like, eh, I don’t. And then whenever we did the the video where you just, you knows drop down.
Francesca (15:33):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That one, I dunno, racking up.
Annie (15:36):
I don’t know what it means, but I noticed a lot of people were doing it. So I was like, oh, let’s just try it. You know? And everybody was in for it. Like there was a couple arm twistings I had to do for some of the guys. But, but one in particular, he comes in in all the time he’s with the local fire department, he was actually a customer in the nut and bolt bio. I said, Hey, will you do me a favor? He goes, yeah, sure. What? And I was like, can you be a part of our video? And you just drop down? He goes, yeah. Okay. So he wasn’t even an employee. He was a customer. Oh my God. That was great. But that got a lot of laughs for sure.
Francesca (16:11):
Yes. Okay. So what, what is the song? Is it a Beyonce song?
Annie (16:15):
Honestly, I have no idea
Francesca (16:17):
Juries out on what the song is, but for those of you that don’t know there is, has this been this like viral sensation, this video, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, I’ve seen it everywhere. Where a few seconds lead into a song I’ve seen moms do takes on it, picking up like baby items. You did a take on it. I’ve seen so many variations of it, but it’s the music plays for a few seconds. And then there is like a lower applause in everyone at the same time simultaneously drops down low and then like comes back up. So if you haven’t seen it yet, I’m sure you’ll see it now if that’s like a thing, you’ll see it everywhere. But yeah, when I saw that one, I was dying, dying, but I literally that’s what I thought. How the heck did she get people to do this?
Annie (17:00):
Yeah. Oh my goodness. That was fun though. It was fun doing it, making it.
Francesca (17:04):
Yeah. Yeah. But there are like really creative ways that you’ve spun. Like something, you know, like we encourage stories. Like if you have new product coming in, like make sure, you know, you’re taking a picture and posting it, you know, whatever it may be. But I do feel like you guys have really elevated yourselves by taking that like one step further. There was a video I saw recently where you, the what was her name? Monica.
Annie (17:28):
Martina.
Francesca (17:28):
Martina. She was like funny, like mopping the floor and yeah, you guys were like spring cleaning and there was all these products lined up in the front and she was having fun and mopping the floor and I’m like, that’s great. Like how I can’t imagine that took a significant amount of time, but like such a good reminder of hardware stores do have more. It’s not just nuts and bolts. Spring cleaning is, I mean, we’ve had four false starts to spring here, so, but eventually spring is coming at some point. Yeah. So what a good creative way to really just put a spin on it, but to say something so simple, we have spring cleaning products, but like such a fun way to like capture, capture people’s attention. Yeah,
Annie (18:08):
Yeah,
Francesca (18:09):
Yeah. So much fun. And then there was another one I saw too, because you mentioned I you’re a hard roaster first, but you want to like remind people that you have other things, there was a video you guys were like making crackers or something. And when I, when I saw that one, I was like, that wonder if they shared this from someone else? Cuz like why would they crackers? But then as I kept watching, I’m like, oh no, they have all the supplies. Like you could do this. So like that’s like such a creative way to, to really get your products and differentiate your, your product line out there too.
Annie (18:40):
Yeah. Those crackers are really good. And they’re
NMR’s program has assisted with the online time commitment
Francesca (18:43):
So they looked amazing. They looked amazing in terms of like time investment here. Is it like minimal? Do you spend like a significant amount of time doing it? How, how much time are you? Are you spending on social media at this point?
Annie (19:01):
A lot more than what I was, but then again, like I’m on social media anyway. Like to take a break, I’ll just get on Facebook and scroll old even though sometimes I just, I don’t know. I just it’s a habit now. I think
Francesca (19:15):
No, it is a habit
Annie (19:16):
It’s and it’s so convenient. It’s on your phone. You don’t have to wait to get home to get on your computer and look stuff up. You just get on your phone and look like if I’m in a waiting room, I’ll look. Yeah. So actually a storage page is connected to my phone. So it’s easy to, you know, look at certain things, see what I need to do. New media, this is what I love. And this is how we partnered with new media retailer. They do your basic and I do the personal. So I’ll go on and see what they’ve posted which it’s like the ads the rental catalog, things like that. And I’ll go off of that. Cuz if we’ve been, I don’t know there was, I don’t even know if this applies anymore cause I haven’t really been following it.
Annie (20:04):
But a few years ago, whenever I started to try to get into the social media side, I went to the seminar are at the true value convention. And before the show they have these classes you can go to and one was social media marketing. And so I went and you’re only supposed to, you’re only supposed to post. That sounds awful. Supposed to post certain times of the day, which I get that you want more people watching, engaging. And you don’t wanna post too often because then people start scrolling past you. Well, I noticed with our videos, our balance of the videos or our just normal selling points, maybe they kind of balance each other out. So we could post twice a day do one of the basic posts and one of the personal side and it kind of, it doesn’t seem like it’s too too much. So that’s also good. Cause you get out the
Francesca (21:07):
Yeah, yeah, definitely. I think trends have definitely changed for sure. And video now is, is more important than ever. As you know, we all do the scroll, the scroll
Francesca (21:22):
Videos do stop you in your tracks. Once you see the movement, you, you pause any like kind of wait to see now whether or not you keep scrolling is, is separate, but the video does stop. You. There’s like an a saying that I remember hearing once and now I’m gonna completely butcher it. But like a, a picture is worth a thousand words, but a video is worth like a hundred million, like something like that because of the effect that it has to stop people in its tracks. And of thinking like, yeah, that’s so interesting because when I got started in social media, I, I remember my, my parents own a small business, but I remember being in high school and I had to wait until I got my college acceptance letter because I needed the college email address to be able to get started on Facebook.
Francesca (22:04):
So I’ve like, I’ve been through the whole thing when business pages first started like all of that stuff and it was all text. It just like Twitter. I mean it was a lot of text and then it was introducing links and links were like helping your text stand out. And then it was pictures. And now, you know, it is, there is a lot of heavy reliance on video, but those videos, they do have to be personal, you know, in order to, to engage some one. And video definitely took off through COVID. I mean, TikTok blew up, Instagram reels blew up. You know, a lot of that content feeds back to Facebook too. But yeah, it’s, I don’t know the exact numbers anymore of like how often you should post. I feel like because of stories and stuff like that, that aren’t really rules anymore so much is happening in real time. And so much is getting shared that like, you may have only posted one time that day, but you might show up in somebody’s feed 15 times because five of their friends might have shared it, you know? So I’d yeah. I don’t even know what the posting rule is anymore. Cause now I feel like I
Annie (23:07):
Haven’t heard anything like
Francesca (23:08):
Yeah. I feel like are just having fun with it. But yeah, no, I think you guys do a really, really good job of, of putting a creative spin on not to simplify what you’re doing, but on simple concepts, like, Hey new products, Hey, you can do this with our products. Hey, we have a really awesome staff. You should get to know them. And so I’m so grateful we have this opportunity to chat, cuz I think a lot of stores, whether they’re hardware stores or whether they’re a pet store or whatever are really gonna be able to take something away from this because you guys are, are just doing something really fun.
Annie (23:42):
Yes. Well thank you.
Francesca (23:44):
Yeah, of course. Just a quick question, obviously like you are involved in your family business, would you guys be comfortable? So you have a unique role because you’re invested in this success. Would you be comfortable if it was like an employee that had come to you and been like, I want to take this on, would you be comfortable with someone else come kind of like managing that personal touch for you guys? Not everyone might have a you at the store, you know what I mean?
Annie (24:12):
Yeah. we did try it, but it was kind of like an, she didn’t work here. Hmm. And it did help because it was my busy time of year with Christmas. It gets crazy. Yeah. So, but it didn’t seem to work as well. Like Martina seems to be on the same page with the whole creativeness and stuff. So if she wanted, if she came to me and said, Hey, how about I do this? So you can do other things. I’m like, I’ll be all for it.
Francesca (24:43):
Yeah. Good. That’s good to know. Cuz the that’s, that is the tough thing is like not everyone has a you, or has the ability to be able to rely on a brother or a dad who are also involved in the business and are wearing, it’s like one person wearing a lot of hats as I know you can relate to anyway. So yeah, that’s, that is something, I feel like people a feel intimidated to get started to time, you know, can be a factor which I try to say like, do you have an employee that might be interested? So I’m glad to, you know, hear your take on that. But yeah. And then you had mentioned something else too that I, I wanted to ask a follow up question on, but of course now it just slipped my mind. But yeah, I, I don’t have any other questions, but I’m so grateful for you kind of taking the time and walking us through everything. If you guys have not checked them out on Facebook yet while we were having this conversation, please be sure to do so to true value hardware that is their business page name on Facebook and you’ll definitely get some good laugh. So to do so. Yeah. You, oh, go ahead. I’m sorry.
Annie (25:49):
And honestly, if anybody has any questions or needs to talk about certain things, I’m here mostly till four. Cause I have a daughter, so have to go pick her up, but go ahead and call the phone number here. It’s probably on our Facebook page And just gimme a call gladly to help. I’ll be glad.
Francesca (26:09):
You’re so sweet. Oh my gosh. That is so nice. Oh my gosh. Well, there you go guys, if you have any questions, one business to another definitely feel free to reach out. You can call, reach out through Facebook or whatever. But Annie, thank you so much. That’s so sweet. And this was such a good conversation. I can’t wait to keep looking forward to more video than getting to see what you guys are up to there.
Annie (26:31):Yes. Well thank you. It was yeah, of course it wasn’t as bad as I thought I was gonna be.
Francesca (26:38):
There’s more in the buildup. It’s really just a general chat.
Annie (26:41):
Yeah.
Francesca (26:42):
Awesome. Thank you so much. And thank you so much, everyone for tuning into the new media retailer podcast, to be sure to check back.