The new face of hardware: Facebook
Hardware store owners are getting into the social networking scene, using such Internet-based sites as Facebook to publicize their businesses.
“We thought this would be a good way to promote our store and Ace in the Rocky Mountain region,” said Andy Carlson, owner of Ace Hardware - Alameda Station in Denver, which has a Facebook page and is also on Twitter, Plaxos and LinkedIn.
“We have created several events on Facebook that we promote to fans and other friends of the owners and employees,” Carlson said. “The Facebook page also has a lot of potential as a quick way to disseminate information about new products or ideas to our fan base." He added that the store can quickly post product information or helpful advice on its "Wall," Facebook's version of an online bulletin board.
Carlson not only has a Facebook page for his own store, but he’s part of a group Facebook site maintained by the Rocky Mountain Ace Stores (RMAS) staff, which was used in the fall to promote a home winterization seminar series that was co-sponsored by Xcel Energy. The group page does not link to individual stores but does link to www.RockyMountainAce.com, where the viewer can access a store locator for all group stores.
Carlson says he doesn’t believe Facebook has had an impact on his store’s performance yet, adding, “We [already] have a couple thousand subscribers to our e-mail list. If we can grow our Facebook fans to 500-plus, I think it will be a good outlet for us.”
Aimee Nichols, 28, helps runs Berger True Value Hardware in Hawthorne, N.Y., with her 31-year-old brother Chris. When she heard that there are 175,000,000 active Facebook users, she created a Berger True Value Facebook page that includes a photo of the store, their contact information and store hours. Within a few days, Berger True Value had 70 “fans,” and it’s been growing ever since.
“Not only can we use it to connect with our customers, but we can use it to connect with other businesses,” Nichols said. “For example, I put a link on the ‘Berger Hardware Fans’ page to Cornell True Value Hardware, a friend’s hardware store in Eastchester, N.Y. So here’s the neat thing about Facebook. When someone becomes Berger Hardware’s ‘friend,’ we now have access to their ‘friends’ and so on. It creates a networking web.”
Facebook is one of many Internet tools available to connection-minded companies. MySpace, YouTube and LinkedIn are others.
Cornell True Value owner John Fix III prefers Facebook to other similar mass-market sites because there is a built-in viewer base who regularly tune into Facebook. "I can try and piggy back on that audience,” Fix said, adding that he also likes the fact that it’s “a more informal way to present the business. It’s easy to upload photos and videos and let people comment on them.”