Marty Campbell sat behind the counter affixing price tags to his incoming stock of used CDs and DVDs. The clock at Buzzards CDs in downtown Tacoma had just passed 11 p.m. Saturday when Campbell got a ping from his computer.
Someone logged in to Facebook, the social networking Web site, and sent Campbell, the owner of Buzzards, a chat message asking if he had for sale a DVD of the 1985 teen film “The Breakfast Club.”
“Yes, we do,” Campbell typed.
“How late are you open?”
“Midnight.”
“Will you hold it for me? I’ll be right down.”
By the time the woman left, she not only bought “The Breakfast Club,” but also she bought two CDs.
“That was a $40 sale right before we closed,” Campbell said, “all because of Facebook.”
Campbell, who created his Facebook presence six days earlier, and other savvy local business owners have tapped the power of social networking to keep in touch with customers and boost business.
Hundreds of big business brands – from McDonald’s and Starbucks to Amazon and, ahem, WaMu – have established pages on social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook where folks like you and me can sign on as fans.
McDonald’s, for example, had 1,144,629 as of Tuesday morning. Pacific Grill, the classy downtown Tacoma restaurant, had 63. That’s a start.
I found local business owners willing to talk for this column by posting a notice on my own Facebook page asking if owners noticed a business bump via social networking.
Chef Gordon Naccarato, who set up the Facebook page for his Pacific Grill, pinged me right back.
The “Facebook page for Pacific Grill … allows you to book a reservation online right from Facebook. But keeping you in front of your friends & clients is good business. And it is an easy & efficient way to get information out to the ‘fans’ that sign up. Plus, as a younger technology, I want to appeal not to just an older clientele.”
On the Pacific Grill page, Naccarato posts photo albums of his drinks and dishes that will make your mouth water.
One of Pacific Grill’s registered fans, Tacoma freelance entrepreneur Angela Jossy, also has found clients through her innovative Facebook attention-grabber.
When she got laid off last year as associate editor of a South Sound entertainment publication, Jossy analyzed her household budget and figured she needed $2,600 a month to get by.
On her Facebook page, Jossy wrote: “AT YOUR SERVICE: $100 A DAY.” She described her skill sets – graphic designer, writer, musical performer, booking agent, event planner – and offered one day’s work for $100.
“It sustained me for two months,” she said this week. “The $100-a-day thing is a great thing to do. It makes sense … not for a long, sustained period of time. It’s hard to work on so many different things … And it works out to about $12.50 per hour, and I’m worth more than that.”
But the one-day jobs morphed into full-time work as an event planner and promoter for four festivals, including the Point Defiance Music Festival and Tacoma Winterfest. When the last of those jobs ended, Jossy reposted her $100-a-day offer two weeks ago.
“I can work 26 days a month to sustain my lifestyle. I just can’t do it for a long period of time,” she said.
What kind of work do people want her for? Tutoring in the use of Dreamweaver, a graphic design software application. Creating a six-sided tabletop menu for Puget Sound Pizza. Designing a Web site for a band. Writing advertising copy for someone who wants to sell a car.
Pat Nagle, co-owner of two Tacoma restaurants – Harmon Brewing Co. downtown and The Hub in the Stadium District – saw Jossy’s $100-a-day offer last week and hired her to create a recurring acoustic music series at The Hub.
Meanwhile, Nagle used his personal network of 240-plus Facebook friends to promote this Sunday’s Hub event – “Chuck & Pat’s Super Bowl XLIII Party.”
Nagle’s manager also set up a separate Facebook business page for The Hub, which has 105 fans.
“I had 20 RSVPs just from Facebook,” Nagle said. “And I have, gosh, countless ‘maybes,’ which kind of scares me a little bit if they all show up. But if they do, we’ll just roll with it. We’ve got a lot of room in our event space.”
(You’ll find me there Sunday afternoon.)
“It’s amazing, honestly,” Nagle said. “I think in a town the size of Tacoma, it’s probably as much or more effective than other cities, because Tacoma’s small enough to really get out there, and it’s the kind of market where if you really want to get connected you can. Facebook really works well here.”
Dan Voelpel: 253-597-8785
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