While hearing Johnny speak he offered a number of different
valuable tips to the audience. Naturally, I took a picture of him during his
presentation and posted it to my Instagram account.
As a public relations practitioner who often tweets for
clients, I automatically assumed that his PR team was behind it. It’s not
uncommon for companies to hire PR people to do their social media. This
includes everything from writing statuses and tweets to blogging and engaging
with fans. I was so excited that I tweeted about my Johnny Cupcakes experience
right away.
I expected that to be the end of my Johnny Cupcakes journey,
but I was wrong. Johnny direct messaged me almost immediately to let me know
that it wasn’t his social media team, but him! Consider me shocked. It’s not
uncommon for smaller businesses to do their own social media, but it’s almost
unheard of for a company as well established as Johnny Cupcakes.
Let’s face it, not many Presidents and CEO’s have time to
sit at a computer and tweet for a few hours so it’s completely understandable
that they’d hire someone who knows the ins and outs of social media. There is,
however, an important lesson that any business, whether big or small, can learn
from Johnny Cupcakes.
It’s important to
engage with your fans, customers and clients via social media! That’s what
social media is all about. Communication is no longer a one-way street. When your
target market engages with you, engage back, whether it’s good or bad. Johnny
Cupcakes probably had at least 100 tagged tweets, Instagram photos and status
updates that night, but he still made time to reach out to little ole me. Thanks to his excellent social media skills, I'm now a Johnny Cupcakes fan for life.
