KBB - Making the move into social media

The KBSA (Kitchen Bathroom and Bedroom Association) has entered the social media age with a Facebook page, a Twitter account and the launch of regular blogs.

Our aim is to engage more fully with members, potential members, consumers and other relevant organisations. We believe that it will also help us gain more feedback about what our members want from the KBSA, promote the brand and hence gain new members and introduce more consumers to the benefits of dealing with a KBSA member.

These social media platforms will allow us to connect more quickly than ever before with people, keep abreast of current issues and trends and strengthen our relationships.

We hope that many members will also take the plunge and make 2012 the year that they develop a social media strategy. It may be difficult to find budgets for new activities in the current climate but there are many studies emerging to show that social media interactions have a direct impact on consumer-buying choices, which is transforming the retail market.

As a small business owner, breaking into social media (for even the most modern kitchens suppliers) can be a scary and daunting task, especially when resources are limited. However in this day and age businesses that delay will be missing opportunities to produce real results such as acquiring new business, gaining customer feedback, and most importantly, boosting sales and profitability.

Chris Hambly from Social Media in Business gave a thought provoking presentation last October at the KBSA AGM when he outlined how social media is changing the way retailers communicate with their customers during the buying cycle and how a focused digital media plan could influence the customer experience. He also illustrated how you can actually target consumers using the information they post on Facebook, which gives you another option to finding new business.

There is no doubt that embarking on a social media campaign will take time and effort as generating traffic will only come from quality content.

Newswire and digital marketing platform Crowd Factory have found that both Twitter and Facebook are being used successfully to drive traffic to press releases on company websites through users ‘sharing’ links, although Twitter proved more than effective, generating 30 per cent more views.

The same research also confirmed that adding a photograph to text improved viewing figures significantly and when a video clip uploaded to YouTube was added too, figures actually doubled.

And we should never forget that everyone tells us the over 80% of people use the internet to start researching a project, which means it is absolutely vital for your website to be up to date and modern – or else you could lose out during this firstt crucial stage.

We will be reviewing our progress on a regular basis so do please get involved and join us on what promises to be an exciting and challenging journey.

The Kitchen Bathroom Bedroom Specialists Association (KBSA) brings together over 300 fully accredited, UK based independent, retailers. Each KBSA member provides all the expertise required to design and install your new or updated fitted kitchen, bathroom, bedroom or home office.

This Kitchens Kitchens news item was sourced from KBB Review following Kitchens Kitchens attending the KBB Birmingham Event, in which it was no surprise to see German Kitchens and German Kitchen companies dominate the Kitchen Trade show of KBB in Birmingham this month and we expect the trend to continue.