Moving online may be the way for local businesses to survive in a tough retail climate, but The Dust Jacket owner Josh McPhee said businesses on social media have to move beyond the bottom line to succeed.
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While online sales have become the trend and local businesses have begun experimenting with social media, Josh said success depends on how businesses navigate the online world that determines their success.
“It depends how you do it,” he said.
“You can have a Facebook page that does nothing. If you don’t utilise it, it probably doesn’t matter if you are online or not.
“But if you are on there and you use it properly and you do it well, then that is half the battle.”
The Dust Jacket has made a splash on Facebook, jumping from around 250 likes to more than 800 over the past 11 months and as the online craze stakes a firm hold on the retail industry, Josh said it is the way local businesses should be heading, but not only to boost profits.
“I think everyone sees everyone else’s product getting spruiked on Facebook.”
“You can’t just use it as a product-sell.”
“It is more about connecting with your customers.”
Josh and The Dust Jacket team have joined a number of other local businesses, from a variety of industry backgrounds, in the social media world and said while it may not be solely about boosting profits, social media has proven to be an excellent tool for building a community and business identity.
“It gets people thinking about The Dust Jacket, which is important when you are trying to push local,” he said.
“It is not about selling books, it is more about creating something that the community can be involved.”
It is a tale that is becoming increasingly prevalent in rural and regional NSW as businesses innovate to keep abreast of a changing market and for local outlets looking to make the inevitable shift, Josh said success on social media is about trial and error.
“I don’t think there is a template to work. I think it is all about finding the balance and what works for the business,” he said.
“There are posts that I have put up that haven’t been very good and that has been a trial and error.
“Basically it is finding the equilibrium between what works and what doesn’t, what people want to see and what they don’t want to see and what they have time for.”
