Rembrandtz :: The Art of Gift Giving

The second company I talked to is only partially involved with social media, and that company is Rembrandtz Gallery.

Background:

Rembrandtz Gallery is a local shop in Historic St. Augustine that is owned by a mother and daughter duo. It was established in 1995 and has been a local favorite and has won the “Best of St. Augustine” contest since it began. They are a store that focuses on having quality, handmade American and Canadian work and being able to provide the best experience for their customers.

Analysis:
Currently Rembrandtz runs their own online website and has a Facebook and Blog. When I asked the owner, Kimberly Hunt, why she became involved in social media she said, that social media is now an integral part of branding and is an important aspect of staying relevant to their current customers, as well as attracting new customers.

The reason they are involved with a Facebook and a Blog is mainly because their customers asked for it. It was also something that they had been researching for quite some time, and she felt now was the best time to become involved. Although Kimberly did admit that she accidently made herself a teenager when setting up the account for her business, “which made me laugh and feel old at the same time!”

Kimberly admits that she does not log on and update either of the social media sites as often as she should. It’s not that it’s not a priority for her or her business, it’s just that since it is a small family owned business, that is also a high priority that needs a lot of tender love and care. “I am normally up by 6am, and to sleep by 1am, continually working on and in my business. There is often not enough time to update our social media in the way that I would like to.” On top of being in charge of the online store, physical store, Facebook and blog, Kimberly is also the president of the Art Association of St. Augustine, so when I asked her why just a Facebook and Blog, she laughed and said that there aren’t enough hours in a day.

According to the Groundswell Forrester Social Technographic Profile Rembrandtz’s top two groups for their target audience would be Spectators (72%) and Joiners (46%). Spectators are people who read blogs, listen to podcasts, watch video from other users, read online forums, read customer ratings/reviews and read tweets. Joiners are people who maintain a profile on a social networking site and visit other social networking sites.

Rembrandtz is doing some of what they should be doing that works for their target audience. Although if and when they have more time or find someone who is able to be in charge of their social media, there is still more that they could do to get more involved with social media; for example, a Twitter, or making a podcast to let people get to know a little bit more about the business to name a few. Also another thing that Rembrandtz could do to get more involved is create more of a two-way communication where they are posting things more regularly and getting their customers to interact with those posts more often as well. 

Conclusion:
Rembrandtz did a good job at researching what their customer base is involved in and also seems to be getting a good amount of feed back as well, and they are a good example of what a small company can be doing to get their name out there in the social media world. Although they could be more involved, they are still making sure that their Facebook and Blog are being updated in a reasonable amount of time and being updated with relevant information that appeal to their customer base.  Rembrandtz is an good example of how a small business can get started in the social media world and make it look easy.