ORIGINAL STORY: May 13, 2014 - Jeweller magazine has become the most popular industry publication on Facebook reaching the #1 position on 11 May, indicating that jewellery-related content is conducive to successful and engaging digital marketing strategies.
Launched in January 2011, Jeweller’s Facebook page has built a strong following so much so that it has become the world’s number one jewellery industry magazine on the popular social media network.
At the time of publication, the Jeweller Facebook page had reached 10,190 “likes” from a user-base of jewellery industry retailers and suppliers as well as the wider community (consumers). See updated figures below.
Not only is this a significant achievement for the magazine, it’s made all the more interesting when you consider that Jeweller’s Facebook following is greater than US and UK publications which operate in much larger markets.
The accompanying chart demonstrates that, thanks to the digital world, the size of a business and its market – as well as its location – has little bearing on the ability to engage with an international audience and customer base.
For example, JCK, perhaps the world’s most widely recognised jewellery trade magazine has 6,195 Facebook followers, significantly fewer than Jeweller.
Other international magazines also trail well behind Jeweller with the well known UK-based Retail Jeweller having 6,564 likes and the very popular US-based Instore receiving just 6,098.
For some time US-based National Jeweler had been the #1 trade magazine and was well ahead of the social media pack with 9,848 Facebook followers, however Jeweller surpassed that figure on the weekend.
Further, the result becomes more noteworthy when you consider that all the major international trade magazines launched their Facebook pages 1-2 years before Jeweller.
Exponential growth
Jeweller’s increasing popularity has been steady and has been achieved organically without the aid of competitions or paid promotions, which are often used by businesses to increase fan numbers in a short period of time.
What’s more, in an attempt to increase advertising revenue, Facebook introduced a new algorithm in April that limited organic page growth by placing paid advertiser promotions above other newsfeed content, therefore regaining control of what was shown to users.
Despite this limitation, Jeweller’s content-based growth has increased more rapidly in recent weeks.
This social media activity also provides an interesting insight into how the internet provides an ever-increasing exponential growth; it took almost 12 months to reach the first 500 followers and a further six months for Jeweller to reach 1,000, however it took a mere 10 days to add the latest 1,000 fans, taking the number from 9,000 to 10,000. See chart 2.
The magazine has employed a simple but consistent social media strategy, which includes:
- Three to four posts per week with a schedule of monthly updates on birthstones and other related industry trends
- Diamond and gemstone facts and birthstone colour trends
- Countdowns to popular festive holidays with interesting snippets or promotions of festivity related products
- Creating theme-specific picture albums with beautiful imagery that is properly categorised for easy reference
Share and share alike
Jeweller’s Facebook content is not only closely followed but is actively shared by many retailers and suppliers across Australia, New Zealand as well as all continents by international followers.
Having spoken with a number of jewellers that regularly utilise social media to increase awareness of their businesses, it appears that eye-catching images, being able to associate with a credible brand and providing local and international news are strategies that can be employed by retailers hoping to increase consumer engagement.
One significant lesson Jeweller learned from direct feedback is that users prefer sharing a whole album when it contains beautifully curated images that narrate a story.
For example, engagement rings have always been a point of fascination, and creating an album with a collection of celebrity engagement rings is one way to create a conversation with your audience. Such content allow users to tag friends in relevant images (e.g. a girlfriend that is getting engaged) and share that buzz with their own social group.
Trevor Ross Brown from Gold Jewellery 2000 in Auckland has been following Jeweller’s Facebook page for about three years and says that being able to share content – the monthly birthstone posts are a favourite – on his own page is a good tool to keep his audience in touch with the industry.
“The content is attention grabbing and I want to hopefully radiate that to my viewers to capture their interest. The name of the publication is wide reaching, and has good credibility so I like to associate my business with Jeweller,” he explains.
Sunstate Jewellers managing director Rita Williams has also found that associating with a renowned brand has helped to increase engagement with the supplier’s Facebook audience.
“We find our own Facebook followers really enjoy the content as it’s coming from a professional organisation that has good industry information. Whenever we share it [Jeweller content], we always get good uplifts,” she says.
Williams adds that posts relating to fashion forecasts such as the Pantone colour of the year trends are also valuable.
While owner of Perfect Pieces Jewellery in Tamworth, Vanessa Cunliffe, has only been following the page for a few months she has already found benefits from having access to international-related news and photos.
“We share a lot of the international content. For example there was a big emerald ring image that was posted recently which was good for the May emerald baby [birthstone] so we copied that,” Cunliffe says, adding “We don’t get to see that sort of content often unless it’s on Facebook.”
Social media for business
While the benefits of social media marketing for business have been analysed and debated, especially around ROI (return on investment), there is no doubt that well managed activities can be extremely advantageous.
When the content is curated properly, a business can increase its brand awareness in a short period of time by providing information of value to its audience, while also engaging them in conversations.
Recent statistics indicate that more than 550 million people use Facebook on a daily basis. Couple this with other social media platforms like Pinterest, Twitter and Youtube, and the importance for businesses to develop some form of social media strategy becomes increasingly obvious. One only has to look at Jeweller’s own results to see there is a bevy of people (read: potential customers) out there lured by jewellery-related content.
As an example of exponential growth, especially on the internet, it took Jeweller 40 months (January 2011 – May 2014) to reach 10,000 followers on its Facebook page, however, it took one tenth of that time to reach the next 10,000.
On Sunday 26 September 2014, Jeweller's Facebook page broke the 20,000 mark.
Apart from surpassing all other industry magazines by a wide margin, the most important fact is that the success has been “organic” – it has been achieved without the aid of competitions or paid promotions, which are increasingly used by businesses to enlarge fan numbers in a short period of time.
Further, the new chart demonstrates that although many jewellery industry media organisations urge and advocate their readers to utilise the various social media and marketing platforms for business, they do not necessarily practice what they preach!
Visit Jeweller's Pinterest, Google+, YouTube and Twitter.
six of Jeweller's Most Popular Posts
Below are six popular posts from Jeweller’s Facebook page that highlight the variety of content. They include a birthstone article, information about diamonds, a gemstone fact, an album of beautiful diamond imagery, a birthstone hue inspiration album and a trend poll.