Anyone who follows Fairytale Brownies on Twitter probably saw a lot of activity by the dessert food merchant on Nov. 17. For every tweet it sent, Fairytale Brownies was sending dozens more replies to followers.
Kari Gayes, a marketing coordinator for Fairytale Brownies’ Web and catalog team, was conducting a trivia contest through its Twitter account, and engaging followers who were hoping to win a batch of chocolaty treats.
The impromptu trivia contest drew responses from 20 to 40 followers of Fairytale Brownies per question, Gayes says, or about 1% to 2% of its 2,000 followers.
But it’s not about the number of Twitter followers and the percentages for Fairytale Brownies. It’s about interacting with customers and engaging in conversation.
“Our followers get very interactive, and I think it’s a good way to show people that there’s a real person behind the tweets,” Gayes said.
Fairytale Brownies has also used Twitter to create a buzz in its local Phoenix market. It held a “tweetup,” a live meeting of its Twitter fans, at its bakery there on Oct. 1.
How did Gayes build the crowd? She sent out a few tweets in September announcing when and where the tweetup would be. And from there, followers retweeted the message, and momentum grew.
The Twitter followers met after work at the bakery and took a complimentary tour conducted by Fairytale Brownies cofounder Davis Kravitz. Each follower was sent home with a goodie bag.
“The attendees posted a lot of pictures and video from the event [on blogs, Facebook and other forms of social media], and most of them have become very vocal fans since,” Gayes says.
Part of the reason for the trivia contest was to get Fairytale Brownies over the 2,000 followers mark, and get more brownie lovers to know about the brand. Gayes found that Fairytale Brownies’ followers range from mommy bloggers who want to review product and get free samples to personal assistants looking for gift ideas.
“It doesn’t really matter to me why someone follows us,” Gayes said. “But the more people follow us and pay attention to what we are tweeting, the better the chance they are going to buy something from us.”
Customer service is another reason Fairytale Brownies is tweeting. Gayes is an active listener, searching for certain key words on Twitter.
She contacted a tweeter who had a bad experience with its product. It turned out the tweeter had purchased Fairytale Brownies from a reseller, and the product was not fresh. So Gayes kept interacting with the tweeter, and had a fresh batch of brownies sent her way.
“It totally turned this customer’s perception of Fairytale Brownies around,” Gayes said. “Now she is a fan because we were able to use twitter to turn a bad situation into a good one.”