Last month we released our first installment of the Philadelphia Businesses on Twitter Spotlight Series - a profile on Otto's BMW. This month's Philadelphia Business on Twitter is Conshohocken Italian Bakery. As you may have read in last month's article, each segment within the series will focus on a local Philadelphia area business and their use of Twitter. The goal of the series is to allow readers to read about how their peers are using Twitter for business.
Conshohocken Italian Bakery been baking fresh bread for the greater Philadelphia area (and surrounding suburbs) for over 20 years. Conshy Bakery has a long-standing reputation of being one of the best Italian Bakeries in the Philadelphia area. Over the past few months, Conshohocken Italian Bakery has been using Twitter to connect with current customers, reach new customers, and to share their information with the local Philadelphia area. In this Spotlight Series, you will learn more about Conshohocken Italian Bakery, and their use of Twitter, from the Questions & Answers below.
What’s your Twitter Username?
How long have you been using Twitter?
For just about 2 months.
What is your primary reason for using Twitter?
It seemed like the “current” thing to do to connect with our customers and introduce our 37 yr old, family owned Italian bakery to the online community. Most of our business is wholesale and we have independent distributors that sell our products throughout the Delaware Valley. We do not always know every restaurant that uses our products because of this. Twitter has allowed restaurants, retailers and customers to close that loop. We can benefit one another by supporting each other.
What do you hope to accomplish by using Twitter for business?
We want our customers to know that we are part of the community as a whole, not just the physical neighborhood community, but the online community that is clearly growing like wild fire. We still make bread the old fashioned way and we are family-owned, but we are also able to keep up with a trending market place.
What’s one thing that you learned right away after you started Twittering – something you didn’t expect?
We were shocked by how many people would immediately reach out to us! It was surprising that there were so many people that would voluntarily “promote” how much they loved our tomato pie and breads. We receive unsolicited “shout-outs” every day. It is an exciting and humbling experience at the same time.
What do you like about Twitter?
It is like a mini community. We had developed relationships with people online. After only 2 months, we really feel as if we know the people we follow and talk to every day. We root for our sports teams together, share our interests and talk about tomato pie, cannolis, bread and local businesses.
What can Twitter improve on?
The service crashes occasionally and it can run slowly, but it is free after all, so we’re not complaining!
Do you use any Twitter applications or add-on tools? If so, what tools (ie. Twitter reporting tools, Twitter management tools, TwtPic, etc)?
Yes, we use Twitpic to attach pictures. People love pictures of food. We discovered this very quickly! I also use ubertwitter from my phone.
Do you have any examples where a Twitter connection turned into a real- world friend, customer, business associate?
I could name several already in only 2 months! We had a surge in business over Easter when we sent pictures of our Easter Bread out on twitter. We had customers come into our store and take their own pictures and tweet them, as well as, one customer that left her bakery on The Mainline and has become a customer at the Conshohocken Italian Bakery instead. Our prices are much lower and she likes our product better. We have also had restaurants reach out to us and request samples of our breads.
What type of information do you tweet about?
Everything. We tweet about what our followers are tweeting about. We tweet about the Phillies and Flyers since we are at the beginning of the baseball season and in playoff hockey. Sporting events and food go hand in hand.
Do you use Twitter to drive followers to your other sites?
We have only really promoted Facebook and not very often. We started Facebook at the same time we joined Twitter. We have a website, but we are really online to build relationships not to sell rolls.
Are there a lot of people in the Philadelphia area on Twitter?
It certainly seems that way! I couldn’t tell you the numbers, but it is overwhelming.
Are there any Philadelphia-specific Twitter trends that you’re aware of?
No, not yet. We are still getting our feet wet, so to speak. Right now we are just enjoying getting to know everyone. It’s been so much fun, especially when someone visits for the first time and they tweet about what a great experience they had at the bakery.
What’s one thing about your Twitter use that you want to tell me, but that I didn’t ask for?
It really changes the way you do things. If I want instant information, I click on twitter before I click anywhere else. If something important is happening, someone is tweeting about it! It is also instant information. Most people now have twitter on their phone. If you have something you want people to know about RIGHT NOW, just tweet it!
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It's amazing how much success Conshohocken Italian Bakery is having on Twitter. With that said, as stated above, they're not on Twitter to sell rolls, but rather to build relationships! This is the absolute right approach for a business to take. It sounds like Conshy Bakery is building quite a few relationships already, and selling a few extra baked goods too! Be sure to follow Conshohocken Italian Bakery on Twitter.
Comments
I always enjoy how you keep us in the loop. Interesting, after a few pixels it appears that some of their followers are other businesses. Planned or unplanned. Do these people know about Foursquare which reminds me. You have a ebook coming out soon if I read your tweets correctly. I cannot wait.
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