Building Business Relationships with Social Media: Lisa Hartwick Explains

Social media isn't great just for building relationships with customers, it is also great for building relationships with other businesspeople. Lisa Hartwick, owner of the kitchen store Hartwicks, shares some of her experiences with us here. Lisa Hartwick: Other businesses respond to me. Like King’s Estate (a local winery), I haven’t contacted him, but Sasha (the marketing manager at King Estate) had put out an e-mail about doing a wine tasting somewhere and I sent him back an e-mail saying “Hey we need to get you at Hartwick’s in the kitchen.” So we had communication. We actually got on the phone and talked. So I mean that was very effective, just that business to business.
Q: And I also saw you had a conversation with, I think, a shipper from Canada.
Lisa Hartwick: Yes, I haven’t gotten a response back from him yet, but yes we had a very quick little conversation-- see on situations like that it’s hard because you want to type more details. It’s like this sounds so abrupt because I can’t write anything else. That’s the only time it can be frustrating. But yes, that was an interesting thing, how do you get your stuff shipped to you. Because shipping costs are always outrageous, but that’s where I like (social media) for the business to business. I know I probably don't utilize it as much as I should. I should get on there and start sending a lot more direct messages to places like say Cafe Yumm! (a fast casual restaurant), for instance, say “You guys want to do a Yum,! demo at Hartwick’s Kitchen?” I should be doing stuff like that more like I did with Sasha at King Estate. But yes, I would say it’s probably under utilized. I don't see a lot of that just from what I read.
The other day I think I had-- I think it was Market of Choice passed on one of mine (her tweets) and so that was huge because they have so many followers. And so that type of connection is really good. Like Imagine Graphics, they’ve talked to me and (said)we love your communication, it’s always upbeat, you’re telling us what’s going on. So I think the whole other businesses responding and then when they pass it on I think that’s where it can really powerful because I don’t have tons of followers yet, but Lindsay, follows everyone. So then everyone automatically follows her. And I just don't click on every one that comes through. I only follow the people I want to follow.

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