Companies like Home Depot and Ace Hardware are showing that there’s even a place for home and garden companies in social media. By proactively providing knowledge and information directly to their customers they’re creating new conversions and a trusted image.

Anatomy

1) Provide helpful How-To’s for common home-renovations. Ace Hardware did this recently with a tweet describing how check if your toilet tank is leaking. Many users only browse their Twitter feed and won’t take the next step of clicking on a link, so providing the necessary information in one tweet allows the user to reach the information easily. 2) Show your products in in-use examples to give customers ideas on how to use them in their own homes and yards. The Garden Gates includes photos of their displays in their blog, which customers can view from their home computer. This way customers can immediately see how the display will fit in their home as they browse the photos. 3) Be a timely, indispensible source of on-demand knowledge. Twitter is the best medium to provide this as Home Depot continues to show with @HomeDepot. Let people know that you are more than willing to answer questions if they tweet you and provide helpful solutions in a timely manner. This is a very easy service that needs little resources and can easily result in sales if your solutions include products that you sell. 4) Humanize your company to garner trust and personal connection within customers. Home Depot does a great job of this on Twitter by displaying the names of their Social Media Team who actually tweet as well as their email address for direct private communication. The next step is to include pictures of the people who are tweeting like Comcast does with its @ComcastCares handle, which provides even more personalization and transparency. Go to www.wishpond.com/merchant to build a Facebook Store synchronized with your website or POS.