Taking Social Media To The Next Level

This past weekend I planted my summer garden. As I waited for the bumper crop of fresh tomatoes, zucchini, and beans to pop out of the soil (it will be about a three month wait), I gazed around my garden and noticed that something was missing. My yard needed a picnic table. I went inside, hopped online, and found the perfect table. I placed my order online with a company call CedarStore.com, received a confirmation email, and called it a night.

This morning when I checked my email inbox I had a Facebook friend request from something I did not recognize. It was from Cedar Store. This was the online retailer that I purchased the table from the day earlier.

I did not immediately put the two together, but once I did I thought how nice it was that this retailer took the time to look up my email on facebook and ask me to be its friend. I have not seen retailers do this before. I am not sure if this site has some sort of magical script that queries order email addresses and sends them facebook friend requests, or if some furniture aficionado took the time to look me up and send the request. Either way this is a great touch.

The takeaway from this is:
If I do not become a fan of this company there is no harm or foul. I receive erroneous facebook friend requests all the time which I ignore. But if I do become a friend of this company on facebook (or any other social media site) then they might have a customer for life in me. Whenever I think about purchasing furniture, I will remember this experience. CedarStore.com's facebook page is clean, clear, and has over 700 friends. I have not yet decided if I will click the friend button. Would you?