Using Social Media Well – Guitar Center

13 May 2010

I receive quite a few newsletters. I actually like getting the ones that I sign up for as it is another way to consume my news from friends, businesses and people I want to follow. I also get an onslaught from those who believe my email address was given to them for the sole purpose of signing me up for their newsletter, but I would rather opt-in to getting the subscription. One of the newsletter subscriptions I don’t mind reading on a regular basis is that of Guitar Center. Guitar Center is not so much about the guitars for me. I have an acoustic guitar that sits in the corner like a dusty prop in a warehouse. I like them because of their audio equipment. I like their selection of microphones and most recently purchased a USB Mixer from them.

My interest was again peaked when their current newsletter described their charitable efforts with MusiCares for the victims of the flood in Nashville. They describe their campaign as follows:

Guitar Center and MusiCares are working together to help the Nashville music community. Operation High Ground – Nashville Flood Relief is designed to directly assist music people affected by the Middle Tennessee floods. Your donation will provide funds for food and clothing, gasoline and transportation, cleanup efforts, relocation costs, medicine, and other critical supplies. Find out how you can help.

That was the extent of their message and it provides a good overview of how to get to their cause.

A quick look at the bottom of the email really let me know that they take their social media serious.

Using social media well can also come from some old ways of doing business. People don’t think that email is a part of a good social media campaign. I talked about this before when I said email was a ready made social network. This is an example of how you might use email and open up your list to your social media network. The folks at Guitar Center provide a navigation in their email to all their assets. You can find their Facebook Page, their Twitter page, you can read their company blog, and you can watch their YouTube channel. So, straight from that one email you can navigate to everything and anything that you might want to become a part of their community.