Purple Rose Home has been a staple of the Northborough retail community for more than 20 years. Locals who frequent the shop know just what a gem it is—with room after room of unique and charming gifts, home decor and more. But what you may not know, is that this little local shop has become a worldwide sensation thanks to a robust website and an incredibly smart social media strategy. With more than 40,000 Instagram followers, the shop now has customers across the globe! We asked co-owner, Kim Reed, how they found such success on the social media platform, and what it has meant for their business.
When did you start on Instagram, and what brought you there?
I really started focusing on Instagram for the business in November of 2016. While we had an account prior to that, I really didn’t understand the platform at all. But I had this feeling that Purple Rose Home needed to have a presence there—especially when I saw my competitors using it, and saw the potential for business growth.
How have you grown your following to over 40k? I attribute the growth to a few things. First, in 2016 we introduced the Magnolia Home Furniture line by Joanna Gaines. I was then able to leverage hashtags to attract fans of her line. (#JoannaGaines #FixerUpper #farmhousetyle). Once I began doing this, and familiarizing myself more with the platform, I started discovering other tags used in farmhouse decor and began implementing them with posts. Things like #farmhousefriday #vintagegoodnesstuesday. I also began to discover that some of the biggest farmhouse decor accounts were discussing specific products, as if they were advertising them. This, I learned, is called collaborating. With a bit of luck, I managed to quickly establish a collaboration with one of my favorite Instagram feeds where we did a giveaway that gave us tons of exposure. From there, I established some relationships with other Instagramers who became brand reps. I give them free product from the shop, in exchange for them styling, photographing and talking about the products to their followers.
We are now leveraging some of these brand reps to create “Curated Collections” on our site. We create a website collection with all of the products that the designer has chosen for their home. It gives shoppers a great way to find a style that they like, and then purchase items to reflect that style. I have really enjoyed the relationships — both personal and business — that I have established with these women.
How much time do you spend on Instagram each day/week?
Too much! At least a couple hours a day. Because of the curated collections and product posts, I am answering a lot of questions from customers and influencers. (That’s what we call them in the biz!) Not only do I have to post and respond to comments, but I also have to engage with other accounts and check up on the competition. So I’m spending a lot of time commenting on other posts or engaging on the same hashtags I’m using. There’s some formula in the algorithm that recognizes this and gives us more exposure if we work it all right. Also watching stories of my influencers so I can really get to know them on a personal level so we can chose the right products that fit their lifestyle and “brand” per say.
Has it had an impact on your business?
Yes, a huge impact! Our web sales are up in a major way.
How does it compare to other Social Media channels for your business? Facebook really did help at one point. We have about 11,000 followers and when I started doing post about the Magnolia line, almost every new person that came to us said they found us on Facebook. But the algorithm changed and Facebook wanted businesses to pay for ads and it just didn’t make sense to invest since I was seeing so much growth on Instagram. I may go back to it some day but for now we use it to post events and share occasional posts. We don’t use snapchat because Instagram has a really great stories feature. We haven’t, as yet, tapped into any of the other networks. Instagram is keeping us busy enough!