3. 3welcome@falcon.iofalcon.io
58,000+
Social Fans
4
Social Channels
1
Country
BACKGROUND
Transforming Where
You Live, Love And
Laugh
Since its first store opened in June of 1987, Woodie’s
has understood that do-it-yourself home improvement
is about more than just power drills and paint samples.
Knowing that renovating your home is an emotional experience has helped the
brand grow into Ireland’s market leader for all things homey. Boasting thirty-
seven branches across the country, Woodie’s is now the biggest chain of DIY
home superstores in Ireland.
Just over a year ago, Woodie’s social presence was almost non-existent, but
the company has jet-propelled its channels into a social-engagement machine,
with an audience that rivals some of its most notable competitors. The brains
behind this transformation has been social media specialist Laura Lynam. With
support from the wider marketing team, Laura has spearheaded Woodie’s social
growth from nothing in 2014, to a community of 58,000 across newly established
Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Vine channels.
Laura Lynam
Laura is the Assistant
Marketing Manager for
Woodie’s, managing all
social activities for the
Brand. She has been with
Woodie’s for one year,
and before that worked in
a similar post for Dixons
Carphone.
4. 4welcome@falcon.iofalcon.io
CHALLENGE
Engage, Inspire, Grow
Home improvement is a daunting task for most people.
B
efore Laura came onboard last year, it was clear
that Woodie’s needed to establish a voice and a
support system through social media. It used to
be that the only real opportunity for Woodie’s customers
to interact with the brand was in-store, but the company
saw a valuable opportunity in expanding their audience
through social media. Enter Laura.
“Quickly growing a social audience was not
the core objective for us at the start. When
we launched we had one mission, and that
was to engage and inspire our customers.
Social presents a huge opportunity to
inspire fans with our products, and that’s
one of the main reasons we use it.”
Laura Lynam, Social Media Specialist, Woodie’s.
With 37 stores
nationwide, we’re very
local, at the heart of
many communities.
5. 5welcome@falcon.iofalcon.io
Woodie’s take on establishing a social strategy from
modest beginnings exemplifies what should be at the
core of every brand’s marketing roadmap: engagement
first, growth second. They understood that simply
acquiring as many likes/comments/shares/fans as
possible in a desperate rush to catch up with competitors
would never breed long-term loyalty from an online
audience. Instead, they chose to play the long game. And
that begins with grasping why your customers come to
you to begin with.
“Our products are emotional products. They
transform people’s homes, they help you
make the most of where you live, where you
love and where you laugh. With 37 stores
nationwide, we’re very local, at the heart
of many communities. Knowing this, we
wanted to use social to inspire people first
and foremost.”
Laura’s secondary goal was to build a solid customer
service support system through Facebook and Twitter.
“I wanted us to be able to provide excellent
customer service, to listen to customers
and respond to their queries within a short
time frame. I wanted to establish that rapid
connection on social that you can’t achieve
offline.”
Being a veteran of social strategy, Laura knew that both
of these goals would require a strong brand persona on
social. To inspire your audience, and to let them know
that there’s a person on the other end of their questions
and comments isn’t possible if your online persona is
dull. So how do you build a fun, yet trustworthy social
media presence completely from scratch?
6. 6welcome@falcon.iofalcon.io
RESULTS
The Three-Step Program
The Launch
One of Woodie’s first tasks was to launch the brand’s
Facebook page. With no social media presence, the
team knew that a successful Facebook page wouldn’t
arise from simply setting up and saying hello. Laura
decided that the brand needed to establish a following
before going live, and they needed fun content to engage
customers.
“Our brand is full of personality, so I didn’t
want to start by saying ‘Hey, we’re Woodie’s.
We’re here to help.’ I needed something
more fun. Social media was also new to
Woodie’s, so I really wanted to embed it into
our company culture, and get colleagues
involved.”
The answer?
Employee advocacy. Two weeks before launching, the
team set up an internal competition asking colleagues
to snap a fun selfie somewhere in store. They then used
the winning selfie as the brand’s first Facebook post. The
aim of the competition was to connect Woodie’s online
fans to their offline world, where helpful, down-to-earth
colleagues are waiting to help customers transform their
homes.
Naturally, the first post racked up huge engagement,
but for Laura, the success of the competition was more
about getting her colleagues behind her social strategy:
“Our colleagues are the people our
customers are engaging with primarily, so
the selfie competition was important for
putting a face behind the brand for our
online audience.”
Laura Lynam,
Social Media Specialist, Woodie’s
7. 7welcome@falcon.iofalcon.io
The Milestone
Once you’ve had a successful launch, how can
you maintain momentum and establish an online
audience? For Woodie’s, another competition
was the answer. Using the Falcon platform’s Build
feature, Laura set up a Facebook app using the
tagline “Which Barbecuer are You?”
“When we were looking for a social
media management tool, two things
were important to us: one was
scheduling, and the other was the ability
to build custom apps. Falcon’s Build
App is great for larger competitions as
it allows us to create more engaging
content, as opposed to the generic ‘like
and comment’ competitions.”
The competition gave customers a series of
barbecue personas to choose from (options
included things like the bossy “backseat griller”)
and offered them the chance to win a BBQ of their
own. The idea behind the app was to give people
the chance to engage with content that they could
relate to, setting up Woodie’s social presence as
friendly and familiar.
In the first weekend after going live with the app,
Woodie’s had gained 15,000 new Facebook fans,
with 10,000 entries to the competition overall.
Woodie’s were on to a winner: share content that
your audience can relate to on a personal level.
The Service
As well as inspiring customers, Laura also wanted to
establish an outstanding customer service strategy.
Using Engage, she’s been able to efficiently manage
incoming comments, questions and queries from
customers. Working as a one-woman team, it was
important for Laura to be able to delegate and
escalate queries from customers to the appropriate
team members easily and quickly.
Being able to respond to each and every query,
in good time and with a committed response
has helped Woodie’s strengthen its bond with
both customers and prospects online. Laura has
understood that this relationship relies on giving
customers what they want, and taking care to
extend the conversation, even with the most simple
comments: “You have to respond to not just queries
and complaints, but every interaction that you get,
and Falcon really helps you manage that.”
“Customer service needs to be nailed before you can really develop your
engagement strategy. If you don’t have good customer service, there’s no
point in putting content out here. Without building a strong relationship,
you’re just sharing content with people who aren’t listening. Why should they
interact or engage with you? Falcon has been so important to helping us
build good customer service. It uncomplicated the process; it puts in front of
you what you need to see at that moment, and filters out everything else.”
8. SUMMARY
A Focused Social Future
Following such a strong start, what does the future hold for Woodie’s
on social?
T
he brand is growing their social strategy, and focusing on content that strikes a chord with
its audience. Video will be a huge part of this, signaling that the shift towards video content
is infiltrating even the DIY industry. Woodie’s take on this is interesting, as opposed to live
streaming, or enlisting the help of agencies like some brands, they’ll be focusing on production.
In just one short year, the brand has evolved from having no social presence to 58,000 engaged
fans and a strong online support system for all your DIY needs. People come to Woodie’s for the chance
to transform their homes, and for support through this process of transformation. The brand’s social
strategy effectively meets this expectation, through the familiar and relatable brand voice that customers
love. It’s all about creating content that works for your audience, not your brand, and Woodie’s social
success shows that they understand this completely.
To learn what Falcon.io can do for your business,
request a demo online
or email welcome@falcon.io
REQUEST DEMO
“When we first established our social presence we produced a
few in house videos and immediately noticed the positive impact
on organic reach. After we realised that, we partnered with a
video production company, so we’re serious about video. There’s
so many ways you can inspire customers through video.
