That being said, I just took a look a their site, and it says “Pour plus d’information et des rabais, suivez nous sur Facebook.” So someone there is thinking about how this is going to drove sales.

Of course, those who don’t go to their site won’t know that, so they seem to really be relying on “the social virus” and that’s where they lose me.

Dude, just ’cause you become a fan of Yeh! on Facebook, it doesn’t mean that I’m going to… In fact, it doesn’t even mean that I’m going to check them out.

I’m a cynical twenty-something, and I suffer form social-media-exhaustion.

That being said, I’m also an unrepresentatively ornery jerk… so good for them… they are on the right track… and they are thinking of driving sales… so what the fuck do I know about the yogourt business???

Is it impacting their sales? That is the bottom line (pun intended ). This is why it is very important to have a social media marketing strategy.

Truth of the matter is, as outsiders we don’t know. However, we can make an educated guess. The way I see it, Yeh! is in the chocolate bar industry. Low involvement purchasing + high and irregular frequency.

This means that the best way to get sales is by

1. developing a strong following that will associate themselves with the brand culture and choose Yeh! before any other yogurt (A la Coca-Cola).
2. staying top of mind so that that consumers will pick Yeh! first whenever they are in the mood to go out on a night in town/plateau.
3. differentiate themselves from becoming another generic yogurt/ice cream/café destination. This can be done in the experience of the customer at the physical location.

Social Media Marketing engagement answers all 3 goals and can do more. Moreover, social media is word of mouth on crack people who are fans of Yeh! get a chance to post up pictures of them enjoying the product, this gives them free exposures to all of the friends on Facebook and Flickr.

Moreover, you can see that they spent a lot of energy developing their brand image. The experience of the customer when they are visiting the store is duplicated in the web. This is an excellent way to ensure that the customer experience continues beyond the store.

Having a strong presence in social media can definitely impact sales directly as well. Facebook fans can now subscribe to Facebook pages via sms. Yeh! can incite users to subscribe via sms for a chance to win free Yogurt and then, on Friday nights they can send an update saying:

It is Friday, it is gorgeous: Yeh! Come visit us if you are in the Plateau tonight.

They can even tell them to mention a specific codename so that the store can calculate the sales specifically from that one FB update.

Establishing a concrete social media marketing plan is very important so that the resources that are poured into it is not a waste.

Granted, being there does give it much more of a human brand, but an emerging brand is already in less danger of seeming like a faceless Goliath.

That doesn’t, of course, mean that they should abandon SM altogether. After all, as long as their not sinking a lot of resources into it, there’s no harm done. Besides, it’ll be that many more spot in the SERPs that will be there’s.