It was a hot August day, the summer of 2005. I stumbled out of my dorm room at college into the path of a pretty girl. After a brief chat, there was mutual interest and she asked me a question I’d never heard -- “Are you on Facebook?”
At the time, Facebook was a young, feisty, startup website for college students. Concepts like the Timeline, Video Sharing, and Pages didn’t exist yet. It was built as a way to quasi-stalk your classmates, form communities of like-minded individuals, and to share photos of you and your friends. Believe it or not, Facebook is called a “social” network because it was built for people.
Eventually, the world caught on to the power of an online public square, and Facebook exploded into the behemoth we know today - a hub for business information and content, the world’s leading social video platform, and a marketplace to buy and sell your old couch (or your brand new guitar pedal.) By 2015, everyone and their grandma had a facebook profile. Like all things, the smashing success of the ability for business pages to reach their audience and acquire new customers faded precipitously as Facebook made it increasingly difficult to reach your goals without putting some skin ($$$) in the game.
As a result, many businesses are pondering now more than ever what an effective strategy for best-use is on Facebook. Some are even writing off the platform all-together. When I do one-on-one consultations with PG clients, social media strategy is one of the most prevalent topics discussed and my message is always simple: Success on social media is still very possible, it’s just that the goal needs to be adjusted.
Unless you sell personalized T-Shirts or low-cost consumer goods, Facebook is not a place to expect direct revenue to be earned. But, that doesn’t mean Facebook should be abandoned or that it can’t bring value to your online presence and brand. So, here are my tips to maximize impact and help your business on social media:
Build community by engaging your followers on a regular basis. Ask them questions about their experience with your brand and invite them offer feedback that could help convince others to buy your products.
Offer them something they can’t find anywhere else: exclusive follower discounts, rebates, or offers that entice them to stay engaged.
Post content that puts a human face to your company. People like to support people. This could be behind-the-scenes photos/videos, a company blog or Q&A, or stories about the history of your company or products.
Create a series of low-budget facebook ads that will allow you to test messaging, content, and results. Vary your messages for content, new follower acquisition, sales, etc. See here for help determining your facebook ad budget and strategy.
Define a budget to commit to boosting your content to your followers and relevant related audiences. This will help you grow your reach.
Inquire with other, larger, pages that produce coverage of your brand about partnering to boost and promote your coverage to their followers. Make sure your page is tagged when doing this.
These are just a few, simple ideas to get the most out of social media. If you need a more personal touch, PG’s Marketing Lab is here to help with any and all of your marketing questions. We’d love to help you develop a strategy specific to your social media presence, including how PG can help you spread the word via our social media channels. You can sign up for a free, no-pressure consultation with me using the calendar below. Happy posting!
StewMac Sun Fuzz Pedal Kit
nspired by Analogman's Sun Face, our version finally gives you the control and tone shaping you've always wanted from the original Fuzz Face circuit. If you love Hendrix, Clapton, or Gilmour—this fuzz must be on your board.
The Fuzz Face is one of the foundational tones for electric guitar. However, the originals can be hard to control and don't play nice with many pickups and amps—even temperature can completely change the tone! Following Analogman's lead, we've swapped the germanium transistor for a silicon BC-108, giving the pedal a brighter tone, more gain, and enhanced touch sensitivity.
The most versatile fuzz you've ever tried
With simple controls for volume, fuzz, and tone it's easy to dial in just a touch of fuzz for chunky chords or max it out for super saturation and sustain. Want to go deep? You can further tailor the sound with the internal clean and bias controls for infinite tone tweaking. And it sounds great with humbuckers, single-coils, and P-90s—this fuzz can do it all.
Designed with the beginning pedal builder in mind
No need to wait months for Analogman or try your luck on the used market—this is an easy pedal to build.
We include everything you need:
- 32 page step-by-step instructions written for the first time builder
- Top quality, high tolerance components from resistors to switches
- Road-worthy rugged metal enclosure with all holes pre-drilled
- Bare or powder coated white finish
- 3PDT breakout board for low noise
- Internal trim pots for tone shaping
- Input, output, and power jacks rear mounted for easy cable routing
- True bypass
- Custom printed labels
When we walked into Nashville’s Eastside Bowl for this Rig Rundown with Wolfmother’s alpha canine, Andrew Stockdale, it sounded like he was playing his SG through a Marshall stack at head-ripping volume. Nope! Stockdale was blasting skulls apart with a Line 6 HX stomp doing the heavy tonal lifting. Surprise!
It's part of his strategy for traveling lite in support of Rock Out, the Australian outfit’s 2021 album, on a make-up tour of the States that was preempted by the Covid shutdown. For Stockdale, the rest of his formula for playing his blood-and-guys rock 'n' roll live includes an SG, a White Falcon, and a vintage Supro, and … no traditional amps.
“I used to have, like, three Voxes–cabs and everything up there. And we had a trailer behind the bus and two guys to carry it, who'd have a beer and high-five each other after they loaded out,” Stockdale recounts. “Now they‘re gone, all the amps, and them gone.”
Here’s a close-up look at what’s onstage with Stockdale right now, as he uses minimalist gear to create maximum sound!
Brought to you by D'Addario:
https://ddar.io/wykyk-rr
https://www.daddario.com/XPNDRR
The Red Dog
This ’61 Gibson SG reissue with 61T humbuckers is a loaner. Stockdale flew from Australia without guitars—part of his smart-travel initiative. He strings his electrics with .010 to .042 sets from Ernie Ball. He also uses EB’s .88 mm picks. His SG’s control dials? They’re all the way up, my friends! At home, or in Europe on tour, he plays an ’80s black SG and an Epiphone Explorer
Supro, Man
This vintage mother-of-toilet-seat Supro was a gift from Seasick Steve—who Stockdale went surfing with … in England. (Right?) Even more odd is Stockdale’s testimony that Steve is an excellent surfer. This 1-pickup model appears to be a late-’50s Belmont, replete with the original pickup. If you haven’t played a guitar with one of the big-footprint Supro pickups, you're missing a truly special experience. Just ask Ry Cooder.
Big Bird
Stockdale uses this Gretsch White Falcon on the song “Apple Tree.” It had a neck break near the body joint on a flight in Australia, and Stockdale glued it up himself, letting it set in a clamp. This model was introduced in 1954, but it sure as hell does more than twang.
Board to Be Wild
Stockdale moved from traditional amps to Line 6 a few years ago, and blends in with his own pedals, to “give it more character.” His board’s layout is a Snark floor tuner, an EHX Micro Synth (a Wolfmother staple), an Xotic AC Booster, an EHX Micro POG, a Dunlop Cry Baby 535Q Multi-Wah, a Boss TR-2 tremolo, a CIOKS DC5 power supply, and Shure GLXDC+ wireless. Unfortunately, he left the wireless transmitter in a guitar case at home for this tour. Whoops!
