Friday FaceOff: Taylor Guitar Is In Tune with Social Media

0 Comment(s) | Posted Nov 13, 2009 by Peter Wylie

Peter Wylie

I’m a huge guitar nut.  I’ve been playing for 10 years and I love to read about new models and techniques, and hear fresh opinions about the best products.

I’m always looking for new opportunities to connect online with other guitar aficionados through social media, so I compared the Facebook and Twitter presences of guitar companies for my Friday Face-Off selection choice.

My personal bias was toward Martin Guitars, because I own a Martin acoustic guitar that has served me well for many years.  But Martin’s social media presence is less than harmonious.

I was disappointed to find Martin’s Facebook fan page underdeveloped and neglected.  While the company has 4,000 fans on the page, it has not reached out to them in any way.  Though it has 750 followers on Twitter, it’s tweeted only twice since starting its account.

While Fender has a commendable Facebook presence, with more than 174,000 fans, I’ve found most of the threads and comments to be spammy at best.  Though I did like the “Do You Name Your Guitar” debate.

My choice for best social media presence is Taylor Guitars.  The El Cajon, California company makes beautiful guitars and has also committed fully to reaching out to its loyal community of owners with a unified social media presence.  The Facebook fan page has roughly 5,500 fans; not groundbreaking numbers.  But the company goes to great pains to respond in a timely fashion to questions and complaints about its products, as well as to general themes in the guitar community.

Bob Taylor’s brilliantly timed and very authentic online video appeal to guitar owners who’ve had a guitar broken, in response to the viral hit “United Breaks Guitars,” has been viewed more than 200,000 times on Taylor’s YouTube channel.  The company has posted more than 100 other videos demoing new models and showing musicians of all genres jamming out on their Taylors, as well.  

Congrats to Taylor on building a significant community of guitar players.  The company realizes it’s good for business to be good to its customers, and that commitment is evident in its social media campaign.

The company doesn’t bombard people with offers.  It sits back, listens and engages.  But while I was looking at their site, I added a Taylor to my guitar wish list.  It’s the 2010 8-string baritone pictured above.  As Facebook fan Cap Wilhelm-Safian said on the Taylor fan page: Santa, I’ve been good this year….

- Pete

Filed under: Emerging Media, Friday Face-Off, Old World Changing, Online Communities, Twitter-related