SERIES: Let’s Get Social

Another example of a dry cleaner making effective use of Social Media is Gibson’s Cleaners of Toronto, with Linley McConnell leading the effort. We asked her for some tips on increasing your Social Media presence.

Her platforms:

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/GibsonsCleaners

Instagram
Gibson’s : @gibsonscleaners
Laundry with Linley: @laundrywithlinley

Tiktok
laundrywithlinley

When did you start doing social media with Gibson’s? How did you decide it was a good direction to go?

Even before I joined Gibson’s, the team used social media well and recognized its importance for brand awareness and marketing. When I joined, we were using Facebook – Instagram and Tik Tok soon followed.

How do you decide what you’re going to post? Are you doing it alone, or is someone assisting you?

The biggest challenge I’ve found with social media is consistency. Preparing, editing, and posting can be a full-time job. When I started, I set an overly ambitious goal of posting three videos daily (Tik Tok recommends posting one to three times daily to build a solid following). To prepare for this, I spent a month just filming so I would have enough ‘backup’ footage and material to create a video library, but as time went on, it was too hard to keep pace. That was even with someone helping me edit, post, and write captions.

The planning and filming process takes the longest. To get inspiration and content ideas, I look up similar types of videos on Instagram and TikTok, do a brain dump with a pen and paper, ask ChatGPT, and ask friends and family for ideas. In the next few months, I aim to focus on quality videos over quantity and get a posting frequency of at least two videos per week.

Lots of your posts include videos of you doing various things. This positions you as the “face” of Gibson’s going forward. Do you like this role? Do you handle representing Gibson’s in other ways besides Social Media?

When we decided to hire a PR agent a year and a half ago, it was with the intention that I would be Gibson’s spokesperson. I knew there was an opportunity to pitch dry cleaning and laundry in a new way.

We had a slow and steady approach to opportunities, with the first few being ‘taped’ rather than live. The Social was the first live segment we booked – I was super nervous, but the preparation paid off. I had a fantastic time, and have enjoyed all of our segments with the next one being Breakfast Television towards the end of February.

What other kinds of Social Media do you do with Gibson’s — besides Facebook

Right now, we’re focused on Instagram and Tik Tok. The goal is to grow a more substantial Instagram following and engaged audience. In the future, we’re thinking of adding YouTube shorts to the mix.

What has been the response of your customers to your Social Media efforts? You currently have hundreds of Followers — the highest by far that I’ve come across for a dry cleaner. How did you get them to Follow?

Gibson’s has 1010 followers. My Laundry with Linley account has 260 (it’s very new).

Building a following takes time – we are still working on growing it. We’ve found that video outperforms static posting and allows us the visibility to get new followers. We’ve had positive engagement from our clients and community. I firmly believe that social media and media coverage build brand validation and trust. A big shout out to Zachary Pozniak (Jeeves Cleaners), who has amassed 424k followers on Instagram!

I saw you were showing a customer’s beautiful gown. Does a customer ever get upset if you do that?

Great question – Yes, we’ve been featuring some of the fantastic items in our facility. So far, we’ve only received positive feedback. It’s important to us not to disclose who the garment belongs to, and we will take down the post if there are any issues.

Where will you go next with Social Media?

Our goal is to continue to grow our following, increase engagement levels, and share more industry insights and education with our followers.

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Linley is always willing to answer questions. You can reach her for more information at linleym@gibsonscleaners.com.