On Thursday, June 2, the National Association of Music Merchants Foundation awarded Impulse Music Co. as one of the Top100 Dealers in the world — similar to the Oscars Academy Awards, but for music stores. Impulse Music Co. was also voted first place in the category of “Best Online Engagement.”

Our Social Media Manager and Content Creator, Leire Baztarrica has been working with us since May 2020. She has been the producer of 99% of the content shared on our social platforms. We don’t outsource the images or designs from other creators, everything is in-house produced. She was incredibly consistent with posting since our opening in August 2020, making sure that new material was shared every day.

Our following has been organically growing from around 800 in 2020 to 5000+ followers by June 2022.

This was done through multiple forms of community outreach, including:
Tik-Tok:

CJ Hockenbury (Co-Founder of Impulse Music Co.) made sure to keep the store relevant on Tik-Tok, using his personal account (@impulsedude) to create educational and humor-themed videos that reached 3.5 million likes overall (as of June 2022). He talks about tons of topics from the struggles of running a music store as a small business owner to answering gear-related questions from followers all around the world.

These Tik-Toks were re-shared by Leire via Instagram reels, boosting the engagement of the application.

Events:

As we transition into our new phase, where concerts happen more often and musicians are touring, our goal will be to create a safe stop for musicians along the way.

We have built a local community of musicians in this Los Angeles suburb. We have done this by hosting Open Mic Nights, live shows, jam sessions, masterclasses, and more which have become a big hit. We have propelled the gig community out here, as kids — who often yearn for more contact post-covid — have a safe and sober space to just dance and jam out. But more importantly, we have kept this conversation going by offering a certain amount of exposure from our social media platform. We use high-quality portraits for these artists, many of which are young and greatly appreciate the edgy aesthetic. Oftentimes these portraits gain more likes than our gear, and this is great because our social media project focuses on the individual.

Influencer marketing:

Leire booked well-known content creators and relevant artists on social media such as Kiki Wong, Brieanna Grace, Dylan Brenner, Grant Whitson, Cayley Spivey, Aryy and many others.

They produced Tik-Tok videos, reels, photos, and stories about the store sharing them on their profiles with great success.

Giveaways:

Impulse Music Co. already has given away a Rivolta guitar (special limited edition for Impulse Music Co.), Asabi pedal by Jackson Audio, a Silver Sky PRS, a GOC, a D’Angelico guitar, and many other small prizes in previous giveaways.

Promotions:

Discounts and promotions were pushed via Social Media on almost every festivity and sales season. This drove a lot of traffic to our website.

Highlights:

The relevant information about the business is organized on Instagram Highlights so our followers can find it as quickly as possible.

Social awareness:

We make sure to stay relevant to social issues and concerns. For example, sharing important information and resources for Women’s Day and Black History Month, always making sure that information we share is relevant and music-related. Not directly related to this, but we had to announce new COVID-19 related changes constantly, via social media we made sure that everybody was aware of the new rules.

Collaborations with other small businesses in the area:
We made cross-promotions and collaborated with other small businesses in Santa Clarita such as Draconum Brewery, XRO Churro Bar, BNW comics, and Grayskull Vinyl. This creates re-shares of accounts relevant in the area.

Impulse Music Co. looks forward to the future of the store with optimism and excitement. We hope to continue to connect our music community by utilizing various social media platforms: promoting up-and coming artists along with the newest innovative gear for music makers.

For more information on Impulse Music Co., click [here].