Chris Durante Visco - Social Media and the Family Business

Chris Visco, President of PJ’s & Coffee Social Media, works with family businesses, as well as, small, medium, and large brands, to develop social media strategies in order to build lasting relationships with users online. As a retail buyer for nearly 20 years, she has a long, successful history of building marketing campaigns to not only increase revenue, but also spread brand awareness and launch businesses from the ground up. In 2005 she left retail and moved into wholesale manufacturing taking a defunct company to a high level of success and profitability by building key relationships with the company’s customer base.

As the economy soured in 2008, Chris watched as many local businesses, especially restaurants closed their doors. Following her passion for food and local dining, she built a website as a platform to showcase small, family owned restaurants. The era of social media marketing was beginning to take shape and in order to support and effectively promote her family businesses; she became a student of social media networks. By way of analyzing best and worst social media practices she observed online, Chris was able to build an effective strategy for her website, www.thebestoffood.com.

While clients were thrilled by the results, they too were beginning to realize the value of social media and knew they also needed their own, branded social media presence. Out of that need, emerged a new company, PJ’s & Coffee Social Media. Chris’ background in psychology, studied at Drexel University, coupled with her naturally “social” personality, and marketing experience made the transition to social media strategist an easy one.

Her experience as a retail buyer was instrumental in developing social media strategies. Having been responsible for strategizing assortments and financial plans for businesses from $5 to $60 million, the most critical asset Chris possesses is the ability to identify her customer base. Targeting an audience, knowing and understanding the customers and their needs, was a critical part of her overall success then, and a crucial, necessary skill for developing successful social media strategies now and into the future.