Social Media Success for Black Opal Direct
At the GJX show, Justin Thomas (New South Wales, Australia) told us about Black Opal Direct’s success on social media during the pandemic, his efforts to share opal knowledge, and a black opal with a special story. Founded in 1961 by Thomas’s father, Jurgen, and owned and operated by Thomas and his wife, Ruth, Black Opal Direct specializes in black opal from Lightning Ridge.
Thomas said most of their customers come from YouTube and Instagram. In the last three years, their YouTube subscriber count has increased from 30,000 to 170,000. He said views fluctuate between 500,000 and 3 million a month, averaging about a million. This led to a tripling of sales over the last two years, though their business has now returned to normal. “It was a dream run,” Thomas said. “I believe those days are over.” He acknowledged that they have been fortunate in a time when many businesses around the world failed due to the pandemic. Without YouTube, he said, they would have weathered the last two years but would not be doing nearly as well.
Black Opal Direct began selling on eBay more than a decade ago. They determined that a million people per month were searching the Internet for the word “opal.” Within a few months of starting to sell rough on eBay, sales were strong; then they built their website and brought their eBay customers to it. Thomas created a YouTube channel (figure 1) around the same time as the eBay store, but it was only three years ago that he started posting videos more frequently.
“As the channel grew, it started to morph into more entertainment videos, showing them how fun it is to cut an opal, and my funny side, so they can see my personality,” he said. “I think in social media you have to show a lot more and a little bit of vulnerability. If you can connect in that way, in the heartstrings way, people will trust you a lot more and are much more likely to buy from you.”
Thomas believes his videos are helping the whole industry because he does not push sales. “I don’t even give the link to my website very often,” he said. “It’s all about the love of opal, how to cut it, how to mine it. It also helps the world understand opal.”
According to Thomas, the opal industry is very secretive, and he is probably the first person to share so openly through social media how to cut opal. He said many had thanked him at the show, saying they learned how to cut opal from his videos and in some cases quit their jobs to go into the opal business. “I think it’s awesome to be able to share that abundance,” he said.
Thomas learned to cut opal from his father, who moved to Australia from East Germany in the ‘60s and began mining in Lightning Ridge. Jurgen Thomas’s tools included a pick, shovel, and candle. When he began cutting, he used a manual Singer sewing machine that he converted by adding a corundum grinding wheel. “He’s passed away now, and all that knowledge is only with me,” Justin Thomas said. Despite the positive response of those learning from his videos, he said, many cutters are unhappy because he’s giving away prized secrets. “That knowledge—if that’s gone with my dad, and it goes with me, and my son never takes it up, it’s wasted,” he said. “Why let it go?”
Thomas emphasizes the quality of social media followers over the number. “Even if you’ve got a hundred followers, they could be a hundred genuine followers because they genuinely like you,” he said. “Say up to five percent of those people may buy. You grow from that.”
When Thomas cuts a highly valuable opal from rough on camera, he often does a dance. “They love it,” he said. “There’s always a comment before they watch a video: ‘I hope this one gets a dance!’” He has also been testing TikTok. “I always make jokes so they can see that I’m human, I’m personable, I can make an idiot of myself. I thought TikTok could be a good place for me to concentrate on those parts of my videos. I had a lot of followers quickly, who want to see me dancing.”
Some competitors have tried to copy him—unsuccessfully, according to Thomas, because “their heart’s not in it.” Some also criticize his style. “I get lots of people saying ‘You’re an idiot’ or ‘You’re a clown’ or ‘Why are you dancing?’ Water off a duck’s back. I try to focus on all the people that love me.”
After years of working out of their home, the Thomases recently purchased a warehouse and built a cutting workshop there. Thomas said their subscribers have loved watching the small business grow. “I love this industry so much and I love what I do so much that it’s addictive,” he said. “Giving more and more to the subscribers and to my followers, going to the next level. So watch this space.”
Thomas showed us a 10.65 ct black opal (figure 2), which he calls “the ultimate black opal.” Its vivid colors, patterns, and strong play-of-color make it extraordinary. One of his father’s friends, who mined with him at Lightning Ridge in the ‘60s, brought it to Thomas two years ago after finding it almost directly under the shed his father lived in back then.
