When businesses started moving more of their sales online in 2020, social media became more important than ever. Generating sales meant reaching customers online, and it’s likely that many retailers found themselves posting more than usual. The tips below will help you continue that momentum.
Post about your customers accomplishments and other major life events. Photo credit: Shooters Archery
Retailers should keep their customers at the forefront of every post. Shooters Archery is a good example. Their simple but effective posts receive a lot of engagement from customers, and contribute to building a community that supports them. Part of the reason their social media approach is so effective is that they let their customers drive their content.
Shooters Archery posts about their customers often on their Facebook page. They'll share if a customer does well at a tournament, has a major life event, or gets an archery scholarship. A customer lost their house in a fire, and the shop posted about it and held a benefit archery tournament. That kind of support is so important for a retailer because it builds a community. You want your customers to know that you value and care about them. Showing them that you’re paying attention is one of the greatest gifts a business can give its customers.
Before you dive into a social strategy, make sure your pages have the basic ingredients for success. Focus on mastering the basics of social media, like posting quality photos, having your website in your Instagram bio, posting at least once a week and keeping up with algorithm changes. In addition to the usual likes, shares, saves, and comments, Instagram is taking your interests into account when creating your feed and tries to show you posts that match what you've interacted with before. But Instagram’s algorithm changes frequently, so retailers need to be prepared to shift tactics as needed.
If you have the time and ability to do so, focus on making short archery tip videos or ones that highlight a service you offer. The main goal is to get your customers and followers invested in your content. If they are, they will be more likely to engage with it, and engagement is key to social media success.
Michelle Scheuermann, president and owner of BulletProof Communications LLC notes that if you want your posts to reach as many people as possible, you should focus on creating the types of posts that are important to that particular platform. “How do you know what a platform is focused on?” Scheuermann said. “Open Instagram. I’ll wait. Go to your search bar. What is the first type of post that populates? An Instagram Reel. … Now scroll down in your searches. Notice how the static-image posts take up one little square, but IGTV and Reels take up larger squares? Again, front and center. So, what’s important to Instagram? Video. Specifically — Reels.” So, to reach the most people on Instagram, focus on Instagram Reels.
Facebook prioritizes time spent on a page over the type of post you’re creating. “Facebook wants its users to do everything inside their app – shop, scroll, read, watch. All of it,” Scheuermann said. “If you have a link to an outside website in a Facebook post, it won’t get as many eyeballs. You want a double whammy against you? Post a YouTube video link inside a Facebook post. Not only are you now asking people to leave Facebook, you are asking them to leave to watch something on Facebook’s largest competitor.”
While Facebook doesn’t directly prioritize one different type of post over another, it does offer a free boost in reach for videos longer than three minutes. Posting once a day, seven days a week, seems to be the sweet spot for Facebook’s reach potential. Having multiple posts in one day lowers the reach of each post. Although Facebook and Instagram each prioritize different post types, they both prioritize engagement.
The amount of interaction a customer has with your page directly correlates with how often you appear in their feeds. Engagement drives everything on social. Retailers need people to comment on, save and share their posts for them to reach a larger audience. If people engage with your content, your posts receive a greater reach. Customers that engage with your posts will begin to see your page’s posts in their feed more often. Each engagement increases your posts’ overall reach, so they will appear in other customers’ feeds more often, as well. Retailers should tag their shop’s location in every post. Don’t force the customer to leave a social media site to find your address with a search engine. You want to make it as easy as possible for the customer to find you.
Consistency is also key when it comes to posting on social media. “The most important takeaway that retailers and manufacturers can use to increase their followers is to be consistent,” said Hannah Stonehouse Hudson, certified trainer, public speaker and outdoorswoman. “They need to be consistent in posting, commenting and sharing information of value (not just sales posts!) — as well as be engaging and responding to their fans regularly.” Whatever approach you take, be consistent. A retail shop should respond to all messages and comments within a day. If you don’t have the time to manage your social media on your own, hire someone to keep up with your sites and answer your customers’ questions promptly.
“Being consistent in every way on social media ensures that your followers (no matter the platform or the changes in the algorithm) always go back to interact with the social media account,” Hudson said. “Fans and followers will see your account as one that is interactive, personable and responsive, so they will seek the account out. In addition, though social is definitely a pay-to-play game, social platforms do reward accounts with interactive fan bases with higher-than-average engagement numbers because they know these accounts keep people on their social network.”
If you receive a lot of questions on social media, turn the most frequently asked ones into social media posts. For example, you might often be asked what type of tuning services you offer. You could post a video detailing them.
Creating an effective social media strategy can be daunting, but the ATA is here to help. ATA members can find helpful information on its Learning Center, which has courses to help you improve your social media strategy and connect with your customers. Combine adherence to the platform’s metrics with your own personal brand voice for an effective social media strategy.
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