How To Promote Your Business Using Social Media
Social media sites, such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, are some of the most powerful tools in your arsenal when it comes to creating a connection with your customer base and creating a brand identity. From posting pictures to engaging with comments, social media helps you to build an internet presence, for free!
Getting Started
The initial set up of your first social media account is easy, simply update your profile with the information you want and need to give customers, and you’re ready to go! Well, not quite. Building a fan-base or acquiring ‘likers’ or ‘followers’ can take time. As much as you’d love for your Facebook account to explode overnight and go viral, you’ll need to put in some work before it comes to fruition.
A great tip for getting people onto your social media sites is to add icons to your menus, stickers on your windows or signs around your venue. This way, you’re letting customers know they can find you on their favourite social site. You can also offer incentives for customers to click the follow button; such as discounts for leaving reviews, or you can hold ‘Facebook only’ competitions where you can offer unique prizes for loyal followers, such as a free dessert or a discount.
Nicky Kriel, a social media coach and trainer, says Facebook is the best place to start ‘because over 60% of people with an Internet account are on it’ She also says the real foodies are on Instagram, so make sure you’re posting regular and enticing photos of the food or drinks you’re preparing to really get people’s attention.
Promote Yourself
Yes, social media is free to set up and use. But if you really want to bring in traffic at a quick rate, you can pay for ads. These ads are shown to people with tailored interests, so if you’ve got Melbourne’s best burger, you can make sure your advert is seen by people in Melbourne with an interest in burgers! You pay for each person that clicks on the advert, so you can set a limit for a total number of clicks or a certain amount of money, helping you to stay in control of your finances whilst you gain followers.
Alternatively, engaging content is often shared, as people want to experience food, drinks and entertainment with their friends. Make sure you’re posting regular updates of what you have to offer. Cooked a delicious steak? Stick it on Instagram! Offering 2-for-1 cocktails on a Friday afternoon? Post it on Facebook! Let your customers and followers know what you have to offer and they tell their friends, whether it’s by sharing your page, tagging their friends in the post or just planning a trip.
You can use your followers to promote you too. Find a hash tag that suits what you want to promote, it could be your business name (#NisbetsCatering) or a promotion you’re running (#NisbetsSummerShop). You can then offer customers a chance to win something by using these tags in their posts. Encourage them to take photos of the food or drink you’ve served them and ask them to use the hash tag you’ve chosen on their post. This way, they’re promoting your business whilst potentially winning something for themselves. It will soon catch on (if your follow base is large enough) and the bigger the prize you offer, the better the response will be. Offering free WIFI in your venue is a sure way to get people sharing, and will pay for itself in free advertising.
Create a Community
Once you’ve established your social media site, it’s time to really start putting in the effort to create a community around your brand. Creating a tight and loyal community will keep engagement with your site or account high, ensuring people are always talking about your company. If your followers are commenting, liking and sharing, their followers are going to be seeing this too.
The key to creating a community is to create posts that your followers want to respond on. Ask them a question about what their favourite drink is, or if they could create their own drink, what would it be? Asking questions that invoke an emotion, opinion or memory are more likely to get a response.
Another great way of creating a community is to make your followers feel valued. If they like, comment and share a lot of your posts, reply to them or ‘like’ their posts. You can also post your followers answers to the questions we spoke about in the above section, giving them the spotlight will make them feel special, valued and appreciated. Large companies or chains often need to engage with followers, as their brand identity is so large people will comment and like anyway. As a small or independent business, it’s crucial you create a bond with your followers and help the community to thrive around you.
Your community can also leave reviews on your social sites that everyone can see; good or bad. So you’ll need to ensure you keep high standards when it comes to customer service, both in-shop and online. Replying to complaints quickly and politely, resolving them without conflict is the best way to turn bad reviews into positive customer service.
Link to Your Website
If you’ve got a website for your business you can direct followers to it. Whether it’s to get bookings, get an email address from them to send marketing material or just to simply drive traffic to your site, social media is the gateway.
