For years, quality inventory and a friendly attitude were all your store needed to get noticed. Today, online engagement is increasingly ranked alongside in-store customer service when it comes to promoting your business.
Many shoppers turn to social media profiles to determine if a store is trustworthy before they even come in. If you don’t have an active profile, they may think a lack of followers or posts means bad customer service. This is why you want to make sure that your profile is a great representation of your business. Try to include quality photos, original content and shares on your wall. Tell your most loyal customers to post a review next time they come into your store. You can even keep customers engaged by posting about in-store promotions or adoption events.
Here are some steps to creating a successful social presence:
Create A Profile.
If your profile is outdated, it’s not too late! Starting from where you left off is easier than it seems. All you need to do is find and create content that you think your target customer would like, and schedule as many posts as you can. Be sure to choose content that’s relevant to your specific niche, don’t burn yourself out and try to cater to everyone. This might come off as boring or irrelevant to your current customers and result in loss of engagement. An easy way to see what you should be posting is by checking what subjects your active competitors are talking about on social media. This could help spark new content ideas for your page.
Build A Community Of Followers.
Building a community of social followers allows your brand to stay relevant. It also creates another channel for attracting shoppers into your store. For example, if you have a discount on a certain dog food, you can post the sale as it happens and they will be the first to know. This will help your customers feel special and further strengthen their loyalty to your store.
Another way to build a community is to create a hashtag. Creating a hashtag will allow you to track your community posts. This will also make it easier to create photo competitions, product promotions, and sales.
You will also boost loyalty by interacting with your customers on content. If you’re on Facebook or Instagram, be sure to ‘like’, share, and comment on your customers’ posts.
Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff!
If you aren’t on every social media channel, that’s perfectly OK. Only sign up for what you think you can keep up with. There’s nothing worse than a Twitter handle that hasn’t posted in months or that’s been hacked in your absence.
Get your store associates to engage with your social channels, and communicate them to customers at checkout. It’s always good to get a sense for which channels your customers are most active on, so you know where to invest your time.
We hope these tips were helpful. Please continue to check the blog weekly for more tips and tricks. To read more about building an online community, read our article on Local SEO.