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Social Media’s Role in Your Marketing Mix

While it’s obvious to most companies of any size that social media is a great tool for audience engagement, we see several people that seem to stall when it comes to integrating their social media into the rest of their marketing and online presence.  Here are a few tips to make your social media truly social with your customers and how to convert social engagement into leads:

1. Find social media platforms that work best for your customers and stick with them. There are so many social channels to choose from like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Yelp just to name a few.  It’s important to find not only the ones your customers are on but also the ones that you feel the most comfortable in using. This will help you to continually add content to keep your customers interested and engaging by commenting, sharing your posts, and reaching out to learn more about you.
2. Create unique and useful posts/content. The name is right there in the medium: Social.  Your customers want to hear from you and learn about what you have to offer, so be sure to keep your updates not just timely but centered around your store. It’s okay to share posts from other sources but keep this to a minimum.
3. Tease special offers on your social channels that lead back to your site to convert browsers into buyers. Just like all forms of marketing, you want potential customers to move further into the purchasing funnel so when it’s time to purchase they choose you. Don’t just use your social media as a way to make announcements— add a call to action that leads to a form or message either on the social channel or a landing page on your site where visitors can learn more and contact you simply and quickly.
4. Consider a short, regular live event. Almost every social channel offers a way to livestream to an audience and smartphones with great cameras have become the norm. Hosting a weekly or bi-weekly livestream event helps to build your audience and entices them to come back to your channels again and again. Topics could range from learning about the people at your store and in your community, or your service techs could review simple maintenance tips for a few minutes once a week. These events don’t have to have movie studio production levels with multiple cameras and microphones. Be sure to have something to help keep the camera steady and you are good to go.
5. Embrace engagement. Again, the word “Social” is there in the name. Your customers can have complete conversations about you online whether you are willing to participate or not.  Make yourself a part of the conversation and be responsive. If someone wants to praise your sales staff for their attentiveness, thank them for it and share that with your sales team. If someone had a less than perfect experience at your store, let them know you’re taking steps to be better and let your staff know what they can do differently to make sure the next customers have the best possible experience.

If you need more help managing your social media or any part of your marketing, please don’t hesitate to reach out to see how we can help.