In the digital age, it is essential that retail businesses don’t ignore social media when it comes to marketing. With so many people using social platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok on a daily basis, you’ll struggle to get your business seen without shouting about it on social channels. Even wholesale companies are able to generate more customers for wholesale opportunities by having a presence on social media. In this article, see these social media business tips that will help you build a social media following and drive retail sales.
Understanding which social media platforms are right for your business
Every social media channel is unique in terms of its features, the demographics of its users, and its benefits for retail businesses. You don’t need to be active on every platform but choose the ones you do use thoughtfully to ensure they’re the right fit for your business. One of the best social media tips is to spread your time across a few carefully chosen platforms. It will help you reach a broader range of users and give you the opportunity to cross-promote your content.
Facebook is one of the longest-running platforms and has a huge range of users. It is particularly great for sharing live and pre-recorded videos, and it allows businesses to sell directly from their page. However, it can be tricky to get your content seen in fast-moving Facebook news feeds, so you may need to invest in sponsored posts to get noticed.
Twitter has stagnated in recent years in terms of growth, and it has never been geared particularly well towards retail businesses. However, it can be a fantastic way to engage directly with customers and express your brand’s personality.
Instagram is a visual platform that is ideal for retailers who want to showcase beautiful and eye-catching images of their products. This social media app is a great way for retailers to find new wholesale retailers for their stores and find the latest trends in products and services that are offered. It has fantastic features for retailers including the ability to sell within the app. However, it does tend to focus on selling advertising space to business users so you might find it hard to grow your following organically.
TikTok is the newest big social platform to take off and it’s particularly popular with younger users. There’s potential to create an incredibly engaged audience, provided that your content feels authentic, isn’t too polished, and responds to fast-moving trends.
Benefits of investing in advertising
It can be hard to build a following on social media without using advertising to get the ball rolling. All social media platforms offer paid-for tools to businesses to help them boost their reach. This could be in the form of advertorials, or by way of sponsored posts in which you pay to have a post be displayed to a targeted demographic. If you do use paid promotions, be sure to set budget limits and test, test, test until you get things right. Experiment with different types of posts, headlines and calls to action to discover what works for your business.
Measure the success of your campaigns carefully by first defining your goal. Do you want to grow followers, drive traffic to your website, or make sales? Choose a metric or series of metrics that will help you measure your success in reaching this goal. Don’t keep throwing money at campaigns that don’t bring results. Strive to constantly improve by changing up the variables of your campaigns – such as content, time of posting, and the targeted demographics – and comparing results.
Be consistent with content and posting schedule
If customers discover your business from a specific type of content, they’re likely to want to see more of the same. To ensure your audience remains engaged, be consistent with the type of content you upload to each platform. Browse hashtags to see the type of content that is successful in your industry and strive to emulate it, using the same hashtags on your posts to reach interested users.
It’s also important that you have consistent posting schedules. Generally speaking, the more often you post the more chances your business has of being seen by new potential customers. Plus, the algorithms of each platform tend to push out content from accounts that post frequently, so you’re likely to be rewarded by posting on a regular basis.
Aim to engage with your audience
One of the most important social media retail marketing tips we can offer is to focus not on followers but on engagement. A trap many businesses fall into is focusing so hard on growing their following that they neglect to actually engage with their audience and therefore miss out on genuine customers. There’s little use in sharing content with a big audience if the majority simply scrolls on by.
Make sure your social media posts give users a reason to stop, pay attention, and respond. Ask questions, reply to comments to keep the conversation going, and reward users for sharing your content. You could run quizzes or competitions, ask users to share images of their purchases from your store and tag you in them, or ask for feedback on posts about a specific product.
