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Social Media

Bring your social media presence to the next level

 

 

Reading time: 6 minutes

 You are right now not scrolling through Facebook with 2,8 billion people worldwide using the network, neither checking Instagram as one of the 1 billion active users, nor on YouTube with its around 2 billion users. Therefore, you might have been reading our article why social media presence is significant also for local SMB and how much of an influence it has in the retail industry until now. Detective-like customers are more and more engaging with brands and shops over social media which further changed the way retailers market their goods completely. Never in the history of retailing customer targeting has been this easy.

Before the era of social media retailers only had their local audiences to target. Even later, when e-commerce was rising, they were still limited in reaching out to only those people which had already visited their site. Social media changed the game completely not only in targeting your audience, but also regarding communicating and interacting” Markus Demirci, founder and CEO of mPocket.

In this article we want to explore how you can grow your social media presence. The possibilities here are almost endless.

1. Entertaining with relevant content

Participate in trending topics which are connected to your store or your product, if you are convinced that it is of any of interest to your followers. By using popular hashtags (Hashtags.org) together with some spice of humor you can encourage people to follow and engage with you. Brands with the right amount of humanity and humor do best on social media. But always keep in mind that posting cat memes makes no sense if it is not of interest of your audience. If you are unsure about the content that is of interest for your customers – there are several websites which help you find the content that performs well (e.g. https://buzzsumo.com/).

2. Connecting with influencers

Especially on Instagram influencer marketing is one of the best. According to a survey by The Influencer Marketing Hub every 1$ spent on influencer marketing turns into 5,20$ revenue for businesses. An influencer can be any person with the ability to influence potential buyers of a product or service by promoting or recommending the items on social media. This can be anybody being popular for your target audience and being more trusted than traditional celebrities.

3. Organizing contests

Whether your potential customers are obliged to comment, post photos or write the best caption to win, the participation of your existing followers guarantees that the community is growing. Promote your contest over all possible channels like your website and email list as well as all social networks that you are using. To generate additional attention, make sure that the prize is related to your store or your brand and award also the participants which were not lucky enough to win with some alternatives, even when it is only a “thank you” post. Interactive content such as contest or games and surveys encourage users to actively engage with it rather than just passively consume content.

We organized a fundraising this year as an initiative for local businesses and gained 5815% more organic reach on Facebook, than we receive with other posts, simply by involving people, let them propose, decide and participate.” Markus, founder & CEO of mPocket.

4. Including visuals

Eye-catching photos or videos are high-performers on social media and should be included in every post. Content with relevant images has 94% more views than content without and is 40x more likely to get shared on social media.  Videos are the most engaging content type and will lead to increased reach and exposure. Changing your profile and cover photos with the right caption will also have a positive impact instead of just having the same logo for years on all platforms.

Our own experience on social media shows: A Reel, video content, on Instagram generates on average 286% more impressions than just a picture. It increases the attention by your followers much more compared to a simpler content” Markus, founder & CEO of mPocket.

5. Listening and responding

Social media is all about action and reaction: 40% of consumers expect brands to respond within the first hour of reaching out on social media, while 79% expect a response in the first 24 hours. By actively listening to the needs of your followers and being exceptionally responsive you give your followers the feeling of being heard and acknowledged. Your community will also highly appreciate if you thank them for reposts, retweets, comments and all other mentions involving your accounts.

6. Blurring the lines

Customers do not think in channels anymore and the lines between the digital and the real world are blurred. Bring your social media in-store and vice versa by using a social wall to make user-generated content visible in your store or encourage your customer to take selfies in front of a display like Victoria’s Secret did using your preferred hashtags and post these pictures. Encourage tagging with examples “Tag a friend who needs this today”.

7. Using social media tech tools

Artificial Intelligence has massively grown in usage by companies to optimize their social media platforms in the recent years. Besides recognizing faces in photos and targeting them with the right ad or making friend and brand recommendations, AI- powered social media is used more and more by big brands. With purchased adds they target people with specific interests based on their posts and brands they follow. AI collects tons of data and tracks them down.

8. FAQs and private messaging

Social media is already used by businesses as a form and part of customer service. You have questions that are frequently asked by your customers? Put them in your highlights in which every form you want e.g. a video of yourself answering them. Are you frequently posting products and linking them to your shop for potential customers to find them? Engage with customers in the comment section and answer their questions and requests. Use private messaging to get in touch and bring them into your store and in your followers list. Human touch still matters and there is a huge difference in your customer’s satisfaction between getting answers from chatbots or a real person. People buy from people.

9. Replacing traditional advertising

Not only did the way of communication change thanks to social media (e.g. direct messaging vs. phone calls), but also classical flyers, advertisings and other printed handbills can be easily replaced in a convenient way to inform and guide customers. This is not only the preferred way of todays’ customers but has also some positive impact on the environment.

10. Last and least

Buy Iikes or followers. Self-explanatory. Never ever do that. We are confident that you do not need to pay for followers. Your community is growing naturally with above mentioned advice. If you have thousands of followers but not even the half of them likes your content, you will lose the trust of your real audience – your real followers.

Markus, founder and CEO of mPocket: “Social media has become front line for customer service and is the channel of choice today. It creates needs among the customers when put in the right context and content. Personalized feedback, rapid responses and still interactions with human beings is the key for customer satisfaction. Each local retailer which is not present on social media is missing a great chance to be more visible, more present in people’s minds and get them back in their store.

You want to know more about setting up your social media profile or how to optimize it for more followers? You have questions, comments or want to leave feedback? Visit our website www.mpocket.io, follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn or contact us directly hallo@mpocket.io for regular news in brick-and mortar retail, digital tools and developments on the market.

For reasons of better legibility only the simultaneous use of male and female language forms is not used. All personal names apply to both genders.

Jasmin Janson

Marketing & Communication Manager mPocket

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