Social Media for Local Retailers: 10 Simple Tips

Written for Rise & Thrive Blog, December 2021 for Image Marketing Consultants

With over four billion active social media users, it’s so important to market to your customers using social media. It’s a great way for your retail business to build brand awareness, develop relationships with your customers and give you a quick and easy way to address customers’ feedback. Here are a few simple tips to help you utilize social media to promote your products and services:

1. Create a social media strategy – Build out how you want to use social media in your business with a social media calendar. This will help you plan ahead to incorporate promotions, new products, and upcoming events through your social media channels. This is also a good way to make sure your social media endeavors align with your retail business goals.

2. Choose the right social media for your business –Think about your products and services and who you want to reach. Do your research on which social media tools are used by which age demographics and cater to them accordingly. While Facebook remains the top social network in the U.S., it may make more sense for your business to utilize platforms like TikTok and Instagram if your shop caters to a younger demographic.

3. Know your audience – To use social media well you have to know who your audience is. You can figure that out by collecting data on your current customers, analyzing that data with social media analytics, and then creating a “buyer persona” to help you generate content that will best speak to your audience.

4. Gather feedback – Learn what your customers are interested in by setting up a poll in your Instagram stories, or use question-based posts or videos to get viewers interacting with your social media and your brand. It’s a quick way to gather feedback!

5. Build relationships - You can reach your customers on a personal level through your social media. Create a Facebook Group to build community; share your followers’ content on your social channels and tag them. If someone tags you in their Instagram story you’ll be notified in your direct messages -- definitely re-share their story for an instant connection.

6. Notice trends - Paying attention to trends in social media will help you understand what your clients or customers are looking for when they log into Facebook or Instagram. Being armed with that knowledge will help you post and share content that will keep your ideal audience coming back to your company and buying your products.

7. Quality over quantity - With so many different social media channels out there it can seem overwhelming to try and keep up with them all. But, you don’t have to do that. Posting quality content on one or two social channels such as Facebook or Instagram is a great way to start. Once you have those mastered, you can build from there and expand your social reach.

8. Use the right tools - There are many tools out there to help you capture your audience’s attention. Consider using social media engagement management and analytics tools to automate your content and measure your social media results. To produce graphics and eye-catching content, use a design website or app like Canva to help you curate these images. Many of these sites have free versions so you won’t be adding to your budget to use them.

9. Curate user-generated content to promote customers who love your products - As stated in Tip #5, building relationships with your customers is key. Listening to what your followers are saying about your brand in their social media posts and sharing their social posts that highlight purchases they’ve made from your shop is a great way to show off your products and increase engagement.

10. Make shopping seamless on social media - Try marketing to your customers via Facebook or Instagram. These platforms have check-out features that enable your customers to click on your posts to a final check-out without leaving the app. The easier it is for customers to shop, the more likely they are to make a purchase.

Conclusion

Putting together a plan for your social media, using the right tools regularly, and engaging with your audience through social channels will help to connect with your audience to continue to grow their interest in your brand or company