Everything You Need to Optimize Your Social Media
Social Media is a great way to build your brand and connect with your customer base. It is completely free, not time intensive, and can be fun for you or an employee. If you already use an agency, consider using this article for ideas should you decide to supplement their efforts.
Goals
- Inspire action and direct customers to your website
- Increase loyalty through online grocery usage
- Extend the community feel you've created in store to individuals online
Post everywhere
When you take the time to create content, post it anywhere possible e.g., Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. It’s free advertising. To schedule posts in advance we use scheduling platforms such as Social Pilot which enables you to post simultaneously to most social media platforms. If you do not currently have a social media presence, we strongly encourage you to start, since times are shifting heavily toward online presence.
Content
Give your customers a reason to follow your page, e.g., to find dinner ideas, announcements, occasional promo codes, or maybe they just enjoy a sense of ownership and commitment to your store. This can be achieved through posting uplifting personal stories (maybe about employees), references to things only people in your community would understand, or updates on things your store location has done to serve the community. Posting personal wishes, such as “wishing you happy holidays from our store to you,” can provide a sense of community as well. (A good example of a grocery chain that wins the hearts of its customers is H-E-B. Check out their social media for some great ideas).
Lastly, content should be visually appealing and reflect the theme of the store. Most importantly, think about your audience, are they mostly young, old, recent empty nesters, or parents with kids still in K-12? Will they relate to the post?
Where Can I Create My Own Content?
Does ShopHero Have Content I can use? (Yes!)
Example Pages
Springville Reams: Instagram
Story Feature
Stories can be posted to both Facebook and Instagram. They are fun and incredibly easy to make using your phone. On instagram, it may be the only thing people view.
Using the story recoding function on either Facebook or Instagram can be a great way to offer customers a sense of community and connection with your store.
Please do not make your stories more than 10 photos or videos. Doing so will cause your customers to become annoyed.
Facebook Specifics
- Make sure the link to your website is on your Facebook page
- Change your Facebook cover photo to something that mentions online grocery
(Free cover photos) - Make a post about online grocery, click the three dots in the top right corner, and select "Pin Post"
How to gain followers
First, add the link to your Facebook or Instagram to your website under the "site customization" tab on your admin panel. Then maybe, make a website slider specifically inviting customers to add your store on Facebook, e.g., “add us on facebook for weekly dinner ideas.” Do not keep this up for very long though, you do not want to direct customers away from your online website.
How to show up more frequently
Recently, Facebook has changed its algorithm for determining which posts show up more frequently to Facebook users. Here are a few tips to improving your page's score and therefore increasing reach.
- Publish posts that feel local, e.g., have real people in them
- Use 1-2 hashtags (use keywords relevant to your business or location)
- Do not repost old content that you have previously posted
- Post content that solicits response. You want as much engagement on your page as possible
- Respond to comments and direct messages within 24 hours
- Focus on quality content
- Create inspiring, funny and interesting posts
- Create posts that users want to share
- Use videos (preferably 3 minutes long)
- Use outbound links as little as possible e.g., no recipe links (but still add your website link as often as possible!)
- Try not to post content that looks like an ad
- Post at noon on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
- Ask employees, friends and family to share your posts and tag your store regularly
Additional Post Ideas
- Fun, wacky, or uncommon products
- Employee’s favorite products (great for instagram story content)
- Zoom cooking events (post a link to your own cooking tutorial)
- Deals
- Holidays
- Events
- Fun facts about certain fruits e.g., “pineapples were once rented for parties...”, or “how to identify ripe watermelons”
- Chef/cooking tips
- “Shop Online!”
- Post about your app (the app builds customer loyalty!)
- Anything that communicates that you are local
- Things your are doing to benefit the community
What if I don’t have time to create and schedule posts?
Join one of our marketing plans and we’ll do it for you. Posts are scheduled 2-3 times per week, designed to build customer loyalty, and encourage in-store and online shopping. Email marketing@shophero.com for more information.