Making the Most of Your Social Media Accounts

By Greg Gonzales

Facebook and Instagram, among other platforms, are great places to connect directly with your customers. Letting your personality shine through in your posts is a great way to attract them and keep them coming back. A mix of storytelling and original content that your customers can connect with puts your store ahead of the retail giants, and shows the online community that your store is a destination with a personal touch. Use your voice to build connections, and your page will reach more people, which will translate into more foot traffic.

When getting started with a new Facebook page, or when revamping it, the experts recommend writing a description in the about section that describes the store well and makes it searchable on sites like Google. “For Instagram, it’s going to be kind of short, but with Facebook, you want to make your about section really long, to fit a lot of keywords and tell your story,” said Social Media Coach Andrea Vahl. “You want to talk about what makes your business unique, why they should come to your store and not another store. You can also include links to your other sites, your Twitter, so people can find you easily on multiple social sites. Copy and paste some sort of testimonial in there from a customer, too. But with Instagram, your space is short; you really have to craft your bio, and there I would really focus on what makes your store unique.”

Vahl also suggests that retailers get to know which platforms their audience uses, to make sure owners aren’t spreading themselves thin. “It’s hard to do it all,” she said. “Don’t try to do it all, because it’s going to end up with you dropping the ball here and there.”

After getting on the right platforms, learning to craft a post that’s more than a mere ad is important. “Don’t think about features and benefits [when posting about a new product], think about use occasions and moments you can create, that you can envision in your own life for that product,” said Laura Davis-Taylor, co-Founder of High Street Collective, a retail experience design company. “If it looks like an ad, you’re out ― no one’s going to look at you, no one’s going to participate. Let’s say I have this super-amazing, inexpensive nonstick pan. What you’ll want to do is post, ‘Look at this amazing nonstick pan, it’s got five stars and I can tell you right now it’s going to be the best lifetime value you’ve ever seen!’ Don’t do that. Instead, you should post something like, ‘Mamma Leone has been using this for 15 years and not once has she seen it leave a scrap. Try it for yourself, and here’s a chicken cacciatore recipe,’ and have a picture of her with her favorite quote. You’re still getting that feature and benefit across, but not in a check-the-box way. It’s an emotional appeal.”

She also including videos and images with other posts has emotional appeal as well, because images give you a chance to communicate your store’s style. Vahl added that personal posts, about what’s going on in the store, can also be effective. “With authenticity comes human nature, a human touch, so maybe even talk about things that aren’t going well. Obviously you don’t want to say your sales are down, but say maybe, ‘It’s Monday, we’re kind of tired today,’” she said. “If people see what’s going on with you, they see you’re a real human, so add a few things that are a tad more personal, the good and a little bit of the bad.”

For Ben Salmon, Owner of Kitchen A La Mode, a specialty kitchenware store in South Orange, New Jersey, that means letting his personality shine in his posts. “What do I have that no other store has? I can get creative with my product, but there’s limited product out there, there’s limited fixtures, staff ― there are limitations to whatever you do, and most people could basically do what I do. What I have that no one else does is me,” said Salmon. “So I really try to bring me and my voice, to give Kitchen A La Mode it’s own unique voice, and really be a member of the community.”

That also requires paying attention to social media and responding quickly to comments. “Responding to comments is absolutely critical,” said Davis-Taylor. “People expect you to be there, expect you to answer, expect to communicate like they’re standing right there ― and if you don’t, you’re seen as disingenuous very quickly, and you miss so many important opportunities. Don’t do social media if you can’t respond – it’s a two-way channel. Users see this as a way of having a relationship with you. They’re giving you a nod to be inside their inner circle, or in some cases they’re calling you out for not being a good person. Even though you’re a store, they still see your page as a human thing. Think about when you’ve been on AirBnB – you find a great house that looks fantastic, and somebody completely crushes it in a comment. When the owner responds and says, ‘I see, Carol. I’m really sorry that happened — here’s the situation,’ very quickly, you think that this is a very caring owner, and that the commenter was just a hothead. You have to show there’s a human behind there ― people will forgive things, they just want to be heard.”
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Salmon also finds this aspect of social media to be critical. “Talking with, not to, is really important. People with pages online are kind of afraid of personality, and they try to go very neutral, appeal to everyone. But when you try to appeal to everyone you appeal to no one,” Salmon said. “They go very corporate, very blah, with a business voice. I don’t think that works. You have to talk with people, you have to be there with them online as one of their friends and a member of their online community.”
Another way to advertise more than products on your accounts is to post about events ― like tastings and classes ― which also serves as a way to gauge the effectiveness of your efforts online.

Davis-Taylor said retail can participate in what she calls “meetup culture,” where people are more often seeking out ways to connect with other people offline. “Our theory at the collective is that as more of our lives become automated, we lose the emotions that come along with having done these things with each other in places that are rich with feelings and people and moments, so we’re seeking them out,” said Davis-Taylor. “Give everyone a delightful reason to come to the store! Tie it to a product. If it’s not a hard sell, you’re going to drive traffic and drive sales from it, but you have to be creative about it, you gotta know your shoppers and your target audience, you have to make it appealing ― don’t do it on a Wednesday night if most of your audience is families, do it on a Saturday afternoon ― you see what I’m saying? Or if it’s young singles, make sure it’s on a Wednesday night and do it at 8 and make sure to bring in some really good sushi.”

And according to Vahl, this kind of content can help you measure your success online. She says to try posting an event on your page, or a web-exclusive coupon, and see how many people respond online and with foot traffic. “You really want to make sure you’re understanding your objectives [getting people in the door], so watch the stats to make sure you’re improving or not,” she said. “Try to create opportunities to see if you’re getting more foot traffic. It lets you see if your social media work is making a difference.”

If your page is struggling to get a response, whether in the store or online, targeted ads, a little attention, research or delegating the task to staff can help. “Making sure you’re occasionally doing targeted ads can really make sure you’re improving visibility,” Vahl said, adding that targeted ZIP codes and demographics (like if you’re trying to reach mothers, or an older audience) is a great way to reach that crowd and track the effectiveness of your advertising. “Online, you can measure specifically to see how many people clicked on your ad, or took the action you wanted them to take [like sharing or liking the post].” Davis-Taylor recommended making social media part of the store’s workflow.

“Dedicate time out of the week to learn, or dedicate someone on staff to do social media as part of their job,” she said. “It’s about being mindful. If you’re a mom-and-pop, you’ve got a phone in your pocket; you get a new item that comes in, you see a beautiful moment with your gorgeous new item in the morning light, take a picture, post it. There’s also a lot to say about things that feel exclusive; exclusive artists, exclusive numbers of products, that’s a big way to get some attention traffic. Tell the story of your local artisans, of what you did to find the product.”

She also recommended bringing on the younger crowd to help out. “The young kids get it. They live in this medium,” she said. “If you can find a young person out of college, get them to spend some time in your store, educate them on your shop and who you are, educate them on the kind of experience you want, make sure they’re passionate about your products and get them to do their thing on behalf of you ― they know what to do.”

If you can’t afford to hire anyone, she said, either consult your own kids or your younger customers, or “if you have some young people on the floor, do a contest ― 50 bucks for the best social media or event idea this month. Do it! They’re smart. We forget this because we don’t usually nod to the younger generation and say, ‘Hey, make me smarter.’ We have this old bias that we’re the ones who are supposed to be teaching them stuff, and it’s not like that anymore.” She added that the young crowd knows what’s happening next, so tapping into their knowledge is how your social media campaign will be ready for the next big thing. “The rich, low-hanging fruit on social media is getting in on something before it becomes mainstream, because that’s how you’re going to get a bunch of new fans,” she said. “Do something novel before it goes viral!”