Marketing Your Retail Business: The Power Of Social Media

The authority of social media is getting greater and trying to push
against its power is becoming increasingly difficult. As of January 2018, there
were approximately 3.196
billion social media users around the world,
which shows a growth of 13% from 2017. This Smart Insights data suggests that
not only are billions of people — and potential consumers — engaging with
social media platforms, but that this number is also growing.

Clearly, now is the time to start enhancing your social media
presence if your retail company is not already. But what must you include in
your social media strategy to ensure you engage positively with your followers
to promote your brand? Browse our social media for retail guide to start
gaining brand influence on your social media platforms.

Research your platforms

According to the same Smart Insights report mentioned previously,
Facebook claims the title of most daily active users in the UK, followed by
Snapchat, Instagram, and finally, Twitter. However, it’s strategic to be active
on all channels if you want to have the greatest audience reach — but research
is key.

Although Facebook is the clear winner when it comes to social media
popularity and Twitter trails in last place, that doesn’t mean this is the
order for your retail company. Look at which of your platforms have the most
followers — this will show you where to channel the majority of your efforts.
Then, determine which have the least and start boosting these numbers. Many
brands have Facebook and Twitter accounts, but fewer may invest much time in
Instagram and Snapchat. This imbalance of efforts could be detrimental to your
company — particularly when you consider the fact that Snapchat
is anticipated to overtake Twitter in ad
revenue by 2019.

Share your brand’s events and achievements

A major benefit of social media is to have a free platform to shout
about your company’s achievements and give your retail brand a ‘personality’.
There are many retail awards events hosted throughout the year that highlight
industry-specific accomplishments, as well as countless corporate events that
are designed to promote networking within the sector. So, why not use these to
harness the power of social media and advertise your brand?

At your next award show or business event, take photographs of your
team and upload the best to your social media channels. This not only keeps
your accounts looking fresh, active and innovative, but it also gives your
brand a personality and allows your audiences to see real people rather than
just products and a company logo. Of course, many brands have cottoned onto
this brand-boosting tactic, so you need something to stand out. According to a
study commissioned by Tesco Mobile, Brits scroll just over five miles on their
smartphones a year, so you must make your visual posts as interesting as
possible to capture a ‘scrolling audience’. Consider using a personalised
selfie frame featuring your brand logo or
another photo prop to give your upload an edge!

Concentrate on communication, not advertising

Social media platforms are ideal for free advertising, but you
should try to steer your marketing strategy away from this and focus on
communicating with your audience instead of purely trying to sell them
something.

What age range does your target audience fall in? What do they enjoy
doing? What are they watching or listening to? What matters to them? All of
these factors will help you create content that will engage with them and stop
them from simply scrolling past you. If your target consumer is mainly parents,
then share information about family-related topics. If you sell to mainly
professionals, keep your posts and language tone mindful of this. Remember,
despite being a retail business, not every post has to be about your company or
industry: you can further your engagement with your target consumer if you
discuss topical trends, too.

Ask questions to encourage people to post comments and share your
uploads on Facebook and insert hashtags to make it easier for people to
contribute to your Tweets. Uploading an image of a new product or simply
posting details about an upcoming sale with a link to your site isn’t going to
cut it in 2018 and beyond. Brand social media is about creating a conversation
and familiarising people with your company to boost brand loyalty and
awareness. Conversions and repeat customers will follow.

Get on board with video content

By 2019, 80% of online content will be video, according to Entrepreneur Europe. Are you ready for the surge in
audio-visual? Your first step towards merging engagement with advertising on
social media is Facebook’s live streaming feature. Using just a smartphone, you
can record videos like tutorials and demonstrations to offer your followers
quality content that they want to engage with. For example; if you sell tech
gadgets, do a livestream of how to set these up, or give a beauty tutorial if
your range includes cosmetics.  

Another video-based idea is to do a ‘behind-the-scenes’ day in your
office, factory or on your production line. Let your staff chat about your
company’s processes to open channels of communication with your followers and
let them see the innovative processes and dedicated workers behind your brand.
Alternatively, you can video charity events and team-building events that your
staff take part in — this will show that your brand cares about more than
profits.

Make shopping social

There are around
17.2 million people aged 13 and over on Instagram in the UK. What are you doing
to capture this pool of consumers? With the shopping feature on Instagram, you
can create a virtual store for your retail brand and sell your products using
descriptions and high-quality images, letting people browse items without
leaving the app. Cost-effective, fast and simple to create; this feature is a
retailer’s dream. Plus, Instagram doesn’t take anything from your transactions.

Make this year the
year for boosting your social platforms and increasing your retail brand’s
revenue.

Sources:

Global social media research summary 2018

https://www.entrepreneur.com/video/278203

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/19/snapchat-uk-ad-revenue-overtake-twitter-next-year



https://napoleoncat.com/blog/en/instagram-user-demographics-in-united-kingdom-march-2017/