Social media, particularly Facebook and Twitter, is one of the best marketing tools a company can employ to connect locally with customers. But how do you get the most value out of these social media tools?
How to Connect Locally on Facebook and Twitter
Introduce Yourself (Often)
Think about your best friend for a moment. How did you two meet? It probably started with you both happened to be in the same place at the same time over and over again. Use social media as a way to introduce yourself repeatedly and create top of mind awareness.
- It's not rude to introduce your business to customers
- There is power in consistently being at the same place at the same time as your customers
- Be friendly, but not overwhelming
The biggest thing to remember with your Facebook and Twitter interactions is that you are connecting with real people. As a real person, just think about how you would want to be approached by a business - or how you would want your grandma to be approached by a company!
Use Polls and Open-Ended Questions
Keeping the above in mind, a great way to connect with people is to engage them in a meaningful way. To that end, the most effective way is to ask questions that will impact how you run your business in a day-to-day way. Some examples:
- Take a poll on membership benefits
- Ask if people they want you to sell X product or service
- Extend invitations for celebrations and fun events at your location
Another common and good alternative to get people engaging is through jokes, witty comments, and hilarious tomfoolery. After all, being funny breaks down the barrier between people and your business.
If people can see and believe that there's a real human on the other side of the screen, they're more likely to engage with you - which is the whole point of social media!
Interacting with a local audience gives you some extra perks that you should absolutely utilize. If you're having a sale, why not make an event out of it? As an example, for Halloween, you could offer a 5% discount to anyone who comes shopping in costume, and you could award the best costume a greater discount or a gift card.
#Don't #Overdo #Hashtags #usethemwisely #akasparingly
Many people just attach a dozen hashtags to every post. By doing a little research and choosing 3-5 hashtags wisely, your post is much more likely to be effective. Consider:
- Using a company hashtag with every post, so people can find all of your posts easily
- Use hashtags on all the social media sites you are a part of
- Use consistent hashtags (such as #companyphoto for all pictures)
- Absolutely do not #hashtagspam
Best Practices Wrap-Up
- Introduce yourself to connect with people.
- Be wise, kind, and sincere about it - you're dealing with real human beings
- Engage with these people as people; the best is to do so in ways that will actually impact them personally. This can include polls, questions, giveaways, exclusive coupons, and whatever other things you can come up with!
- Use hashtags, but purposefully.
- Don't forget to utilize the fact that your audience is local too!
It all comes back to treating your customers as people. If you lose sight of that, your campaign, no matter how clever, will remain empty and disconnected to your customers.