Chelsea Allenby is a Digital Marketer of 9 years and Managing Director of Allenby Digital Ltd, an online marketing agency she set-up in 2015, specialising in social media and content marketing. www.chelseamarketing.co.uk
Social media marketing is serving a purpose.
It’s easy to get caught-up in the tweets and Instagram filters and actually forget why you’re ‘doing social media’. The fact is, you need to stop looking at social media as something you need to ‘do’ and start seeing it as something you need to ‘be’.
To be ‘social’ there needs to be a level of exchange between you and your audience. Engagement needs to take place for this to happen, but that’s easier said than done, especially when it comes to getting your customers to engage on Facebook. So what can you do to get the most out of Facebook?
Post Every Day
In the world of social media and that of the internet, we are constantly on to the next thing. The fallout from the latest ‘viral’ video might continue for a few weeks as it makes the rounds around the world. However, generally speaking, nothing is really ‘big news’ for very long. There is so much content, so much happening around the world wide web, if you’re not sharing new, fresh content via social media on a daily basis, then you are being forgotten about! That is the truth and as a result, it makes social media a very time consuming, but necessary part of your marketing strategy. However, there really is such a thing as overkill. It’s important to understand which platforms work best with fewer posts. Twitter, for example, you could tweet several times throughout the day and increase engagement in doing so. Facebook, on the other hand, should not be posted on several times a day. In fact, pages that post only once or twice a day receive 40% higher user engagement, compared to pages which have more than three posts per day. This proves that it’s not about quantity of updates, but rather the quality and value of each individual post.
Twitter’s algorithm is currently very different to Facebook’s algorithm. Twitter is intended to act as more of a back-and-forth form of chatter. It’s very real time and it’s where you can expect news, events and big things happening around the world to unfold, as it happens…
Here is an example:
If your restaurant is hosting an opening night you might set-up an event on Facebook to generate interest, you will probably tweet about it too. On the night itself, you might tweet photos, video clips and updates throughout the event as it unfolds. You might use a hashtag and retweet content from your customers who are at the event too. The following day you should use Facebook to post a round-up of the event, choosing the best selection of photos or a round-up video.
Run a Competition & Collect User-Generated-Content
A competition is one of the best ways to collect more user-generated-content. That is photos, videos and reviews that have been shared on social media by another user/customer. It’s great if your customers want to share photos of their food, their visit, the drinks etc,. simply because they are impressed. However, if you want that content to be discoverable beyond their circle of friends, you need to encourage that. Running a competition is one way to incentivise this and starting your own hashtag gives customers a sense of inclusion.
Consider running an offline competition and featuring the winners on Facebook:
Share A Live Video on Facebook
Video content is the driving force behind a lot of the success on social media. Millennials spend more time on social media than they do watching TV. So it makes sense that social video took off in the way it did. Facebook Live video is the new kid on the block and it couldn’t be simpler! Even if you’re short on time/resources, you can set-up a camera of the kitchen and let your customer’s in on the behind-the-scenes running of your restaurant, as it happens! Video statistically gets a much higher response compared to other social media updates.
Think Outside the Box
Creativity gets customers through the doors. Whether that’s a creative menu, an edgy-take on a themed event or simply customer service that doesn’t follow the norm. Social media works in the same way; creativity gets customers to engage and recognise your brand despite the crowded noise. Think about how you personally use social media. Checking your Facebook newsfeed in the morning, you might be overwhelmed with depressing news updates, friends sharing photos from their weekend and promotional adverts offering you money off your favourite websites. What if you were to logon and see a dog in roller-skates dressed as a waiter? Would you scroll past without a glance? The chances are you would probably stop and check who shared this photo and why? Perhaps a dog-friendly pub or cafe was spreading the message that your four-legged friends can expect the best service too!
There are so many ways to be creative and think outside the box: (this example was shared on Twitter, but the same post would work well on Facebook).
Building a social media community takes time, it’s not something you can make happen over night. Don’t feel disheartened if you’re not getting the results you hoped for out of your social marketing efforts. Try new things, keep persevering and slowly it will all start to fall into place. As long as you’re following the rules and doing everything you should be, there is no reason that your audience won’t start to grow. If you would like to speed up the process and increase engagement much quicker, Facebook advertising is a brilliant tool and worth testing with your audience.
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