Social media continues to be a terrific tool attracting new shoppers to any retail business. The key is to be fully engaged with the opportunity.
You have to be visible. And, by you, I mean you as the owner or at the very least the personality of the business.
Too many newsagency businesses today have junk on their Facebook pages, bland posts, often done by others, filling space with boring content people scroll by quickly. This is wasted effort. These pages are likely seeing minimal engagement.
Here’s my advice for a more successful social media presence.
- Write your own posts.
- Reflect you in your posts.
- Entertain. People come to social media to be entertained.
- Educate. Become known for useful content.
- Be grateful: for unique products and your customers.
- Support the community – promote local groups.
- Be authentic.
- Be unique. Reflect how your business is different.
On this last point, while lottery businesses and magazine publishers like to see you pitching their products, posting about them does not differentiate your business. Those posts, I think are a reason to scroll by anything from you.
I know of local retail businesses that have 30,000+ followers on social media thanks engagement with content like that listed above.
A good starting point is to treat each post as if it’s the first contact someone will have with your business.
Take a look at your social media presence and assess whether it is how you want your business reflected. If it’s not, pivoting to posts that are more meaningful and engaging is easy.
The approach I have to lotto and magazines is that they pay me to sell their products not promote them, hence why we never put lotto and magazines on our social media. They earn enough to promote their own products.
The approach I take to lotto and magazines is that they pay me to sell their products not to promote them, hence why we don’t put either on our social media. They make enough money to pay for their own advertising.
I concur with Mark’s comments.
If newsagencies are to prosper, let alone survive, the need to engage local community & visitors to their areas is vital. Weekly social media posts about ‘Tatts jackpots’ falls far short of ‘community engagement’. The guidance provided above is ideal.
We at Hallmark can help, with ‘store specific’ posts/ videos, that captivate & lure people to your stores because of our renowned brand – a brand that is engrained in the minds of Australian consumers.
Henry Kovacevic
Key Account Manager – Independents/Newsagencies, Hallmark Cards Aust
0467 034 358
Henry I note that Hallmark sells direct to consumers and uses its social media content to encourage consumers to buy direct from the company. I am not keen on suppliers competing with small business retailers they supply as those suppliers have an unfair advantage.