5 Strategies to Grow your Local Stores Facebook Following

Digital Marketing has never been more important especially since the world has been getting more and more involved online during the pandemic. As new features develop on social media platforms, these changes present a whole new and intimidating challenge for local stores. It also brings a level of competition.  Before attempting to grow your social media presence,  it’s important to know what’s important to your store, what message you want to convey, and how you want to showcase your business.

We’ve accumulated some points and examples of what’s important when attempting to grow your social media following.

Consistency is Key 

The key thing to remember when working on an account for social media is consistency; consistency between what customers experience in your store and then what they come across online. This requires looking at a consistent tone of voice, consistent quality of imagery, consistent branding, and consistent levels of posting, 

Posting regularly is important, if there are weeks between posts, it is unlikely that you are going to increase your followers. Your audience needs to be seeing your message frequently enough so that it becomes familiar, this in turn increases trust and makes an impact on them.

It’s also important to have visual appeal for your profile. Think about going to a restaurant's website and coming across awful imagery that is dark and dreary, it would put you off visiting, right?  A retail stores online presence is the same.  Try and ensure that all of your photos are high quality. If you have brand colours, make sure that the theme of your profile reflects this, below is an example of how you can create consistency. As you post more frequently, people will slowly attach certain colours to your brand and you will start to become more recognisable to them.

See the Power in Videos 

In recent years there has been an increase of interest in behind-the-scenes footage or figuring out the ‘why’ behind local Brand’s values. While there are a lot of high quality documentary-styled videos out on Facebook, there really isn’t a necessity in hiring a videographer and paying big budgets for one video.

Videos capture more than just a glimpse, they can capture fun that happens in the workplace, give room to understand employees personalities and attitudes, see the work that goes behind the business and so much more. 

It can be as simple as recording your next delivery coming in, or stacking the shelves in the shop with a new product - anything you think is interesting, record it! 

Social Media Advertising

When it comes to reaching an audience; there’s organic reach and paid reach. Organic reach is collected from your current audience and how many times they see your content during the week. Paid reach is exactly that, it's when you put advertising speed behind a post or your run an ad on Facebook and it in turn increases your reach. It is a great way to grow your account.

Advertising on social media when done properly can be very cost effective and most importantly it is quick and reactive, unlike print advertising. On top of this, right now local businesses such as retail stores have a big opportunity, with covid-19 it is estimated that 37% of Irish workers are now working from home, and that 13% of Irish workers have moved out of cities and back home to their local communities. So if there was ever a time to try it is now. If you are part of the Socio Local community your Community Manager can talk you through the advertising we are running for you, if you are not then we highly recommend Facebook Blueprint for a few basic online courses to get you started

Use Humour

People love humour, they love to be entertained and in turn it will boost your engagement and in turn your following. It might feel like a risk putting your personality or flair into social media posts for your business but it allows the audience to see who’s behind the brand. 

A lot of people are looking for positivity online to counter the hardened news and figures of today’s global climate. So, why not have a bit of fun with your content? It can help build engagement and also encourage people to share it. Take an example from Lidl below; they decided to make Valentine’s messages featuring their products. It’s light hearted, warm and will make followers smile and engage.  Don’t be afraid of using humour.

Link with Local Community and Local Clubs

Another perfect and very natural way to grow your local stores Facebook following is to link up with your local community and local clubs. First off, if you engage with them, they will engage with you so that will give you an initial boost in your likes and following.  But, why stop there? Why not collaborate with a local group?  For example we try and talk to clients about organisations or local groups that they perhaps work with. If there is a local GAA, golf or other sports team, could you sponsor them?  Name a deli sandwich after the team? All these small local community efforts are fantastic social media content.

There’s no magic trick to gain new followers, it does take time and requires using all tactics together.  You need to deliver consistency to make your business recognisable in your local community. Video and humorous content will create engagement and in turn more followers.  Finally, advertising, growing organically on Facebook is a real challenge, small and strategically placed ads and boosts on posts will help your page grow.

There you go, 5 easy things you can do today to improve your social media following in your local community and further afield.

Chat soon and as always, if you'd like to get in contact to discuss how we could you with your store marketing, you can do so here.

SL