Social Media Strategies to Drive More Foot Traffic with Steph Bechard

 

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In today’s episode of Rooted in Retail, I’m joined by my team member, Steph Bechard, who’s our digital strategist at Crystal Media. I am so excited for you to learn what she’s got to say because we cover social media. What do you need to know now? There’s three specific areas we’re breaking down today.

What is working with social today? Cause it changes so often. So what do we need to know now? What can we do to actually drive foot traffic into our store? And even if you only sell online, these strategies are going to help you. But this middle part of today’s episode is really about that brick and mortar retailer who wants the foot traffic. Really easy things you can be doing.

And then the third part is how do we create engaging content and get people to actually respond to our posts and connect with us more? You’re going to love these tips. And one thing I really love about what Steph shared today is it’s super easy for you to do. We love easy. We love simplicity. It’s just a matter of you committing to it.

But when you do, I know you’re going to see really great results. So get ready. This is going to be an awesome episode before we dive in. Here’s a little bit more about Steph.

Steph Bechard is a digital strategist at Crystal Media with over six years of experience of building communities online and skyrocketing engagement for retailers. Her education in brand design coupled with her experience working in diverse roles in marketing provides her expertise with a unique combination of both creativity and purpose.

Steph runs our insider membership program at Crystal Media. This is where we have social media training and support and a really amazing community. She also does social media audits for our retailers. These are very limited and first come first serve. And she’s in these apps every single day. I have a dear friend, actually, George Bender, who always says, “I talk about social media, but whenever I have a question or my clients have a question, I turn to Crystal,” and I just said to George, “Yeah, and I turn to Steph.”

Steph’s the one that knows what’s going on when it comes to social media. She’s in it every day and you’re going to see that today. So get ready, you’re probably going to want to take some notes. You might want your social media manager to go through this episode as well, and let’s dive in.

Welcome to Rooted in Retail. I’m your host, Crystal Vilkaitis. Here, we have engaging and informative conversations with successful indie retailers and industry experts. Together, we learn, connect, and grow. Don’t miss our live after the show every Tuesday night in the Rooted in Retail Facebook group.

Alright, here’s today’s episode.

Crystal Vilkaitis: Steph, welcome back to Rooted in Retail. I’m thrilled you’re here.

Steph Bechard: Thank you so much for having me for a second time.

Crystal Vilkaitis: Yeah, I mean, this is going to be a treat because the hot topic, everybody wants to know how can I really use social media to drive actual traffic, to get that engagement, to see real results? And you are somebody who is in it every single day. You are our resident social media pro, you’re working with our retailers.

The number one strategy that is working right now on social media to see real results for your store

Crystal Vilkaitis: You’re doing audits, what’s working. So we’re going to dive right in and let’s start with some of those things that you’re seeing that are working today. Like right now, what’s working well.

Steph Bechard: Oh, yeah, absolutely. I feel like even ,talking a year ago things definitely change, but there’s still some foundational stuff that will likely hopefully always apply to good quality content and I have to start with showing faces. And that’s something almost every retailer can do implement more of two times, three times, the amount of faces on their social channels because it’s just what people like to see. We see it in our own content.

I notice it in content I’m engaging with, and definitely our retailers are noticing it and what’s pushing the needle for them. So I like to see faces of the store owner, of the variety of team members, and of the customers coming in. With their permission, of course, that is always going to be something that’s going to be great higher engaged piece of content than a regular flat lay of your products or just like a shelfie or a mannequin or anything like that.

So just upping those number of faces on your social channel is definitely going to be the first thing I would say with what’s working now.

Crystal Vilkaitis: Awesome. Yes, I couldn’t agree more. And it’s all about humanizing that content. Do it anyways, even if it feels uncomfortable, you got to do it. It’s what people are going to engage with, like Steph’s seeing, and we really don’t see enough retailers posting it. I really feel like majority of the retailers we see could be posting more.

One trending tool across social media platforms that can help retailers get more views

Crystal Vilkaitis: Such a good tip, I totally agree. What else do we need to know?

Steph Bechard: So the next thing I want to say is engagement stickers. I have noticed all social channels just keep investing in growth of engagement stickers and a new engagement stickers. And we know if we see a platform investing time, money, teams, resources into a certain feature or channel that they want to grow that channel.

So we just follow suit. You want me to post more engagement stickers? I’ll do it. Of course I’ll do it, because it’s going to maybe help me get ahead in the algorithm a little bit. So we’ve been noticing a lot of engagement stickers being added to Facebook Stories, Instagram Stories, TikTok, Reels.

Kind of everywhere that you can create a sticker. And a lot of AI integration into these stickers as well I know i’ve been playing a lot with the AI backgrounds, Crystal. You’ve been my main subject there. So thank you and sorry.

Crystal Vilkaitis: Yeah.

Steph Bechard: I know a lot of them have to do with like fun, testing things out and if you see an engagement sticker and you don’t know what it is and it seems confusing, do not wait for Crystal Media training video or a YouTube video or podcast to tell you. Just click on it and see because it’s normally going to take you 10 to 15 seconds to stumble through it.

And then now you’ve used a brand new feature that platform has invested time and money into. So I just love using them. I love engaging with them. And we notice an uptick in views, the more consistently we’re using engagement stickers. And I know that is the case for our retailers as well.

What are engagement stickers and where can you find them on each social media platform?

Crystal Vilkaitis: Awesome, okay. And Steph, will you break it down a little bit in case anybody doesn’t really know what you mean by an engagement sticker? Give us some examples of that, where they find them. And then will you also elaborate a little bit more on what you can do with the AI stickers?

Steph Bechard: Totally. So the engagement stickers can be found mostly in the same places on each of the platforms. It generally looks like a little post it note on the top right of your story, or the editing screen of your reel where it switches around per platform. But it’s normally on Facebook, it’s on the right side.

Instagram’s on the left side, TikTok is on the right side. But essentially it looks like a little post it note with a smiley face. Almost all of them look like that. And you click on it, and inside of there you’ll see the folder that has GIFs, you see the folder that holds the location sticker, a poll, which is an engagement sticker. The question box, which is an engagement sticker. The AI tools that I was talking about, which is AI Background, a very, very new one.

If you’re listening to this, open up your phone right now to see if you have it, because it’s so brand new, not all accounts have it yet. And my favorite one is the poll, which essentially you would click that engagement sticker on the top. The one that looks like the smiley face, search through the stickers available to you, and the poll allows you to ask a question and have people vote on those answers.

Those are now being available inside of Facebook, Instagram Reels, and they’re available in Stories as well. And you can vote up to four options in a story. And I think this is just so fun for asking for engagement. You make a post and you don’t really know if people are going to love it, save it, share it, comment, like it.

But in this case, you’re directly being like could you engage? This is, I’m putting this out there for you. Would you mind just voting here? Like, I’m asking you a question, take a second and read it and give me your opinion. And what I’ve been loving with poll engagement stickers lately is always including an option for people to vote just to see the results, because I feel like if they’re nosy and they might not actually want to vote or maybe they don’t feel strongly about any of the options in that poll.

I’ve been including an option that says I’m just nosy and want to see the results. So that’s been one and the question box too. A great option in that little same engagement sticker folder that allows you to put a little box up on your screen that directly asks your customers. Do you have a question for me?

Or can you tell me something about, you know, what you’re doing this weekend or what I should watch on Netflix or what you’ve been looking for lately? Or whose birthday are you shopping for? It gives you a direct line for people to engage with you and talk to you as the expert and as them having that access to you in that way. So I just love engagement stickers in that way.

Crystal Vilkaitis: Yeah, I agree. And it’s important because like Steph said, these apps are putting more into it so you can get more organic reach. And we tend to see these views be higher on our end because we use these apps, these stickers. But also think about your customers. We want to connect. We want to engage.

This is like, give them a way to do it. And if you’ve never voted on a poll before, what Steph’s talking about is that you can actually vote and once you vote, you’ll see the other results. And so when people are nosy, I love the idea of saying I’m nosy. I just want to see the results. Adding that as one of the options, then you can see it.

And what’s fun too, is then that becomes content. You can see how people are voting and you could share it. The idea with the Netflix recommendation that you gave stuff. I love that. Like whenever I’m with family and friends, one of my questions is always, “What are you guys watching?”

Like

Steph Bechard: What are you reading? What are you watching?

Crystal Vilkaitis: yep. So think about some of those questions that you ask with your friends and family. Ask your customers, they want to connect, they want to engage. And then that’s also great content because when people respond to that question, you can share people’s results and that can be interesting and fun content too. So these are really good tips.

How independent retailers can use AI to create unique and interesting content

Crystal Vilkaitis: And then with the AI breakdown, will you just share how you can just put in stuff and what it does? Because it really is a way, in my opinion, you know I think it’s no secret here. Our listeners know I love AI. But this is an opportunity to create like really different and unique things. So what are some of the things like how does it work?

Steph Bechard: Yeah, so the two that I’ve been loving have been showing up in Instagram Stories, and I’ve been seeing AI integration on many platforms. With the Meta chats that you have, those avatars that you can chat with people that way. There are a lot in the newer phases of things with social channels, testing, and integrating some AI interactions with customers, with their their social media users. But the stickers, and the engagement stickers, I just find are so funny. I actually get like a kick out of it.

I’m like dang, they have a sense of humor. The two stickers I like to use is one called AI stickers, simple as that, and Instagram Stories. And essentially you’re creating your own gif on the spot. You’re asking it to create a little image that doesn’t exist yet with your prompts. So what we’ve done on in the past is Santa’s sleigh with giraffes.

Instead of having reindeer, and we just like we’re thinking of the most random things possible, and seeing how quickly and how seamlessly AI was able to create that within a second. There was little tiny cartoon Santa with a sleigh full of giraffes. One of the drafts even had a red nose like Rudolph, like it was on top of it.

I know. And then another one we did we did a bunch on about Main Street, Daylight Savings Time on Main Street, like we kind of got niche with it and they just did a great job with including little cartoon clocks on a Main Street little icon and it looked really good and really real. And then we were able to add that to our Stories, that little sticker that the AI created, and that no one has ever seen that before. Because it’s not a gif that’s being used by other people and it has a little running note at the top that says used with an AI sticker.

So they’re saying like, Hey, look, this person’s using a new feature. That means I’m noticing the app sees that it’s new, probably likes it. Maybe it’s going to help prioritize your posts in the feed by using these new stickers and these new features and content types often.

Crystal Vilkaitis: Exactly, and then you’re just unique. Like you’re not looking like everyone else in the competition and some of those weird things. It’s pattern interruption, like it stops the scroll. And that’s something that we really want to try to do is to get people to stop, to get them to engage.

And these tools are really fun, great way that you can use them. Okay. What else do we Oh, Oh, in the background. Yes. Okay.

Steph Bechard: I feel like we have to use that one because that’s the one where Crystal, if you’re a follower of Crystal Media, go on instagram. Poor Crystal has been placed everywhere in the world because the AI background sticker, my favorite one right now, lets you pick a picture from your camera roll or take a photo and it will like distinguish all the different parts of the photo.

So if it was this screen of me right now, it would pull out me out of the background, my paintings on the wall, the birthday banner, all that sort of stuff. And it’ll say, okay, what do you want to replace? Or what do you want to update here? So this is so good for retailers because they could take a product.

Take a photo of it, and it could be this clip, which, if you’re not watching it, I’m just holding a hair clip. Essentially, it’s gonna outline the clip, and I can ask AI to place this anywhere in the world. I could say, put this clip in the middle of the desert, put this clip in someone’s living room, make it, put it in someone’s flowy red hair, I can ask AI in the spot, in that Instagram story sticker, to put my product in a mock up. Seamlessly, free, within 10 seconds.

So it’s just so nice and easy way to create unique content without having to edit it in Canva even.

Crystal Vilkaitis: Exactly. We like easy. We like unique, creative. Your customers like it too. Plus these apps like when you use it. So it’s such a good tip. All right. What else is working now?

What makes someone interested in following your store on social media?

Steph Bechard: I think the last and main thing I want to touch on for what’s working now is clear, distinctive, obvious passion for what you’re doing and not letting your social media followers be deprived of that. Like your in store followers, or your in store customers will see that. They’ll notice it with your displays, your team talking to you. Your effort into decorating your store and you’re putting together your events, but your followers don’t get that same sense a lot of the time and they shouldn’t be deprived of your passion.

What makes anyone interested in something is hearing them talk about it and like getting interested in it. Like you talking about mustard, for instance. Like it puts a flavor in my mouth of wanting some mustard. Like, you know when you see that billboard of the dripping cold Pepsi or whatever and it makes you want it? Adding that interest, adding that passion, makes you interested in it also. And I want to learn more about it and I want to become in that world. I find a really good industry that does this is like those Persian rugs, like it is a very random thing to be a collector of and unless you had an introduction to it or some sort of nostalgic connection to it as a child, you wouldn’t necessarily be a Persian rug collector. But it’s a big industry and they’re expensive and it’s because people start to learn about it, or they go into one shop or they go on a vacation, and they go into this like world renowned store. And then they start to learn about it, and then how it’s made, and the artisans, and the history, and the thread count, and the colors used, and the rarity of some of the colors used, and threads, and materials, and all that.

And it becomes like an obsession. And I say obsession in the best way, because it just is like this interest that they need to know more about, and then they get to tell their friends about it when it’s in their place, versus just, “Oh yeah, I’m gonna get this carpet.” Now it becomes something they’re passionate about.

So that has to be obvious on your page too, please. Like, I think of Jill from the Pet Bistro. I met her years ago in Grand Rapids and she has natural pet food in her pet store. toys and products as well, but natural pet food. And it was obvious. I didn’t even have to look up her name before this interview.

I remember Jill from the Pet Bistro because of how seamlessly and easily and passionately she talked about natural pet food. And I went home and I looked at the ingredients I was feeding my dog right away. And I actually, Jill, I have to tell you this. I was a vegetarian when I met you and I wasn’t a vegetarian after I met you.

Cause you told me stuff about my own eating habits that convinced me to be interested in what I was what you were saying. You said, by my blood type, and you were looking at the lines on my hands and saying, you don’t eat meat, do you? And you should with your blood type. And I was like, what?

And it was just so interesting. It got me passionate about it, too. It’s contagious. Passion is contagious, in my opinion. Yeah.

Crystal Vilkaitis: is. And I think that we get nervous to communicate that to a phone.. Because we feel like it’s a phone, but you have to remember it is not. You have your customers on the other side and this is where you get that opportunity. You don’t have to, you get that opportunity to translate that passion to your customers.

And it’s something, I just see it’s a massive opportunity because a lot of people do feel like it’s awkward. And a lot of people do feel uncomfortable or they don’t make it a priority and they don’t make time for it. So it’s missing in the marketplace. That passion, that connection is so missing. And these apps would love it too.

Like they just love storytelling. They love the more meaningful content and so do your customers. So these are all great tips that people could do today. Like you got to do

Steph Bechard: you. I agree with what you were saying that like it could be hard to translate that to a phone and I understand that and it’s easier to talk about it in person, but it’s like Facetiming someone. If you’re Facetiming someone after your vacation, you’re gonna tell them all the details about it.

It’s so much better than text or sending them a picture of your favorite sunset on the vacation. You want to tell them about everything. The food, the crazy interaction you had with the rude checkout person, the everything. And it makes it a story and that’s what makes it more passionate, too. And imagine if all the people you look up to in TV, in podcasts, and all that didn’t talk about it to their phone. If they felt it was silly to express their passions. Like I think of Julia Child, the cook who was an author and went on to be a TV personality and she didn’t start apparently until like her 40s, maybe even 50s. And she still decided to go forward with what she was passionate about, which was food and feeding people. And it inspired so many people and she just has such a good community of people that feel like they found a community through her because of her clear passion for food and sharing that with the world. It’s like your responsibility almost.

Crystal Vilkaitis: It is. Well, Jen Gottlieb, one of our keynote speakers at EVOLVE says, visibility is your responsibility. And I want you to think about, it’s not just like I’m being visible. It’s about the connection. It’s about really communicating your passion, what you love, the storytelling, and thinking about that customer on the other side.

You’re doing it for them. We get really caught up that it’s about me, but it’s really about them. And if you are just terrified of being on camera, an easy thing that you could do is you could do a voiceover and you could still be filming the product, or kind of doing a day in the life or showcasing some of your favorite items. Or an artist that you just love, or the reason you started your business and film yourself talking.

You’re not on camera if you feel really uncomfortable with that and you could layer that voice over and then at least we can hear that passion come from you and we have some of that human connection. That is a good place to get started.

Steph Bechard: Yeah, I agree that you do have to just get started. That first post isn’t frivolous. It’s so important because you’re going to stumble through it and it might be confusing and strange. But by the third post, or the third time you do it, or the third time you talk to your phone, it’s gonna feel more comfortable and just become more familiar and just become like easy eventually. You’ll probably end up enjoying it sooner or later. That first post is so important.

Crystal Vilkaitis: It’s so is, so good. Okay, should we move on to our next section here, Steph? Any other things? Yeah, let’s do it. So I want to know, we surveyed our audience and a lot of the results were like, how do I actually see traffic from social media? I also was on a webinar, a lot of people asked that question.

Steph’s tip on how to use social media to drive foot traffic to your store

Crystal Vilkaitis: In Facebook groups, I’m a part of, I see that a lot. It’s the actual foot traffic. How can I see those results? So what are a couple of tips you have to use social to drive foot traffic?

Steph Bechard: Yeah, we get this question a lot, too. And I understand people considering that posting on social media is a big task. Is it actually doing anything for me? But there’s so many different avenues you create to run your store. And social media is such a great, free tool to get people in.

Building your brick and mortar, you didn’t know people were going to come in just because you put it there. Posting on social media is the same thing. Putting out ads on TV, same thing, and radio. You have to do your best to actually give people the experience that they’re looking for, convey your brand, convey your products, convey your passion as we were just talking about, into these social channels to really get them to come in.

But there is a few more niche strategies I’d like you to try and test to see if it makes a difference for you and getting people from social media to your front door. So, I wanted to start off with Google Business Profile. It’s a channel that I know not a lot of people either use or necessarily even care about.

But it is one of those channels, it’s not as fun and creative as Instagram or Facebook or TikTok. But that’s good, because that just means it’s following steps to make it easy. It’s like, you just do the steps, post to it, and it’s a lot easier versus that creative freedom that you’re like, I hope I make it ahead in the algorithm.

It’s not necessarily like that. It’s a little bit more analytical. And not even in a boring way, in a good way. It’s good for you. First, we want to make sure that you have claimed your Google business profile and that you have your source information set up in Google. So if someone’s looking you up, they can get linked to your website, they could see your updated hours and your address on Google.

So that’s first connection, getting people to your front door from an internet connection, is making sure that is all straight and set up and good, but we also want them to go into posts, updates, and having people leave reviews on Google business profile. It’s easy, these steps to follow. You post on Facebook, you post on TikTok, you post on Instagram, we post on Pinterest.

I would love to encourage everyone listening in to test putting some of those posts into Google business profile for a month straight. And see if it moves the needle for you. Especially during the time that this podcast will be airing because tourism is going to be climbing. It’s going to just be continuously rising as the weather gets warmer.

So people are looking for things to do in their own cities and wherever they’re visiting their weekend trips, their bigger vacations, the retro parties, everything you want your store to stand out. And the way to do that is to be posting updates and photos on Google business profile. You have a whole slew, a little block of little tiny cute icons Google business profile presents to you. I want you to click on the photos one and just add photos of your store. When you drag and drop them into there, it’s just going to automatically post. You don’t even have an option to add a reminder sticker, an engagement sticker, a caption, it’s just going to post.

So your product photos, your storefront, your team, put those smiling faces up there. It makes it a nice, warm, welcoming place on Google to invite people to come to your store.

Crystal Vilkaitis: Yes, this is so good. This is so easy. I like how simple this tip is, it’s not that you have to learn all these fancy editing strategies or jump on a new app and use this many hashtags and any of that. It’s just make sure you’ve claimed it and update. And I love the idea, this is a good little challenge for our listeners for the next month.

Update your Google profile, and it could be just some of these same photos that you already put over on Facebook or Instagram. And start seeing what kind of traffic and what kind of analytics, the data you’re getting from Google. It’s such a good practical step for them, because think about it when we’re searching, where do we go? We go to Google. Now, the other thing, our Gen Z, some millennials, they’re going more to Instagram right now to find product inspiration, but there’s still majority of people are going to Google. And so we want to make sure we’re seeing up to date photos, that you’re active. It can help from SEO, search engine optimization, from placement.

So good stuff. Okay. What else

Steph Bechard: placement. Yeah. What you just said, the placement, that’s important because we also want to make sure that we have things on our page that are going to be justifications for Google to be showing our posts, our reviews, and our .Page to people when they’re looking things up there. So keywords related to your products. That might be brand product types, like if this is like hair clip, it could be like tortoise hair clip natural plastic or cycloplastic hair clip for small hair, blonde, white, whatever, all those sorts of things.

And then the brand included in it written in posts on Google business profile, which are actually called add updates. They’re called updates there, where you can add several images like carousel images, you can add a caption and a button. So that’s going to also get people to go to your store. So you could really copy paste, go to your latest, really nicely written out and photographed post on Facebook and copy paste that caption.

That link and then that link to your website or the product page or event and then add that photo and then you have a post on Google business profile. So that’s included in your challenge if you wouldn’t mind.

Crystal Vilkaitis: Yes, do it, do it. And let us know. Let us know in the Facebook group, if you haven’t joined the Rooted in Retail Facebook group yet, do that and then share with us. Like I’m in the challenge I’ve been posting and let’s hear your results. Cause it will help from your online visibility, but this is also going to help your offline foot traffic.

That’s the goal here. Okay, what’s our next tip?

How to use location stickers in your social media strategy to bring more customers into your store

Steph Bechard: Our next tip would be using location stickers on the social media platforms in a really smart way using a strategy with location stickers. I often am clicking on people’s little location stickers and saving so many restaurants. There will be like a random city in Europe. And I’m saving that restaurant just in case like I find myself there one day, no plans on vacationing there. Never even heard of the place, but I’m saving that restaurant because it just looks so darn cute and they tagged it. I would love for you to be rotating through location stickers. Which again, if you don’t know what that is, you can find them in that same little engagement sticker I talked about earlier that looks like a little post it note with a smiley face.

Instead of clicking gifs, instead of clicking poll, you click location and you can rotate through your city or town’s name as one of them on a story, tagged in the bottom of your Reels. Then rotate through your store’s address, putting that as one of them, and also rotating through the state that you are in.

So that way, you’re getting kind of a good, well rounded out radius of people potentially viewing your story. Because often the city, if I’m going to like Chicago’s random page. If I click on Chicago, I’ll see like random Stories that tagged Chicago for the past 24 hours and get shown up there. If I’m traveling somewhere and I tag where was I most recently?

Palm Springs for the Palm Springs Retreat. I had random people viewing the Crystal Media story that I was like, who are these people? They’re not our followers. There’s like 15 random people who are viewing Palm Springs story because I tagged Palm Springs. So just rotating through and not only tagging your store address, which is I see a lot of people just doing that and I get it. That makes sense.

You’re wanting people to go there, but this isn’t about just getting people to your address. It’s about getting the attention of the people looking into your neighborhood, your city, and your state. So, especially if you ship products and you sell online, definitely be doing that wider radius as well.

So that’s an easy one and you can implement that on your content in Reels. You can put the location in your actual post at the very top and it can be in Stories too as a tappable sticker.

Crystal Vilkaitis: I love it, this is so easy for retailers to do too. And you might forget about it. You might not even realize that you could tag Stories and Reels that have your address or have that town and city and doing it. Those three ways stuff really smart love because you’re going to get more visibility to people who are local.

For free. You’re not paying for this. And for anybody, we have a training. It’s called Social Media Hooks and Hacks: How to Save Time and Stand Out on Social Media. And we’ll link to it in the show notes, but this is an 80 minute training. So it’s long, but there’s a lot of great value in there.

You’re going to want to go through it. The second half of that training, I walk you through your location tag. So how to do it. So if you’ve never done it before, we walk you through in that video and also how to brand it. You can actually change the colors of those, which isn’t as intuitive when you’re doing it.

Now, if you’re a newbie, just add the location tag. You don’t have to get sophisticated with different design level things, but if you have somebody on your team who’s helping you, or you want a little more advanced strategies, go through that training. You can get it at crystalmediaco.com/hooks.

That’ll really help you, so practical. Okay, what else do you got for us, Steph?

Why creating this type of content builds a connection unmatched by big box stores

Steph Bechard: Okay, another one I want to talk about is actually showing way more content in your store, and in your neighborhood, in store displays, and people in the store. So just showing content actually in person. So this is really good for just having people visualize themselves there. It’s way more easy for me to go there and make that step to actually get my car, figure out where to park, walk in your store, not feel like a fool looking for like the random one ring I saw on Instagram in a wholesaler’s post.

If you walked up in a video and picked up random products and did a display tour and did, “Oh, I’m going to the coffee shop and come with me to the coffee shop,” and you’re just sitting there. Snag your phone and you’re filming a couple videos on your way back to the store and you’re drinking your coffee. And you’re wishing everyone a good day and you wish it wasn’t cloudy because you’re going to an outdoor brunch tomorrow, whatever

You’re just like chit chatting and making in store content that makes it familiar for them to be able to come in and see that. It’s just like showing them how to get there, how, what’s going on in store and just adds intrigue to your brick and mortar.

Crystal Vilkaitis: Yep, it does. And it’s similar. It makes you think, kind of going back to what we were saying earlier of what you ask your friends, what shows you’re watching, what books you’re reading, you’re grabbing your coffee, take your customers with you. Often we think nobody cares. Nobody cares where I’m going, what I’m doing, what I’m eating, what I’m reading, what I’m watching, but we do. We want the connection, it’s how we build relationships with you, it’s stuff we’ll talk about with you when we’re in the store.

“Okay, the other day you said you were drinking a lavender latte. Where? Was it good? Because I’m obsessed with lavender things.” Like it just creates that connection with your customers that big boxes just cannot do. So take advantage of those things and bring that in person world to the digital world through your photos, through your videos.

It’s exactly what you’re saying, Steph. And it’s so smart and we got to make sure that we’re more consciously aware of doing it and doing it every day. Do you agree? Like, I just.

Steph Bechard: Totally, I really do. And it just becomes easier the more you do it. It’s almost like adding a call to action to shop with you in store. Like never forget the call to action. If you’re posting a product, remind them to come in store. Oh, if you’re wondering like I really wish more people would actually come in and shop and I knew it was from social media. Talk about a certain product more and instead of just ending it at the price or availability or whatever, actually show a picture of it. Show it in the store, in the display. Say we have ample parking say we have road construction say all that stuff. And then end it with we want you to come in.

We’re open till 8 P.M. every night. Me, Jessica, Crystal. For anyone, any team member, say their names. Make it real for them to actually come in and shop as if they’re like already a customer. As if they’re already familiar. No one’s a fool like nothing’s confusing. If you’re confused, coming the back door instead of like the front entrance. Make it all familiar to them so they just are so comfortable and it’s seamless to come in, as if they’ve already done it before.

The fast-track method for bringing more foot traffic to your store with social media

Crystal Vilkaitis: Yeah, like they’ve been there before. Almost like coming home. I see you so much, like now I’m finally here. I love it, so good. All right, Steph, what’s another great way to drive foot traffic in?

Steph Bechard: The final thing I have to mention here has got to be ads. Social media ads. It’s going to really, you’re going to see that needle move when you are putting dollars behind your content and promoting that on social media. And we see case studies all the time from our ads managers at Crystal Media of people coming in and saying, I saw this on Facebook, or I saw this in an ad, or I got introduced to you because of an ad.

And I do it all the time. I love shopping thrift and vintage stores. And my entire apartment is filled with pre-loved. Is that how they say it? Pre-loved furniture. There was a place around the corner from me, like four blocks away, a 12 minute walk. I don’t even have to rent a U Haul to go get the coffee table or whatever from there.

I could carry it home and I didn’t know about them. I had no idea, I never saw it. It wasn’t on my regular route. But an ad showed up on my phone and I was like, “Oh, this looks cool.” Like next time I visit LA or Toronto, where all these cool vintage stores are, I’ll have to check it out. Lo and behold, it is around the corner and I didn’t physically see them.

And I am the perfect customer group. I will spend all my money there. And they just had to spend a little bit of money to get me to see their posts. Simple as that. And guess what? That coffee table over there, if you’re watching this, I carried it home from there.

Crystal Vilkaitis: Did you?

Steph Bechard: Thank you. Yeah, thank you for advertising to me because you’re furnishing a place I now love. Like, you know?

Crystal Vilkaitis: Yes, I love that story. And you’re so right. This is a huge learning moment here. So if you’re multitasking, come back to us. We cannot rely that the traffic’s just going to find us, that the people are just going to find us. We have to work hard at generating the traffic, the visibility, getting our name out there.

The fact that this company, this store was 12 minutes from you and you were able to carry this, I would love video of that, carry this coffee table 12 minutes home. But you saw it because of an ad and you didn’t even know they existed. You have to work hard at marketing your store and products is spent even just to the local audience.

I think sometimes we feel like, “Oh, but I’m local. I have a brick and mortar. People know, they know me. They see me. They drive by I’m off the main street. People talk about me. I’ve got decent reviews.” They don’t. And you have to work hard and ads is just like, it’s the fast track. Yes, you’re paying for it, but you have so much access to the targeting and the data of your customers.

You could plug that in, find your perfect customer. Like Steph was the perfect, you were the perfect customer. They found you, they advertised to you. It’s so worth it. I’m really glad you brought that up because our most successful retailers. They run ads and it’s not like you have to be running thousands of dollars of ads every single month.

Like we see really powerful results with a $500 to $800 budget. So. So good. Awesome.

Steph’s formula for crafting irresistibly engaging content that sparks conversations online

Crystal Vilkaitis: Okay. Steph, let’s move into our final portion here and let’s talk about how to create super engaging content because the other problem retailers feel is like I’m posting and nobody’s engaging with me. I feel like I’m talking to myself.

And they just want to be a little bit more engaging and really see that conversation happen. So what can they do?

Steph Bechard: Well, first I have to ask them instead of saying, what can we do? What have you done? What haven’t you done? Like, when was the last time you did do something really super interesting and super engaging? You have to be engaging to earn engagement. I’m not just going to give it away to you. You gotta engage me as a social media user.

So this is going to be used through trying something new. When’s the last time you went live from a new platform or from a new location? They might see that same background all the time. But if you’re randomly sitting in a park or on a bench or in your kitchen or just in bed that day, and you’re just drinking your coffee and reading, and you just had to tell them about this update to an event. And you got a new person who’s going to be like popping up the event or something. Like Just trying something new to see what kind of engagement that might spark and to grab their attention in that way.

So first trying something new, that could be a new content type. A new location, a new caption a new platform, just trying something new to see what that can drum up to be engaging, but also to actually engage them in a way that’s like hooking them. Making it educational, making it entertaining, making it actually worth their while.

Why should they care about what you’re talking about? Their time is valuable. They have 1,200 people that they’re following and they’re not going to see 1,200 posts that day. You got to make it good or else they’re not going to really engage with it and then you’re not going to show up on their feed often again.

So really actually just telling that story of the product. Asking them a question in the beginning of it, including them in the content, like making it about them. You’re not creating content for your brick and mortar store. Your brick and mortar store didn’t grow hands and thumbs and start posting little Instagram Stories and filming TikToks of itself.

You’re creating content for the person watching it. Don’t forget that. It’s not for you, it’s for them. So center them in creating content to make it engaging, for sure.

Crystal Vilkaitis: You’re so right. It’s for your customer. Keep them in mind always and mix it up. I really like that tip because it gets stale. Like the customer, I see that with people I follow and they’ll always be in the same place. And it just feels like it’s the same thing over and over and over again.

And we want fresh as the seasons change, as the time change. When we see you, if we love you, and now we see you in a new place, we’re even more interested because where are you? What are you doing? This is new, this is different. Again, it’s that pattern interrupt and it gets them really engaged.

And if that’s what we’re trying to do here, it’s such a good plan. So mix it up and be engaging. Great tips, what else can they do?

Steph Bechard: I really want to talk about closeness and creating a community. Like, how are you actually creating closeness with your customers and involving them in your store and creating that community? Just like creating content for them, they also want to be like part of it.

No one wants a friend that, have you ever met someone actually, like I have met people and left that conversation thinking, “I know everything about them except their last name. I don’t know who this person is at all.” And they told me everything about themselves, but didn’t ask me one thing about myself. They don’t know what I do. They don’t know where I live. They don’t know who I’m dating. They know they like my shirt.

I don’t know, like that might be like, that’s it. You want it to feel like it’s a two-way street. Social media should be a two way street. And I have some really good tips for this that I’m going to be talking about in my breakout session at EVOLVE. But I just want to first share with you how are you involving your customers in your content?

That could be using those engagement stickers we talked about earlier, centered around them. Asking them how they’re doing. Asking them what the weather is like where they are. Asking them to contribute to your add your sticker, which is another engagement sticker being like, I need to see your favorite sunset or your favorite meal this month, or I need to see your dog pictures, stat.

Like you want to see what’s going on in their lives because you’re interested in them just so they could be interested in you too. You like someone more that likes you back. That’s just how it is. Like you feel part of their community. You feel safer with them, closer to them. And a way I recommend doing this is like through your content.

I was in a consultation call yesterday with a retailer and I asked them to include their customers more in their content to be, talking to them, asking them questions, just like seeing how much more we can get them to comment or vote on a poll or reply in a question box. And what I recommended was, have you posted like a storefront photo? And ask them like, e’re thinking of painting the sign out front. Can you vote green moss or like hunter green, whatever, like your three things. Or we’re about to plant our summer planters or spring planters outside their store.

This is the example I gave to them. I spent actually, I’m not kidding, actually 13 seconds taking a screenshot of their storefront, putting it in an Instagram story and looking up in GIFs planters with either flowers or herbs. All in GIFs and it was just like a green planter or a flower planter in GIFs they weren’t actually there, right? Even though AI stickers can do that too, if you want to cut that down to seven seconds. And I said, “Can you help us vote? We can’t decide if we should get a herb planter or a flower planter. And you’re gonna be looking at it, we’re spending this money for you, what do you want to see? Tell us.” And it makes them feel so much more included it they’re part of the business.

They’re part of the community. It’s like coming back to something familiar, which is shopping with people you know, and love and care about. Yeah

Crystal Vilkaitis: They’re curious because then you’re going to post right and you’re going to see what the winner is. And then when they’re walking by, they’re going to be like, okay, I love this store. They did this really cool thing. I totally voted for these plants. I’m so glad it’s here, like it just goes deeper.

So much of what you’re saying today, Steph, is about that meaningful connection that builds that relationship. And of course, that’s what we care about here at Crystal Media is the meaningful connection. I love that example that you gave that retailer. It’s such a good idea. Retailers listening today, think about how you can integrate that for yourself.

If it’s something in store, I love that you use GIFs to kind of show, like do a mock up of what you’re thinking. It makes it way more engaging and 13 seconds, I think we all have 13 seconds to get that done.

Steph Bechard: Yeah, definitely. That’s the intro to a show, that’s one fast forward 15 seconds on your show.

Crystal Vilkaitis: Get that story up in that intro.

Steph Bechard: Watch that intro and get that story up.

Crystal Vilkaitis: Yes.

Steph Bechard: So true. An example I really liked from a retailer, that was implementing closeness well, was a brand called Oddli. And I hope we can include some screenshots here of some content that I really enjoyed on their page recently. And I came across them, I actually think I was reading about them cause they got Forbes 30 Under 30. There are two young entrepreneurs and they created a clothing business. And I followed them for awhile. They weren’t big posters. They weren’t really posting that much. Like I liked what they did post, but I just thought they were like the cool Gen Z gals.

But I was like, I’ll take what I can get. Like they’re giving me crumbs, but I’ll take it. Like the brand’s not posting that much, but actually one of their customers was trying on a dress and it looks so good on her and I know it’s going to look better on her than it does on me, but she just really made me want to buy it.

And because they shared that content, they’re showing it on someone. So I made that purchase. And I started to notice, am I seeing way more posts from them after I made a purchase? What is going on? I got added to their close friends list after I made a purchase, which I thought was so smart. And if you’re not sure what that is, it’s an exclusive list on Instagram.

It’s almost like Instagram’s a way of a Facebook group. Similarly, where you can create exclusive Stories for a smaller list of people and it’s called a close friends list. You can click down on the following button to click close friends list on anyone that you’re following to add them to that list and um essentially, I started seeing content from them way more and I loved the Stories that they were sharing on this close friends list.

They talked about this upcoming project. They were talking to their camera. They were very elusive before, but now I was seeing their faces and hearing their voices. I was like, “Oh yeah, they are under 30.” There were like all these little things about them that I was like, I wouldn’t have known that.

And they’re creating this kind community. And I felt like I was part of something. I felt like I was part of it. I was like, I’m like an Oddli VIP. Like, I’m in it now. And they talked about this upcoming project they have with Olivia Rodrigo, where she actually saw one of her, I think, dancers wearing one of their shirts, and then ordered a bunch of shirts that are for her next tour related to her most recent album and they’re sharing this in the behind the scenes story and it wasn’t public yet.

This is huge news and it’s not public yet. So I just thought that was so cool. I know and I was like, I gotta see this. Like I would have had no idea.

Crystal Vilkaitis: Yes, that is an incredible example of the closeness that you’re saying, creating that closeness of the connection. I love the close friends on Instagram. We do this for our insiders. Steph created an insider close friend group. So you get added to that and you see special content as an insider on our Stories on Instagram that nobody else sees.

And that’s just a perk of being an insider. So I love when retailers do this too. It’s such a cool way. And the fact that it sort of happened organically, like you can tell that’s their flow, but you didn’t really know you were being added to that flow. So it was a surprise and delight, which I love when we can surprise and delight our customers.

That’s a really cool way. Such a good example.

What are the top performing content types to get the most out of your time on social media?

Steph Bechard: I agree, I totally agree. And yeah, I was going to say the last thing I really want to talk about is the top content types right now to be engaging your customers. So that’s how we’re creating super engaging content is we talked for the first half on this question about more the customer side of it and pleasing them and really making content for them, creating engaging content that kind of stops their scroll.

But now we got to please the algorithm too, because we gotta make sure we’re on good terms with them for them to be promoting us. We like to call, we like to pretend like the algorithm is like the high school popular girl. We’ve talked about this before where she has all the friends, she has the access to all the parties, she’s got all the access.

And you just have to do her little things to stay on her good side You have to just please her, compliment her, to show up for her and you’ll be on her good side. But we’re smart savvy business owners and we can stay on the good side of the algorithm. We can do it. And first of all, posting consistently is always going to be best practice. It’s never going to be like posting casually once a month to really stay mysterious.

No, that’s not going to be good for your customers or the algorithm. We want to post consistently, but we also want to post the top performing content type to get the most out of our time on social media. So short form video where we’re going to be focusing right now. I would like to encourage you to be posting a combination of short form video and longer short form video.

So the short form video I would say is closer to like 1 to 15 second long videos. Short, quick, you’re not talking. You’re not having an introduction. You’re not saying your name. You’re getting your point out there, fast. That could be using a trending audio. Like, we see a lot of those quick product clips go through of like a quick trending audio in the background, which are really easy to use and popular and help you with reach and engagement. Because people know what to expect when they’re watching that video. They know that beat drops coming and then the surprise or whatever it is happening then.

And also the longer form short form video, which is like 30 to 90 seconds, I would say. So you’re talking and you’re storytelling and you’re really bringing out your product and the details of your point or your story or whatever it is in your video, in more than that quick couple seconds. And I would like to see a combination of those on your page. One to five Reels a week, one to five short form videos a week is really what I’d love to see. A little bit more on TikTok, a little bit less on Facebook and Instagram.

That’s just what the algorithms are liking right now. But if you’re able to do a combination of those, that’d be really great to, first of all, test to see what your audience is enjoying and consuming and liking. And you can see the views very easily. You can also see the saves and the comments and likes.

Those are all very visible to the admin of the page. And then you can go forward with creating more of the content that they’re enjoying most.

Crystal Vilkaitis: So good. This was filled with such great social media tips, Steph. Like you got to take action. We’re all about action here on Rooted in Retail. So you might feel like, whoa, there was a lot of things here because there were. Pick one thing that you feel is super doable for you to commit to.

So is it that Google profile that you’re going to be updating? And you’re going to do that challenge for 30 days. Are you going to focus more on the engagement? Are you going to analyze your store? And how can I create closeness with my customers? There’s just a lot of great tips in here. And if you have anybody who does your social media with you, for you, I would have them listen to this episode again.

Cause Steph gave such great advice on what we need to know now. So thank you, Steph, so much for sharing.

Steph Bechard: Thank you for having me on, I love connecting with the retailers in this way. And if you’re creating this content, always tag us. We’d love to see it and we’d love to be part of that engagement on there. Leave a comment and like, so

Crystal Vilkaitis: Yes. And I know we love seeing it. And Steph mentioned, she’s going to be speaking at EVOLVE. So if you don’t have your ticket yet, we only have like a couple weeks left, but you got time we’re sold out of VIP, but there’s still standard tickets. Go to crystalmediaco.com/evolve. We would both love to see you there, Steph.

I can’t wait to see you there. I can’t wait to hear your presentation. I know that, I mean, there’s so much we can talk about when it comes to social. We’re actually doing our whole VIP day, which is going to be like four hours of social training. It’s going to be awesome. So I can’t wait to see you there and thank you again so much for sharing everything that you did today.

Steph Bechard: Of course, thanks for having me. I can’t wait to share the goodies at EVOLVE. There is some good stuff in there. And to see everyone there! Thanks again, Rooted in Retail Community. It was so much fun.

Crystal Vilkaitis: Yay, awesome. Thank you everyone. Remember that I’m rooting for your success. Have a great week ahead. Bye.

Thank you so much for being here. It means the world to me. Don’t forget to join the rise and shine newsletter, which is social media news. You need to know sent via email every Monday morning, go to Crystal Media, co. com slash rise to join and don’t miss the newest episode of Rooted in Retail, which drops every Sunday morning.