how to increase engagement on social media - Crystal Media

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3 Social Media Tips and Tricks

With an increase in technological advancement comes an abundance of people spending mass amounts of time online, specifically on social media. There are more than 1.6 BILLION active users on Facebook and more than 500 MILLION users on Instagram each day. For these reasons alone, it is so crucial to have your business page represented on social media.

Ensuring your business page comes to life on Facebook and Instagram can provide a way to increase both your reach and engagement with new and existing fans. If you don’t, you may be losing out on potential customers. For some people, finding you on social media may be their only interaction with your business before deciding whether or not to purchase your product or service. That being said, take a look below at these 3 easy tips to ensure you are getting the most out of social media.

3 Tips and Tricks for Retailers to Utilize This Year

  1. Humanized Content: 👫 Small businesses have a higher engagement rate when posting pictures of people, such as employees. When you post content of your employees, it allows your fans to familiarize themselves with you and your business. When they walk in your store, they’ll recognize you/them from social media. This tactic helps the customer build both trust and a positive relationship with your business before ever walking through the door. Simple as that. Pictures of you/your employees modeling your products is a way to take positive community engagement online, into the store.
  2. Regularly update Facebook & Instagram: 📍 Finding your business on these platforms may be a customer’s only interaction with you before deciding to come in. It’s important that your information is updated regularly. Posting new products and deals can drive fan excitement and, even better, them into the store. I recommend posting 3-5x a week on each of these platforms to increase your engagement and following. Believe it or not, by updating your social platforms regularly, you could actually rank higher in search results.
  3. Brand consistency across all platforms: ✅ It’s important to have brand consistency across all your digital platforms so your customers can clearly identify you. I suggest incorporating things like the same profile picture, fonts, color identity, etc. on all sites. Make sure your brand has an aligned message across all social platforms (including your website) so that customers aren’t confused!

Now that you have a sense of direction about utilizing social media for your business, it’s time to start implementing it! Be creative and have fun with it! Let’s make 2020 the best year that your business has ever seen!

Share a comment about which tip helped most or an area where you struggle. I’d love to hear from you!

Bryce

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Why You Should Caption Your Videos

I don’t think anyone is debating the success of using video as a BIG part of your social media marketing strategy, but if you are, check out these stats from Facebook and multiple publishers…

✅ Over 4 billion video views happen on Facebook every day 📹

✅ 65% of Facebook video views are viewed on mobile 📲

✅ 85% of Facebook videos are viewed with the sound OFF 🔇

That last one is the one I want to talk to you about today.

We all know organic reach continues to drop on Facebook and one way to combat that is to post a video (or go Live on Facebook) then advertise that video. But, you might still be missing a simple step to get more reach and engagement on that video.

Here’s the scenario. You’ve decided to leverage what you can. You get camera ready, plan what to say, check your nerves (for some), wipe your camera clean, get the lighting right, and film a video, ok, maybe you re-film it a few times (we’ve all been there 😉). Now you post it and advertise it. You’re probably feeling pretty good, right? You did it!

Unfortunately,  only 15% of people are actually hearing👂🏻what you said if you don’t caption the video!

It’s one simple step that can easily keep people engaged longer and to get your point across. Don’t skip this step, it’s so easy now. The auto-published captions in Facebook alone have improved leaps and bounds over the past few years. They do most of the work, you just need to check for errors.

Now it’s your turn, make a video, caption it, and share the link in the comments.

via GIPHY

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Use In-Store Signage to Keep Customers Coming Back

It might sound funny coming from someone that will tell you if you don’t show up online you don’t exist, but the truth is, in-store signage (especially through the holidays) plays an integral role in your business as well.

Your store is about to be packed and (hopefully) have more customers than usual. Even better, NEW customers. I want you to leverage this time of year to help drive your business into 2020 and beyond.

If you’re reading this blog, you’re paying attention to your social media marketing- virtual high five for that! 🖐🏻 So get these new customers to follow you on social media while they’re in your store. You won’t have a better more captive audience than them!

It’s easy to create simple in-store signage with your social handles and place them in critical spots throughout your store (like at the register, in dressing rooms, or the restroom). You know as well as I do that, during busy, high-traffic times, it’s unrealistic to ask every customer to follow you on social media. So let the signs help! And, if you’re a CM Insider we have templates you can use by clicking on the Guides, Worksheets and Checklists icon on the Insider Dashboard. It’s one of our holiday gifts to you! 😉

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How Contests Can Help You Cut Through The Clutter

We all want our social media strategy to shine right? 🌟 Today’s cluttered feeds and constant algorithm changes can cause uncertainty about this. We’re always getting asked a) How can I tell if my social is working? and b) How can I get more in-store traffic? A contest! Why? You can achieve any marketing goal you set! 👉🏻 Boost online engagement, grow social media fans, promote in-store traffic, gather user-generated content, launch a new product. You can do it all.

Here are 4 tips to running a great contest:

  1. Have a worthwhile incentive – People will enter if they actually want what’s on the other side. 
  2. Brand hashtags – Make it simple to search for entrants and gather content. 
  3. KISS – Keep It Simple Stupid. Don’t ask entrants to do anything you wouldn’t be motivated to do.
  4. Advertise – Hit prospective customers as well as current fans.

Check out this post from one of our Insider’s asking for help on how to get people to share their photos in a contest she was running…

Well, I responded to her question in the video below. I cover some great contest ideas, how to make sure a contest drives traffic, and Facebook and Instagram rules surrounding contests.

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Get More Likes, Comments and Action from Instagram Followers: The Modern Marketing Show, Episode 83

Businesses are finding that Instagram is a great place to connect with your customers online as it continues to become more popular. Many retailers are noticing their engagement has been dropping. Many accounts have even started sharing a viral post asking their followers to like or comment on it to ensure their posts are being seen because Instagram is limiting to the number of followers who see them. Well, this isn’t anything new. The Instagram algorithm shows posts based on who the follower interacts with most.

Watch the full episode here:

Here are two tips on how to get more engagement from your followers:

  1. Have a call to action on a majority of your posts. When you tell your followers what to do (like, comment, or shop now) you have a better chance at them actually doing it. Your event posts, promotional posts, and new product arrival posts should also include a call to action.
  2. Take a look at your messaging. If you’re using language that revolves around community, support, urgency or fear tactics then it has a better chance at getting more engagement. You’re rallying your followers to get behind you.

Remember, people interact on social media differently today than they did 5 years ago. Just because you’re not getting tons of likes or comments doesn’t mean people aren’t interested in seeing your content. The algorithm is able to track how long people stay on your content which is why always looking at your insights can be helpful. And if you’re still unable to build engagement with these tips, it might be time to consider a new content strategy.

Do you need more help figuring out Instagram? We got you covered! In the coming weeks, we’ll be releasing a new Instagram for Retailers training course. Join our email list below to get notified when it’s available!

You can catch new episodes of The Modern Marketing Show every Monday at 10 a.m PST on our Facebook Page. Replays will be available on the blog each week.