Social media burnout is very real, I’ve felt it at times from a lot of the accounts I personally follow. While it’s important to maintain an exciting social media profile, sometimes it is a little too easy for things to become routine. To keep your customers coming and to attract new followers, spicing things up can be a lifesaving endeavor. Here are a few thoughts on social media tricks that can help liven up your social media profile!
1. Timing Is Important! One thing that could make all the difference with your posts is to find the best time to post when you’ll net the widest audience possible. Next time you make a post, be conscious of the time you post it and gauge the response versus, say, posting a few hours before, or later.
On my personal art account, I have found that my audience is not really active from noon until four probably because they have their phones stowed due to work. If you’re a restaurant and you want to attract a lunchtime crowd, it might be best to post your food prep either that morning or the day before. This will plant a seed in their minds, getting them to consider what they’ll eat for their next lunch, and you’ll have gotten the drop on the competition! Of course, this will depend on your audience, your platform, and your clientele, but just making a simple time adjustment could make a great difference! Here is a link to HubSpot’s analysis on the best times to post to social media: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/best-times-post-pin-tweet-social-media-infographic. This is a great general guideline to begin with and then see how it has affected your response.
2. Contests Are Engaging! People love free stuff, so giving away a few prizes is a great way to engage customers, new and old! The allure of a free prize is a tantalizing proposition that even a wary first-time customer will throw themselves into because there is no losing scenario; even if they don’t win the prize, they didn’t spend anything so contests are essentially guilt-free pleasures.
Creating a contest page that requires an email to submit is another common method that works very well. People don’t generally enter contests for items they aren’t interested in, so getting them to sign up for an email newsletter in order to enter would be an easy way to bring them into your general marketing field. Another common trick, which can be annoying if it’s overdone or if it’s required to enter, is to have the entrant share the contest with people. If you tell someone they have to share or tag the contest with 2 people in order to enter, that is being too obvious that you want them to bring you more customers and they will shy away (at least I would, I hate these types of conditions). However, you COULD offer extra entries into the contest by having them share it with people, which gives them an edge in the contest and will give you a chance to court new potential customers to your business.
3. Keep Them Talking! Depending on the platform, whenever possible you want your customers to interact with you. Just posting and collecting likes won’t really keep anyone interested so it’s important to open up the dialogue channels when you can. On Twitter, you can create polls to run questions by your followers, which is very helpful research while at the same time encouraging people to stay in contact!
If you’re a cafe and you do special drinks, you could put out a poll asking people what flavor they would love to see featured, and then make a weekly special on a drink with that flavor. This will help you figure out what your customers are interested in while also letting them know that you take their opinions seriously. Not every social media is the easiest to talk to your followers (Tumblr, I’m looking at you) but if you have a good following on one that does (Twitter, Facebook, & Instagram are all pretty comment friendly) keeping those channels open will make your customers value you more because you value them!
Go Live! Well, not every business needs this, but with the abundance of smartphones, every person is a potential cinematographer looking for their next subject! Some social media have integrated Live Streaming and Videos to their platform so find a way to make them work for you! If you’re a cafe, create a video of one of your baristas creating some latte art. Depending on your team, this could be very easy content to post that not only takes advantage of the technology available, but it can show some fun aspects of working at your establishment! It will make your establishment feel more open and appear more friendly!
Thrasher Coffee is a coffee roaster we have featured in our Customer Spotlight posts on this very blog, and one of the things they do that make their Instagram posts so much fun are videos that explain their thoughts on and the process of roasting coffee! Their Instagram is one of my personal favorites! Look at your business, find your most unique aspect, and maybe make a video about it!
Know Your Industry! People love to learn, and when someone follows a social media account, they’re saying that they want to know more about this entity and what they do. If you make coffee, sharing a bit of your know-how would make for some interesting posts that aren’t really about advertising. Generally, you don’t want your posts to just be about selling products because hounding people for money with every post can burn readers out very quickly. If you can break up product posts with posts about the latest developments and news in your industry, you can educate your followers while at the same time, demonstrating that you’re a master of your field!
If they find a way to infuse coffee with bread, report what you know about it to your followers. Chances are, if they follow you, they’ll be interested in what you know! And hands off the coffee bread idea, that one’s mine. Wait, they have coffee cake. Nevermind.
Social Media can be tricky being to integrate with your marketing plan. With new apps and features being developed to give people deer ears, finding a way to stand out indefinitely can be hard. However, if you can interact with your customers and charm them with your fun, engaging, and enlightening content, you can have a thriving social media presence that no one will ever want to be without!
Jorge Santiago Jr. is a graphic designer at Your Brand Cafe. He earned his BFA in Graphic Design from the University of Texas at El Paso and his MFA in Sequential Art from the Savannah College of Art and Design. His hair was voted, “Most Likely to Succeed,” and it has. He spends his free time creating sad comics and stories.
Drew Thomas
Drew Thomas is a graduate of Georgia College & State University, where he earned his Bachelor's Degree in English Literature. He is an expert in brand marketing and has experience in freelance writing on topics ranging from sports to music reviews. He has also spent time as an editor, having revised website copy and press releases for local businesses. In his free time, Drew enjoys performing music, reading, hiking, and spending time with friends.