We find ourselves in uncharted territory as our communities face the COVID-19 pandemic. With social-distancing recommendations halting nearly all foot traffic in our retail stores and restaurants, business owners will need to become very creative to promote their goods and services. From your friends at Choose Clark County, the new economic development office, here are a few tips for using social media to your advantage.
1. Update your business details.
Are you still open? What are your hours? Can we do in-store shopping (dining) or just curbside pickup? Make sure these details are easy to find in your “About” section. Include all relevant phone numbers, emails, and websites.
2. Reply quickly to direct messages.
Customers have a lot of questions right now, and many will prefer to communicate electronically rather than call. Get comfortable with using Facebook Messenger to field questions, and reply promptly to any direct messages. A series of quick replies will turn on your “Very Responsive to Messages” badge.
3. Be visual!
Pictures are priceless! Facebook posts with images get 3.2X more engagement than posts with only words. When photographing food, make sure it’s extremely appealing; remember, we “eat with our eyes” first! Instagram is a great platform to share photos, with its built-in filters for professional looks every time.
4. Use photo albums to organize images.
Create a Photo Album to group like photos together: new merchandise, this week’s specials, Mother’s Day gift ideas, etc. Include detailed photo descriptions to preemptively answer customers’ questions about price, brand, size, color, etc. If you are accepting orders by phone, email, or direct message, these details make it easy for the customer to reference what they want.
5. Use a weekly posting schedule to stay organized.
Have a weekly plan for what you’d like to post. You can create Facebook posts and schedule them to run at a future date and time, saving you time at the computer. Restaurants especially could consider posting “this week’s specials” on a certain day each week for people who are planning their family’s menus.
6. Get your customers involved.
The more activity there is on a post, the more people will see it. Social media works best as a two-way conversation. Try creating a poll on your Facebook Story to ask your customers their opinions. Challenge customers to “share” a post for a chance to win a prize. Ask customers to post a photo of what they purchased from you, like their family enjoying some great to-go food or wearing new clothes or accessories.
7. Include some variety.
Not all your social media posts should be 100% promotional. Change it up by including images of people having fun at work, a sneak preview of new merchandise, or a vintage pic for “Throwback Thursday.”
