Can social media marketing help your small retail business stand out? Let's explore how social platforms can amplify your unique offerings and attract more customers. Today, fewer people now walk to your shop to shop; they surf the net for shopping. So many retailers now do something on their Facebook company page every day. It is their primary communication method. Today, in business, using social marketing has never been more important—vital, I would say.

No business can ignore social media as part of its marketing mix.

Checkout statistics for social media in Australia

"85% of the eligible (age 13+) Australian population have active social media accounts and spend an average of 1 hour 47 minutes per day on social media."

Last year, in 2023, I was shocked when a client asked us for help setting up a Facebook page. We helped him out, but now the problem is that he does not know how to use it. I told him that he had better learn. There is no excuse if he cannot get someone to help him. Then, I gave him a few pointers. I advised him that there are plenty of good online courses and that he does not need to pay a cent for them to learn, for example, the Hubspot social media marketing course. I did this social media marketing course online here, which, in the end, gave me a social media marketing certification.
 

I thought it was worthwhile. If you know something better, please let me know, and I will tell people here about it.

Here are some advantages of social media.

1. Visibility: Social media platforms can help you get to a broader audience.
2. Cost-effective: Social media marketing strategies can often be free.
3. Customer engagement: You can interact directly with your customers, building relationships and loyalty.
4. Local Targeting: Social media allows you to target customers in your local area.

Getting Started with Social Media Marketing

Choose the Right Platforms

Not all social media platforms are the same. Ask your customers; this helps you focus on the ones where your target audience is most active. For retailers, Facebook and Instagram are often good starting points.
 

Learning from Successful Social Media Strategies

When it comes to starting social media marketing, it's crucial to learn from those who are doing it well. If you can, get an expert to help you start even better.

Study and Adapt

One of the best ways to improve your social media presence is to learn from successful retailers doing similar stuff by:

1. Identify successful competitors: Look for businesses with engaging social media profiles like yours.
2. Analyze their content: What types of posts get the most engagement? How often do they post?
3. Observe their tone: Is it friendly, professional, or humorous? How do they interact with followers?
4. Note their visual style: What images or videos do they use?

I recommend you go to Facebook and see what a few similar businesses to yours are doing there now. Check the ones you like and take a few notes about what your business needs. Note the words they say, too. Presumably, they have experimented and found that these work. I admit that when I started with social media, I copied people in Canada; they are similar to Australia, and I found that what they did was novel and new in Australia.

So, to start, copy what they do, change it to make it yours and see how you go. As you learn more, you can adapt.

You can always experiment later with the paid services, but like anything, if you are going to pay, it's best to know a little first.

Key Strategies to Implement

Based on my observations of successful retailers, here are some effective strategies:

1. Showcase your products: Use high-quality images and videos to highlight your offerings.
2. Behind-the-scenes content: Give followers a peek into your daily operations or product creation process.
3. Customer spotlights: Feature satisfied customers using your products or services.
4. Engage with your audience: Respond promptly to comments and messages.

My Personal Experience

When we revamped our social media strategy for our POS company, we started by studying successful tech companies and local retailers. We noticed that posts showcasing real-life applications of our software received the most engagement.

We began creating short video tutorials demonstrating how our POS system solved common problems for retailers. These videos attracted potential customers and provided value to our existing clients. We also started featuring customer success stories, significantly boosting our credibility and engagement rates.

Measuring Success

To ensure our strategy was effective, we tracked KPI metrics. Most social media sites give you this stuff for free.

By consistently applying these strategies and measuring our results, I know we significantly improved our social media presence and, ultimately, our business growth.

Remember, the key is to start with observation, adapt strategies to fit your unique business, and consistently measure and adjust your approach. With time and effort, you can develop a solid social media presence that supports your shop and have much fun doing it.

• Engaging: Use high-quality images and videos for your products; your suppliers have this; ask them for social media content. I am sure they have a social media manager who can help you get effective social media.
• Informative: Share tips, how-to guides, and product information.
• Authentic: Show the human side of your business.

Consistency is Key

To keep your marketing campaign going, you must maintain a regular posting schedule and commit to best practices in social media management.

Leveraging Social Media for Your Shop

Here are some ways to use social media to promote your retail shop:

1. Showcase your products: Show photos and videos of your products. If you get new gift items, books, or pets in your shop, take a picture and share it online. 
2. Share customer testimonials: These bring trust by highlighting positive customer experiences.
3. Provide customer service: I have clients whose staff, when they are not busy behind the counter, are answering customer inquiries on social media.

Be a marketer (an influencer).

Measuring Your Success

Measure the effectiveness of your social media marketing, and keep an eye on these KPIs:

Conclusion

"It's 2024, and the retail landscape demands a modern approach. Social media marketing stands out as a game-changing tool for small retailers looking to scale their business and highlight their POS software capabilities. Create a compelling online presence that works in tandem with your physical store by carefully choosing your platforms, developing captivating content, and actively engaging with your audience. The secret to thriving? Begin with manageable goals, maintain regularity, and always focus on enriching your audience's experience.

Let your social media shine!

A few people who wanted to attend our upcoming webinar on social media marketing tips have said they are currently too busy ramping up for the holiday sales season, so we've decided to postpone the webinar until early next year when things settle down. We know this time of year can be hectic for retailers now!

New Webinar Date

We have rescheduled the webinar for mid-February 2024. We'll send out reminders as it gets closer.

Why Social Media Matters for Your Store

Social media marketing can be a huge boost for local shops, and it's probably the most effective advertising today.

Here is what we cover:

Choosing the Right Platforms

We'll provide tips on prioritizing platforms like:

• Facebook - By far the most prominent platform, essential for retailers
• Instagram - Great for visually showcasing products & store culture
• Google My Business - Vital for local search visibility

Setting Up Your Facebook Page

A good Facebook presence is invaluable, so we'll walk through crucial elements like:

• Ensuring your business info/hours are accurate
• Writing an engaging About section

Posting Content That Connects

We'll explore free content ideas centred around:

• Seasonal offers and sales events
• Using photos that quickly communicate what you offer
• Local community happenings
• User-generated content from customers

Monitoring Performance

You will never get very far in social media if you do not measure, so I will run you through a free social media analytics tool that integrates into our POS Software to help track your KPIs:

I will then run you through the most popular social media marketing KPIs.

Engagement rate is the percentage of your followers interacting with your social media posts.

Reach is the number of unique people who see your social media advertisements.

Impressions are the number of times your social media posts are seen, which shows both positives and negatives.

Understanding performance data lets you refine your strategy over time.

Conclusion

Please let us know if you have any other questions before mid-Feb 2024

I have seen firsthand how a strong online presence can transform a company's reach and reputation and increase its bottom line. Social media provides invaluable marketing opportunities for small businesses. Since the pandemic, where almost everyone went online, social media is now deeply embedded in many people's routines; it has taken over as the leading advertising today.

The Rising Importance of Social Media

Social media has become a dominant force in marketing. Here are some compelling statistics:

• 6 in 10 Australians use Facebook
• 1 in 2 Australians uses Facebook daily
• 1 in 2 Australians use YouTube
• 1 in 3 Australians use Instagram
• 1 in 4 Australians use Snapchat

The average person will be on Facebook today in Australia for 2 hours.

Social Media Marketing Success Stories

The point is that it is often FREE!

Many my clients eg newsagents have implemented a social media strategy focused on the products they market. This boosted their brand awareness and engagement tremendously. It has driven traffic to their shop by connecting with their customers.

Tips to Promote Your Small Business on Social Media

Here are some best practices I recommend for utilising social media as part of your overall marketing strategy:

Create shareworthy content. Post photos, videos, Stories, Reels, and live videos that capture attention and interest. Entertain and educate your customers

Engage with your audience. Respond to comments, questions, and feedback. Show customers you care.

Promte your shop online. Social platforms provide many detailed targeting options. Promote posts and products to your ideal demographics.

Analyse your posts. Use analytics to see which content and strategies are most effective. Double down on what drives engagement and conversions.

Be consistent. Post regularly to stay top of mind. But focus on quality over quantity in your content.

Highlight your purpose. Showcase how your business positively impacts the community. Consumers align with brands that reflect their values.

My Social Media Marketing Webinar for Small Business

If enough are interested, I am happy to run another Webinar on showing you the potential of social media marketing?

• How to set up and optimize social media profiles
• Types of content that fuel engagement
• How to get images and news to post
• Using analytics to guide your approach
• Building engagement and community
• Driving sales through social platform

Let me know if you are interested.

The High Court has recently confirmed that if your business has a Facebook page, you are responsible for the libellous comments people make on your shop's Facebook page. 

The High Court stated here recently that

Fairfax could not be considered "passive and unwitting victims of Facebook's functionality" as they operated the Facebook page for their own commercial and financial interests, and invited users to leave comments on the Facebook page. Instead, the media organisations must "bear the legal consequences" of doing so.

This confirms our early remarks that if you have a business Facebook page, you must turn off comments, as many do, or actively monitor posts and comments by your Facebook users.

Here are some actionable tips if you decide to allow comments.

Go to your business page.

Then press Settings on the bottom left.

Now you will get a page with the settings.

Here are our suggestions.

Visitor Posts: - Only you can post.

Post and Story Sharing: - Disabled.

Tagging Ability: - Off

Content moderation: - add any problematic words. There is no point in making your problems worse. Besides, I doubt your customers will appreciate people using these words. Keep adding to the list as required.

Profanity filter: - Turn on.

Remember, if such comments appear, please go to your Facebook page ASAP and delete them.

You could use an image like this in your POS Software, Staff would appreciate when searching for a stock item an image. 

However you need to promote your business. The fact is that the cheapest (it's free), most effective, quickest, and the best way today is online on Social Media. 

What about a picture of something interesting in your shop? Look at large companies. If you look at their Facebook pages, you will see much of it in pictures. 

Why?

Well, they know that they have a few seconds to grab a person's attention. Visually you can captivate someone very quickly. A picture can help that person to visualise the product and/or service offered immediately. If they like what they see, they may read the offer. What they want is an exciting image that will grab your attention. 

Social media today is an inherently visual medium.

So, where is this headed? You need to be active on social media to promote your business too!  Ideally, what you are doing is something on social media at least a few times a month. If once a week, you are looking at 50 images a year.  It does not have to be Earth-shaking images. Few of them we see are. Use a picture of a jigsaw puzzle that has just arrived in your shop,  a new dog for sale, a Christmas greeting card, some perfume, a book, etc. 

Often you can get professional images from your supplier. If not well, it does it have to be professionally made.  With a decent smartphone today, anyone can take a good picture. All you need is some basic photography skills.

A Tip: One advantage that an amateur photographer has is that they can take as many photos as they like whenever they like.  Professionals can only come at set times and rarely will go back. Use this advantage and take many pictures, up, down, around, left, right, etc. until you get it right. If none worked, try again, it cost nothing today to take heaps of photos.

Another tip: Check out a few youtubes on taking photographs with smartphones. For example, this guy explains it well. 

Knowing how to take a good photo today on a smartphone is a skill worth learning. 

Give it a shot, and I would like to see some of your examples.

I have clients now that are on social media all day. Today any retail business that wants to reach a broader target audience and attract new customers needs to go on social media, particularly if it is not in a centre. A centre will drag people in for you.

That is why often you will see cashiers in small businesses on Facebook on the front counter typing away, answering customer enquires.

Today many of your clients are using social media sites like Facebook frequently throughout the day. If you connect with them on these social networks, you help keep them engaged and interested in your business while they are outside the shop. 

It also allows you to get real-time feedback from the people who are most interested in your goods and services. This is vital if only because of the damage now bad reviews can do to your business.  A nail parlour near me got a few bad reviews and was begging its customers to say something nice about them because they were losing business as people were reading bad reviews and then not coming. 

Getting involved is not hard, try by sharing some cool photos of new stock items, if you have 10 major suppliers they odds are you will get at least one new photo or news item from one of them a day for you to share, then there is also news to share, eg your support for a bushfire appeal, worst case you always have the weather, etc. 

This will result in you having a loyal, engaged audience.

If you are thinking of growing your social media presence, you are probably wondering which social network is the best for you. It depends on the specific products you sell, but I would say Facebook first and then ask your customers.

If you want to learn more, click here