Most of the time the difference between a wildly successful shop local program and one that brings in only a few shoppers, is the marketing efforts of its organizers.
Box stores have extraordinary ad budgets. This keeps them top-of-mind. When you think about buying a hammer, you often think of a big box store and not the corner hardware store. It’s not because the local hardware store doesn’t carry hammers, or the staff isn’t as friendly, or the prices aren’t competitive, it’s that people just don’t think about it.
Here are 3 ways you can change that with social media on a low budget:
Use Facebook Advertising
Facebook has amazing ways of narrowing down an audience. Use them. Don’t cast a wide net, get as specific as possible if you’re going to pay for a Facebook ad. You might be surprised just how much data they have on their users. And while it can be off-putting from a privacy standpoint, it’s a marketer’s dream.
Use Video
Give video tours of your member businesses, interview your shop members on the best thing in their store, or talk to the people shopping there. There are tons of ways to capture the magic of your local businesses. If you’re not adept with video, take pictures and set them to music creating a montage of area shops. Shopping is a visual pleasure. Bring that concept into your marketing.
Post, Post, Post
Just like in video, find ways to showcase your members on social media and bring them into it (running it by their marketing person or whomever makes the marketing decisions).
Tweet every morning with a question about the offerings of a local business such as “In the mood for a buttery croissant? Marge at Blues just took a batch out of the oven.”
Add a picture of that buttery goodness on Facebook, Instagram, Flickr and/or Pinterest.
Get a quote from one of your businesses and add an image to help it stand out on social media.
Using social media to showcase local stores is not difficult. They have so much more personality than the box stores. It’s merely a matter of sharing it with your audience. Keep in mind if every one of your posts entices, entertains or educates you’re bound to bring some much needed attention to your local shops.
image via: morgueFile