Just like a pizza shop has recipes for their pizza dough and coffee shops have their recipes for great lattes, you really need to a good recipe or strategy in place for your social media. When you try to just wing-it things can get pretty messy!
The first thing to do is to is identify who will be taking on the responsibility. Hopefully someone other than you. Let’s face it, as a business owner you’re busy, you wear enough hats as it is. The last thing you have time for is social media. Ok, have someone in mind, great. You want to make sure this person is creative, dependable and has your businesses best interest in mind. Remember, they will be the voice for YOUR business! You will need to make this person an admin on your account. Word of caution here: They will have access to your business Facebook page from their phone. Make sure they have their phone password protected. It has to be set to automatically lock when unattended. Otherwise, guess what happens when their phone gets lost, stolen or they leave it unattended for 10 minutes at a pool party. Yup, you guessed it, things can get pretty ugly real quick. The last thing you need is some strange kid playing a joke on a friend by posting rude comments as your restaurant to your customers on your Facebook page. This is usually about the time I get the call from a very freaked out owner saying “can you help me . . . I’ve got a crisis!” Trust me, you don’t want to go there!
Ok, now you need a game plan. What are you trying to accomplish? Want to run specials to attract new clients and fill up empty tables or the cash register? Awesome, you can do that. Just remember to keep social media social. Here’s the formula: 5:1. For every 1 promotional post you need to have no less than 5 non-promotional posts. Ask questions, encourage feedback, post pictures of your amazing food, but keep the ratio right. Facebook will penalize your posts if you treat it like a billboard where all you do is post weekly or monthly specials. They will limit how many people will see your posts (post reach) and your page will go dormant. You need to keep it social! Get this right and you will see your page reach expand and get a whole lot better response when you do run specials.
Who is your target audience, who do you want to attract to your business? Are they young, old, male, female? Talk to them in their language with your posts and you will have a better chance of seeing them in your business. Experiment with content to see what your customers respond to the best. The more interaction you get on these posts the more activity you will see on your special offers when you run them.
How often should you post? There are a lot of self-proclaimed gurus out there that claim you need to be posting 4-5 times per day on Facebook however we have seen that when you post more than twice per day you end up with people unliking your page because it’s overkill. The key is to stay top of mind with your customers but not be annoying. We encourage 5-6 times per week. Anything more than that and you will end up going backward. Just vary the times you post so you are sure to connect with more people.
If you are going to run some sort of a special make sure you have an expiration date and any other disclaimers on it or be prepared to legally honor that special for a very long time! It’s a digital world and special offers inside of Facebook can often be found very easily with a simple Google search.
Ok, you’re posting great content, getting good responses, people are leaving awesome comments. Now, what are you supposed to do? Don’t ignore them, respond back! At the very least click the “LIKE” button next to their comment to let them know you saw it and appreciate them taking the time to comment on your page. Keep in mind when someone puts a great comment on your page about your food they are publically endorsing your business! Don’t treat this lightly. The average person on Facebook now has 338 friends. This is a huge audience for you to be able to tap into for free. The more you engage with one person the more their friends will see it which means more free exposure for your business.
I know, it’s a lot to take in. Hopefully, I haven’t overwhelmed you. You can make Facebook your stores best friend or worst enemy. You just need to know how to use it. Want help with this? Give us a call and see if we are a good fit for your business. We have helped several businesses turn Facebook clicks into customers.
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Social Media Strategy
Action Steps:
1. Password protect any phones with access to your page.
2. Keep it social & keep the ratio right at 5:1.
3. Don’t ignore them.
Till next time
Randy Kuipers
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