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How to master social media this festive season
28 November 2022
Social media is one of the most powerful marketing tools at your disposal as a retailer. It’s an opportunity to connect with customers at every stage of the buying lifecycle, from those discovering your store for the first time to the loyal customers who consistently engage with your brand.
With Christmas fast approaching, now’s the perfect time to boost your social media presence and attract more customers who are looking to make purchases. To help you get started, we asked our Social Media team to share their expert tips and advice.
Lea Pillot
1. Stay relevant and inspire your followers
Many customers will turn to social media to find inspiration for Christmas gifting and décor during the festive season. This is a great opportunity for you to get creative with images and videos that make purchasing decisions easier for your customers and showcase your top products.
Make the most of the shopping features available on platforms like Instagram. This gives you the chance to tell your story and highlight your products seamlessly. Use the Product Tags feature on Instagram to allow your customers to shop in-app during the moment of discovery. Don’t forget that a consistent look and feel of your imagery and videos is key to building the identity of your store and catching the eye of customers old and new.
Top tip from our team: “Relevancy is key on social media – timely content that resonates with your audience and reflects current events is much more engaging. Getting into the holiday spirit should help you grow your reach this season.”
2. Share behind-the-scenes content
The human element of your business is key when it comes to connecting with your current and new customers. ‘Behind-the-scenes’ content has grown in popularity on social media platforms as it creates transparency that helps customers feel like they are part of your brand and community.
Using Instagram’s Reels feature is a great way to increase your visibility on the platform. According to data from Instagram, accounts with over 10k followers who posted at least five Reels over 60 days gained 2.5x more followers than those who didn’t use the feature.
During the festive season, you could consider using Reels to introduce your store team, share top gift picks from your shop or show quick how-to videos featuring your products. Reels are 90 seconds long and should be shot vertically, use a tool like InShot to easily crop and resize your content for use on Reels. Remember that this type of content doesn’t need to be as polished as your other posts. The more natural, the better.
Top tip from our team: “Human interest content and posts featuring real people drive engagement. Be humble, show your personality and let your followers in on what’s going on in your world. The response could be surprising… and inspiring.”
3. Get to know your customers better
One of the greatest benefits of using social media for your business is that it gives you a focus group of customers at your fingertips. This can help you understand how your customers shop, what products they are looking for and what would persuade them to make a purchase.
Popular social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter all offer polling features which enable you to directly ask questions to your customers and see their responses. In the run up to Christmas, this feature can be especially useful to gauge your customers reaction to new products or find out what gifts they’re looking for. Remember to intersperse polls with humorous or personal questions too, like what your customers’ favourite Christmas tradition or Christmas food is. Approaching your customers in an informal way will help them feel more of a part of your community.
Top tip from our team: “Social media is a two-way street – don’t underestimate the insights you can get by polling your followers. Polls are good for engagement, and can improve the reach of your Instagram Stories. Plus, you can learn more about your customers. It’s win-win!”
4. Give back to your customers with competitions and prizes
With the end of the year synonymous with giving, use the opportunity to give back to your customers and thank them for their loyalty throughout the year, whilst increasing your business’s social media engagement metrics.
A competition is a fun and easy way to engage followers. Be creative and original when it comes to your competitions and make them as interactive as possible. You could offer a prize for the best photos shared of one of your products being used, or ask your followers to tag a friend that they’d share a gift voucher for your store with. These simple tricks will ensure your customers feel valued and loyal to your brand year after year.
Top tip from our team: “Fun competitions that are designed to reward your existing followers can be a great way to show a little love and make someone’s day.”
5. Keep your customers up to date
Take advantage of the immediacy of social media to keep your community up to date with any changes that you’re making during the festive season.
Make sure your last order dates for online shipping are clearly communicated on your social media profiles and add any details about international delivery cut-off times. If you’re changing or extending your store opening hours in the run up to Christmas, put this information in your bio so that customers can easily find out when you’re open and the days you’re closed over the holidays. These easy additions are a great way to manage your customers’ expectations during the busiest time of the year.
Top tip from our team: “It’s important not to lose sight of a basic truth: your social media needs to give value to your followers. Otherwise why should they follow you? Use social media to make your customers’ lives easier. Your Instagram bio or Instagram Highlights can be a great place to pin your opening hours or any other useful information. If you’re closing for Christmas, let them know with an Instagram Story or a pinned post.”
