Social Media For Local Businesses

Over the past few weeks, we've highlighted the best ways to use social media for different practices such as chiropractors, personal injury attorneys, and real estate agents. This week, we're discussing an important part of every community - local businesses! Local businesses can be anything from boutiques to coffee shops, and even doggy daycare facilities. As long as a business is locally owned and run, and help fulfill the needs of the local community, they are considered a local business. They're important to the community, but in order to generate interest and recognition, it's important to use social media to their advantage!

Whether your business has been around for decades, or if you only just opened shop, social media is a crucial way for local businesses to establish a presence in their community and increase traffic to their store. Whether your company is a clothing store, a bakery, a coffee shop, or even a dog grooming boutique, social media can give your company the extra boost it needs to become a permanent fixture in your community. So, how do you utilize social media to create a local presence? Keep reading to find out!

Tag, tag, tag!

As a local business, you're not alone in trying to make the public aware of your presence. Many other local businesses are also trying to spread the word about their company, so try helping each other out! Does the coffee from your coffee shop pair perfectly with a treat from the donut shop down the road? Take a picture, post it on social media, and make sure to tag the other company! They'll appreciate the shout-out from you, and they might even repost it, which would introduce their followers to your company! This won't necessarily happen every time you post about another business but getting friendly with other local companies and introducing your followers to their business will definitely make your brand look more personable and community-oriented.

You can also try collaborating with other local businesses on social media by approaching them in person. Do you have any specials you want to promote? Are there other businesses near you that want to participate in a promotion together? You can try having a discount night where, for a few hours, all of the companies participating have special discounts in their stores. Post about this on social media, tag every business participating, and make sure they're doing the same! Not only do people love deals and promotions, but they love the opportunity to visit multiple different stores with live promotions. It's like a mini Black Friday for your local community!

Participate in local events and post about it on social media

You may think this is the same thing as the point mentioned before this, but trust me, it's not. Joining with other businesses to create your own events and promotions is important but participating in longstanding events is just as imperative for your company! Don't you love going to weekly farmer's markets in your area? Isn't it fun to attend arts and crafts festivals? Why not try participating in them? Signing up for a booth at a local event will not only introduce your company to people that may not have heard of it, but it could also help you get some sales!

While you're at the event, take pictures and make sure to post them on social media. Whether you're posting to your actual feed, or you're just sharing fun footage on your story, showing that you take an interest in local events helps establish your place in the community. It shows possible clientele that you're not just interested in making a sale, but that you want to be part of the community.

Post about upcoming events and fun news around town

Even if you aren't actually participating in some events around town, it could be helpful to post about them! Posting about events and interesting news in the community such as new companies coming to the area or fun concerts set to play near you can help establish your social media as a resource for people in the community. This will also prompt people to share your posts if they're excited about the events, too! Try and add an engaging caption asking who is interested in the events or what the reader's favorite thing in the article is, to prompt the reader to post a comment. The more engagement you get with your post, the more seen you will be by others. And if people visit your social media profiles to look at a post someone shared from your page, they'll probably start scrolling and generate interest in visiting your store!

Use video to show off your products and services

Social media platforms are focusing more and more on video. With algorithms favoring videos over static images, it's best to try your hand at creating some interesting video content!

Who doesn't love a good unboxing video? Unboxing videos are pretty straightforward - they're videos of people opening a subscription box and going through the products on camera. If you look up unboxing videos on YouTube, you'll see videos with thousands (and even millions) of views. People love to see what they may be getting before they get it. Sometimes looking at a picture on a website just doesn't do a product justice. If you're a boutique that just received a new shipment of clothing, show off the newest clothing by either creating a video! If you're a candle company, discuss the different scents that you just received. Highlight the seasonal ones, so that people feel enticed to come straight to your store and try that new limited-edition peppermint candle for the winter that you just showed off on your video!

You can also use video in many different ways that can help your brand. Play around with different things you can do. Try giving a tour of your store. If you're the owner of a coffee shop, give a demonstration on how to make a great latte. Maybe you're trying to create a video for your doggy daycare… Show the best ways to groom a dog or take the viewer through the grooming process! Play to the strengths of your company and try to make the video fun so that people feel the need to check out your brick and mortar store sooner rather than later!

In conclusion…

Though these are only a few tips for your social media, they can help you become more known in your community. This can help create more foot traffic in your store! Try playing around with different social media tactics to see what works best for you.

Do you own a local business? Head over to tryhyperchat.com to schedule a consultation and see what we can do for your social media!