How can you attract customers into your business beyond those who pass by or those already familiar with your coffee shop? How can a small independent café compete with the major high street chain down the street?
The answer has always been the same – through building strong customer relationships. One of the most effective ways to do this is through social media. Here are our tips on setting up your business account then communicate and engage with your customers using social media.
Pick the right platforms
The first thing your business will need to do is decide which social media platforms will be used. Ask yourself who your target demographic is and which channels offer the best opportunity to engage with them. You may also wish to consider the platforms your competition is already using.
Start small – stick to 1 or 2 social platforms to begin with. Once you can see that you are successfully building an online audience and are able to maintain regular content uploads, you can then begin to expand. Don’t run before you can walk! Also, make sure your social handles, page names and usernames are similar and easily recognisable to your following.
Be concise
People skim read. Keep text as concise as possible. Even though platforms like Facebook and Instagram allow more characters than Twitter, keep in mind that most content captions will usually be cut off after a few lines, so users will need to click ‘see more’ to continue reading. This means you need to grab their attention within the first few lines of text. If you do need to write something slightly longer, make sure you break your text up with spacing or bullets (emojis make great bullet points!) to make it easy to read.
Use imagery
Our brains are programmed to retain visual content better, so make sure you include a visual element with each piece of content you share. High quality images are great, but video is king. Our phones take such great quality video these days, so film your baristas making a latte or talking through your new summer menu. It will make great social content!
Did you know: Posts with images produce 650% higher engagement than text-only posts1.
Engage with your followers
It is not enough to create a profile and upload a picture every now and then. Interact with your audience by:
- asking them questions
- responding to their comments and questions
- tagging others in your content
- liking and sharing your follower’s posts.
- conducting polls (a great way to find out more about your audience)
Posting frequently also means your account is more likely to be seen. The more engagement you get, the more likely the platforms themselves will show your posts to a wider audience.
For more tips like these, be sure to sign up to the Matthew Algie newsletter. We’ll notify you of new blog content and delve deeper into social media and how your coffee business can use it to its full potential!
References
1. https://smartbirdsocial.net/5-reasons-use-visual-content-social-media/