Social Media Tips for Retailers

We'd love to share a few tips with you about using social media to sell more items in your local shop.

Most of our business, how our retail customers find us, how YOU guys find us, comes from social media!

We'd love to share a few tips with you about using social media to sell more items in your local shop. Most of our business, how our retail customers find us, how YOU guys find us, comes from social media!

Social media is a great way to take advantage of FREE advertising. You really need a social media presence these days to drive customers into your shop- unless you have an amazing location that people come to without any work! But who wouldn't want MORE business beyond what you have?!

We hope these tips will help if you are new to or just not used to using social media, and you may learn something even if you've been using it awhile! We want your businesses to be successful at selling more than just our signs, because the more customers and overall traffic you can get to your shop, the more eyes on our signs as well!

If you are interested in going way further than we can here, check out some of our favorite coaches and online classes!

Grow your social media with a business coach

Kathy of Savvy Shopkeeper is an amazing business coach for retail business owners! We have been a part of her coaching group from day one. She has many free resources to help you grow your shop, but also a monthly group that dives deep into topics like social media, finances, marketing and MORE specifically for brick and mortar shops and online retailers. We’ve loved connecting with others and building relationships with the Facebook group that goes along with it!

Instagram tips with Alex tooby

Alex was the FIRST coach we ever paid to teach us something about growing our own business. Her FREE Instagram trainings are amazing and her paid ones are even better!

She teaches how to grow your following without being sleezy and following/unfollowing people and using bots to comment, like and follow. (Just DON'T do that if you are!!)

She has a great paid course on growing your Instagram overall and a super in depth look at using hashtags. Both are amazing!

VISIT ALEXTOOBY.COM

FACEBOOK TIPS

All businesses should have a Facebook page (not just a personal profile). Doing business only on your personal page can get your profile shut down.
Make sure you've filled out ALL the details, street address, website, phone number, email etc. Make it easy for your customers to find you and get a hold of you for questions.
Post regularly.....whatever that means for you. Every day, 5 times a week, once a week- just BE consistent and actually POST. It may look to customers like you are out of business if you don’t post and they might decide not to visit your shop and risk it being closed.
Post special events and closures. If you are closing for sickness, weather, other emergencies post it if you can!
Do Facebook lives- this is a great way to get new eyes on your page and new followers. If you are like me, you may not like doing them but they WORK! You have a huge advantage being a shop owner- you can do lives around your store, showing new items, new displays, featuring new vendors or products and you'd never even have to show your face.
But speaking of showing your face- people DO like to buy from those they know, like, and trust! Your page should be about your shop and what you sell, but throwing in some personal stuff to make you a real person to them is great!
Try not to make every post about selling- share a beautiful display in your shop with a quote about something meaningful in the photo- what that color or texture reminds you of, a special memory etc.
Invite a conversation- ask questions on your posts to get engagement. Questions that are quickly answered are best- which color do you like best, what's your favorite thing here, etc. The more engagement you get the more your posts will be seen.
Use the "INVITE" feature. Click on the names of people that have liked your photos. If they don't already like your page, you can click "invite" beside their name and it will ask them to like your page. You know they like your content (because they literally just hit "like!" on a post!), but now you want them to take the next step and follow your page.
Run Facebook ads! This can seem intimidating and scary but ads WORK to get you more likes on your page and more people in your store. You can run highly targeted Facebook ads to get followers who are truly interested in what you sell.

INSTAGRAM TIPS

While not every brick and mortar retailer is going to have an Instagram page, shopping is VERY visual, and visual is what Instagram is all about, and you SHOULD have one!
Be sure to completely fill out your profile, add location, store hours, website, phone and or email, and any other important info.
LOCATION is the most important! I can't tell you how many stores I've seen leave that out, only to realize later I'd been near them and could have visited if I’d only known where they were.
Again post regularly whatever that means- several times a week at least to your main feed, and daily to Instagram stories.
In stories, you can add fun videos, graphics, text, take polls, ask questions, and really get your audience involved. The more people interact the more they will see your future posts.
Post pictures in your feed that give an overall feel of your store, not just up close product photos. When someone clicks on your profile and sees all the photos you've posted, they should have a quick overall view of what your store looks like.
In addition to pictures in your feed, use Reels. Currently the best way to grow and reach followers, show off styling tips and tutorials on how to display your home decor or how to style your clothing and accessories. Give sneak peeks of new product shipments, up close looks at best sellers, and so much more!
Make sure your photos and videos are light, bright, and inviting.
A mix of vignette pictures and wider shots of your store will give customers an idea of your overall look and what you have to offer them
The same as with Facebook posts- invite a conversation so that people will be more likely to comment on your posts.
Stories disappear after 24 hours, and you can be a little freer with what you post there. Mix in some personal stuff, photos of your kids, customers and their kids shopping (with their permission!!), have fun and be creative with it.
Any stories that represent your shop really well that you want to stick around- add them to your highlights.
Use hashtags geared toward your CUSTOMERS, not your competition! Of course, you will have other stores that follow to see what you are doing, but what you want is more customers. Avoid hashtags like #entrepreneur and #brickandmortar that would attract other store owners. Location hashtags are THE best to help you reach local customers.
Use hashtags that relate to the type of products you sell, your location-specific hashtags, or the type of customers you want. Don't use general hashtags like #homedecor #shopping. Those will get you no where. Be specific and take some time to research a few before you start using them. Make sure there are photos like yours under those hashtags.

PINTEREST TIPS

Lots of people tend to overlook this one because it’s not really "social."
It's important to have a presence on Facebook and Instagram, but Pinterest is where most of us go to "google" pretty things now!
Pin photos of your shop with hashtags and descriptions so that if someone puts "home decor shops in Nashville, TN" in the search bar, your shop will come up.
You can use Tailwind to automate and spread out your posting throughout the day, it makes it easy to pin your most popular items AND it is sanctioned by Pinterest!
You will typically see more results from Pinterest by viewing the traffic to your webpage than you will see actual amounts of followers, repins and comments. This is one reason it's highly overlooked. It's harder to know what sales and customers have come from Pinterest, but when you get your pins of your shop and your items up on Pinterest you will be amazed!