Mostly everyone looks forward to summer. Even business owners a little worried about the slower summer months also welcome the warm weather and long lazy beach days. The cool thing about social media marketing is that you can schedule it in advance and also use your summer down time to get a little closer to your social media followers.
This 8 step social media guide will show you how to tap into your client's lives as well as share yours more effectively:
1. Think outside the box and make your product/service summer-related. You may not carry an actual “summer” product/service (such as bathing suits, ice cream, boat rentals, etc.) but that doesn’t mean you can’t surround your product or service with summer props and designs. Start by brainstorming a list of anything you think of when it comes to summer (sun, vacations, tropical, etc.) Once you’ve built a list of 10-20 ideas, go through them and see how you can relate them to your product or service.
2. Organize a Summertime Product Photo Shoot. Technology these days makes it easy for us to do a photo shoot right off of our smartphones. We even have photo editors on them, so that you don’t even need to upload it to our computers before posting it on all of our various social networks. Product photo shoots are great content for social networks such as Pinterest, where you can have the image link back to your website.
3. Design summer branded cover photos for your Facebook Page. Social media branding puts your business a step ahead of competitors. It creates the appearance that your business is fresh and current. Don’t let anyone have that advantage over your business. Create cover photos, profile pictures and tabs that embody both summer and your brand. On Twitter, you can do the same with your background and header image.
4. Document what you do behind the scenes. Show behind the scenes for photoshoots you’re taking in the summer, even if they’re for your fall/winter collection. Show scenic pictures – they don’t even have to elude to your product. People love to see exclusive pictures. Behind the scenes photos (some social networks such as Instagram use the hashtag #bts) allow fans and followers to view content that isn’t seen by everyone. Showing content that is exclusive and shows some of your businesses product really humanizes your brand. It can also create hype about upcoming summer products.
5. Make photo albums on Facebook of user-generated content. Facebook photo albums generate 180% more engagement than the average post. They allow your business to post multiple pieces of content at once without annoying users with multiple posts (such as if you were to pin multiple images on Pinterest), giving each post the ability to be engaging/interesting to more users at once.
6. Arrange summer Pinterest boards. Summer is a great time of the year. Photos taken are bright, sunny, and cheerful. These types of images get popular on Pinterest. Pinterest is an extremely powerful platform for brands because of the referral traffic from the social sharing site. Also, 70 percent of brand engagement on Pinterest is generated by users, not brands. Having seasonal Pinterest boards is always a good idea. For summer, don’t just include your products. Unless of course, you’ve created a product line for summer or you happen to sell a really unique array of items, such as bacon-flavored lollipops and water shoes with LED lights on them. On top of that board, you can create a summer Pinterest board featuring various images related to your field, but not necessarily your products at all.
7. Capitalize on the emotions of the season. In order to create content that will go viral, generally you must tap into one of the six emotions: Awe, Anger, Anxiety, Joy, Lust and Surprise. Why did Hautelook create a clay model of their name? Perhaps because it’s something different and visually appealing? In my opinion, they were tapping into awe. According to a study done regarding what makes online content goes viral, the best emotions to play into are awe, anger and anxiety. Personally, I find awe to be the most practical emotion to play into for businesses.
8. Run Summer Contests. Summer contests are a great way to create excitement around your business or a specific product/service you offer. It’s a win-win situation for both your customers and your business. Did you know that 34% of Facebook users like a brand’s Facebook page for promotions and discounts? 21% of Facebook users like a brand’s page in order to receive free giveaways. The first thing to consider is what you’re going to give away. Make sure that it is related to your business, or else people who only show interest in the prize will enter, and that’s no good for you because they aren’t real leads or already engaged customers.
Just by following these 8 simple steps you can totally monetize your social media marketing plan for the summer.
Which step from the 8 above will you be adding, for sure, to your current summer marketing plan?
Image Source: sportsandsocial on Flickr
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