HIGH POINT — Being successful on social media is more than just having a presence; it takes strategy and finding the right path among the various social outlets.
During a presentation in the Home Furnishing Assn.’s Resource Center, Fredy Wright of Conquest Digital Solutions told attendees Facebook is still the No. 1 social media app, despite the perception that the app skews toward older users, especially Baby Boomers.
But just being on Facebook isn’t good enough, said Wright, noting a mere 2% of followers actually see what you’ve posted. There are nuances that can help visibility, such as making sure posts are mobile-friendly because 82% of people access social media through their phones.
After Facebook — which is used at least weekly by 46% of those age 12 and older — Instagram is the second most popular, and TikTok is third. Instagram also presents challenges, he said, with 70% of posts never being seen.
Having established which social media channels retailers should target, the goal then is to push people through the funnel to create engagement and loyal followers. And that is achieved not by touting the brand, but rather by talking about something other than your company.
About 80% of what retailers post should be about engagement. “Put up more than a sales pitch,” he urged them.
One way to achieve that is to post an open question to spark a conversation that will generate comments. Make posts easy to understand, not deep, he said. Also make it fun, using things such as Facebook and Instagram reels.
While the task of posting on social may seem daunting, Wright said ChatGPT can be an aid for writing copy. Just putting in a few key prompts can generate suggestions for a posts.
Video now accounts for almost one-half of the time spent on Facebook, with 68% of viewers watching video on Facebook and Instagram weekly. People spend about five times longer looking at video content than they do on static content on Facebook, he said.
Other considerations when posting videos, he said, include making sure videos are vertical rather than horizontal, which ties into the overwhelming use of phones, and to include captions since 85% of videos are watched without sound.
Another tip for successful posting is to find the optimum times for the various channels. For Facebook, 10 a.m. Friday has proven to be the best time to post, while Instagram is also on Friday but at 11 a.m. Tik Tok, meanwhile, isn’t as easy to pin down, with afternoons and early evening skewing as more popular on most days.
Rather than boosting a post, which is a paid option for getting more traffic, Wright suggested that retailer do an ad campaign on Facebook and to make sure their posts are in the news feed. Facebook Audience Network (FAN) extends a retailer’s reach on social beyond Facebook and taps into the top mobile apps that are integrated with FAN. This allows retailers to target users based on their interests, behaviors or specific demographics, explained Wright.
Another tactic is to use social mirror ads, which look like your social media display but appear on other websites and apps. These ads can “mirror” the look for each platform and include multiple call-to-action options.
To better understand the impact of how a retailer’s social media program is doing, Wright suggested using tools such as Facebook Insight via the Meta Business Suite, which is similar to Google Analytics. Being able to see the age and gender of followers or even the cities in which they reside can provide insights into who should be targeted and how to do it.
An additional option is the benchmarking tool, which shows how stores of similar size and with similar numbers of followers are doing as well. By looking at those numbers, retailers can see how what kinds of posts are generating traffic among their peers.
The bottom line for retailers, he said, is to find a social strategy that allows them to maximize their effort so they can spend more time on the sales floor.
See also:
h