We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again. Marketing for a local business is different than marketing for a national company. That’s especially true when marketing on social media, which gives you the unique ability to connect with your customers about what’s happening in your local community. Is everyone talking about the weather? You can identify better than some national business (and if you’re an HVAC company, answer their weather-related questions!). Is the local buzz about a community event? You’re excited too, and more than willing to share in the fun.
Social media gives local businesses to take part in the local buzz and connect with them between visits (or service calls or appointments or…). And even though businesses are taking advantage, one of the most common questions we hear is, “what can we post to social media?”
Our answer comes with a caveat. Social media posts should be done in accordance with a marketing plan, but with the flexibility to post things that come up during everyday operations. Ideally, a marketing plan should include regular and relevant posts (if you can’t maintain regular posts, contact the marketing pros that can); the definition of regular depends on the social media network. On Facebook, for example, businesses should post once a day to avoid overloading newsfeeds (more can be posted during big events).
Back to the most common question about what to post to social media. This is a list of ideas for social media post that can be included in a local business social media marketing plan:
- Photos of new products
- Helpful ‘how to’ article
- Local news article
- Link to local community event the business is part of
- Photo of business location
- Photo of happy employee working
- Photo of employee on anniversary (10 years at business, 5 years…)
- Photo of building many years ago
- Photo or video on special anniversary day
- Video of new product
- Unusual or beautiful photo with ask for captions
- Photo of founders of company with story about start
- Video/slideshow of product from start to finish
- Article with frequently asked questions
- Post about National Day (i.e. National Donut Day, National Dog Day, etc.)
- Reshared post from another business with relevant news
- Reshared post of local community news
- Photos of event at business
- Photos of customers at event (with their permission)
- Reshared photos from other businesses at event
- Live video of ribbon cutting
- Live video of event in progress
- Live video of new product arriving
- Link to blog post
- Link to website page where customers can contact/make an appointment/order
- Video or photo of remodeling/construction at building
- Photo of area around building during holiday season (i.e. holiday light display, trick-or-treat, etc.)
- Graphic with sale information
- Promotional video of sale
- Flashbacks to past jobs or milestones
