1) Can you relate?
Earning likes on your social media posts is great, but did you know that on Facebook and X, it's comments and shares that will drive reach and get more eyes on your post. So when creating social media posts, you want to be trying to encourage shares and comments. If your post evokes a strong emotion such as awe, amusement or laughter, people are more likely to share it - especially if they can relate.
Here are three types of relatable content from some of our favourite brands:
Inspirational posts that align with your brand values will resonate with your followers, whilst building your brand recognition. This post from ASOS empowers their followers, whilst still showcasing their product.
Over the past few years, 'the struggle is real' posts have become increasingly popular because people can identify with the specific feelings these types of posts portray. Take this Chipotle post as an example - people who love chips and dip will relate to this and feel compelled to share it with their friends to validate their experience.
Quote covers have been around since the dawn of social media. Just as when we quote books, films and famous philosophers in real life, we do so across our social media accounts too. Businesses can take this one step further and create their own quotes for their followers to share on their timelines. We love this example from Innocent who are known for their humorous and often sarcastic content on social media.
Think about what problems your business solves for your customers and create a funny and relatable piece of content for Facebook, X or Instagram.
2) Rally your customers behind a cause
What does your business represent? Who are your people? What are your customers interested in besides your product? Instead of only using a hashtag to promote your business, create one that serves as a rallying cry or a badge of honour for a “micro-community.” A micro-community is a group of people online who share a common interest such as travel or cycling. One of our favourite Instagram accounts that does micro-communities really well is Herschel Supply Company. They use #WellTravelled to show what the Herschel brand is all about and in turn they attract millions of travel photos from users around the world. This helps boost the organic reach of their brand.
What hashtag could you use to promote what your business is about and connect your customers? And you don’t have to come up with your own there are plenty of existing ones that you could utilise such as #traveltuesday or #newmusicmonday.
See how the Putney Bid, ‘Positively Putney’ has used its own hashtag #shareourputney to rally the residents and businesses of Putney behind.
3) Make a date for it
There’s a national or international day for almost everything, and those days are usually trending on X. There’s International Chocolate Day, International Day of the Girl, there’s even a day for talking like a pirate. They can be fun and frivolous, or important dates to recognise global issues.
Use a calendar such as this one and set a reminder for some of the dates you’d like to recognise on social media. Using international days enables you to show you’ve got your finger on the pulse of other topics of interest that might engage your customers, and it’s an easy way to find some content inspiration.
4) Share your success
Social media is a great way to bring your customers closer to all parts of your business. The more connected to a store or brand a shopper feels, the more likely they are to keep coming back and to refer you on to family and friends. Let your customers share your successes with you. Try sharing a recent success over X, Instagram or Facebook. Here are a few examples of milestones you might want to celebrate with your social media community.
We’ve just hit 1,500 X followers. Thank you to everyone for joining us on this journey and for @ShopperAccount for being our 1,500th follower!
Today was a record day for us. We had over 1,000 shoppers visit us and we’re thrilled! Thanks to everyone that came to see us today especially @Shopper Account and @ShopperAccount.
We’ve just been selected to showcase a new brand and we’re thrilled. From March we will be the only retailer in @Location featuring @BrandName. Come in and see!
When posting, make sure to tag in the customers, brands, or partners that helped you achieve that goal, and when people celebrate you by liking or retweeting, make sure to reach out and thank them. Sharing your success makes your business feel more personal. Let your customers connect to the people behind the brand and you should see fantastic results, both in-store and on your social media accounts.
5) Collect customer testimonials
Did you know that 90% of people who read online reviews said that positive reviews influence their buying decisions? (as reported by Zendesk, a leading customer service tool)
Testimonials are real, authentic pieces of product feedback that influence purchase decisions. By including testimonials regularly in your social media content, you can convert more followers to paying customers.
To make your brand accessible and involve your customers, re-post user content that features your products or brand. Customer endorsement is much stronger than anything you could say yourself, and being featured in your social media content will give your content a nice little ego boost. Your followers are more likely to engage or reshare your content if it's in their interest to share it. You could even turn this into a weekly feature such as ‘fan of the week’ or ‘fan favourite Friday’.
Why not try asking your customers to post a picture of your product in action - for example if you’re a home retailer, you could post this:
``We love seeing how you’ve styled your home with our products, tag us in any images (@USERNAME) to be featured".