Opinion


kbb Birmingham 2018 Show Special


How to… use social media to create new business


Social media is an essential tool for any business but how do retailers get the most out of it? Claira Turvey, marketing manager at Elements Kitchens in Reading, reveals its social media strategy and offers some practical advice on how you can make these platforms work for your business


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ocial media gives you direct access to thousands of potential customers. The real cost, however, comes with the amount of time you need to put into it


if you want to be successful. You’ll need to learn how to be strategic in the way you engage. We researched the ways social media could work best for us and chose initially to focus on platforms that promised the greatest return on investment. As a result, we primarily use Facebook to engage with our retail customers, and LinkedIn for contract customers. To a lesser degree, we are also active on Houzz, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest. Facebook and Instagram are sister sites, meaning you can link your accounts and easily spread your paid-for advertising over both. Along with Houzz, they are the most powerful platforms for sharing your real projects and make it easy for customers looking for great designers to find you. Using Facebook and Instagram in a highly targeted way, we’ve seen an increase in leads and business; Facebook especially is one of our higher-performing marketing avenues. We find it brings in very enthusiastic customers. Social media works similarly to word-of-mouth


recommendations. The more likes or comments a post has, the more likely people are to respond or share it with their friends – a sort of herd-effect kicks in, which is the entire magic behind the much-coveted ‘viral’ post.


All these sites offer paid advertising, which can easily be targeted to your preferred audience. Facebook is fantastic value for money. Posts have a long life, as customer interactions remain visible and, in turn, encourage more interactions. Houzz is fantastic for customers looking for expert designers, as it allows them to easily explore projects and products. Twitter and Pinterest are great for keeping in touch with customers but pale by comparison with Facebook and Instagram if your


objective is to create leads.


A key thing to remember is that Facebook and the like are not restricted to young users. In the UK, around 26 million 25 to 65-year-olds use Facebook; of those, 16 million users are 35 or older. Around 44% of the UK uses Facebook more than once a day.


Reconnaissance


Consider a social media marketing workshop or a longer course. These will give you an overview of what’s out there and are good value for money. Also do some on-the-ground reconnaissance. Find other companies with a good social media strategy. Identify posts that work well. It’s worth noting the language they use when sharing posts, what they share, and how they interact with customers. One of the most disruptive changes in marketing in recent years has been storytelling. Are you simply robotically talking about product or are you adding the personal touch? Most importantly, growing a community and seeing it flourish takes time and effort in the form of consistently posting quality, engaging content. An inactive social media presence – for example


64 kbbreview kbb Birmingham Special Edition March 2018


with the last post several weeks old – is unattractive, so try to post at least once a week.


A social media management platform like Hootsuite allows you to post across multiple platforms at once and, if the platform doesn’t offer it organically, schedule posts. So you can set up posts for the entire month in less than a day’s work.


Growing a


community takes time and effort in consistently posting quality, engaging content


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