How to Use Social Media Customer Care to Grow Your Social Channels

With social media’s growing importance in the business world, it becomes vital for companies to have a strong online presence in order to achieve higher sales, popularity, and a good reputation. According to the 2008 Cone Business in Social Media Study, 60{bfa23e0adf5035fdfa71191ffe91e54dd073cdba85c1f10af47dda85ac37f507} of Americans regularly interact with companies on a social media website and a staggering 93{bfa23e0adf5035fdfa71191ffe91e54dd073cdba85c1f10af47dda85ac37f507} want to see the presence of brands on their social media sites. Consumers expect quality products and services, but more importantly, they seek top tier social media customer care or social CRM.

What is Social CRM?

Social CRM (social customer relationship management) is the use of social media platforms, like Facebook or Twitter, as a strategy to allow companies to build and maintain relationships with customers. Rather than using social media solely as a platform for companies to get the word out, social media customer care is encouraging businesses to use social to receive inbound conversations and inquiries to increase engagement. It is all about collaboration with the customer in order to build your brand. By monitoring and using the data provided from social media platforms, companies can gain a better understanding of the consumer, placing the consumer at the center of the organization.

social media customer care

How is Social CRM Different from Traditional CRM?

The major difference between social CRM and traditional CRM is the importance of communication with the customer. CRM is defined by the company, while social CRM is defined by the consumer. In traditional CRM, data is gathered on consumers, but there is no personalization or interaction. It is simply about gathering and managing data, whereas social CRM seeks engagement from that data. In addition, traditional CRM is based on a customer service system that operates under company hours and often uses an impersonal script that is read by a worker to the customer. However, with social media customer care, consumers set the hours and can expect quicker replies since social media exists in real time.

How Can You Utilize Social CRM?

social media customer careAccording to the Brand Science Institute, European Perspective in 2010, only 7{bfa23e0adf5035fdfa71191ffe91e54dd073cdba85c1f10af47dda85ac37f507} of organizations understand the value of social CRM. With such a low number of companies utilizing social media customer care, you can increase growth and profits by being one of the few who do. At Bright Age, we assist our clients in their interaction with the consumer in order to maximize their successes. Your social media customer care team can use social CRM to interact with the consumer promptly at all hours, monitor social media sites for complaints to quickly minimize issues, and reward brand advocates for their support. By using social media to your advantage, your company will build a happier customer base, which in the end, benefits your brand.

How to Utilize Social Media Demographics

Marketing today is harder than it has ever been. We are straying away from traditional television advertising and heading towards complete digital interaction. Social media and social media demographics has become the epicenter for marketing specialists and the main platform for marketing strategies.

As always, businesses must identify their target audience and create the right segmentation. Sounds easy right? Actually, it isn’t when you consider the different types of social media websites and their demographics. Different websites require different content and creativity, and depending on your product, some websites will be better/worse for your product. For example, your target audience can be on Facebook and Instagram but require different approaches since they both have different demographics.

An easy way to solve this is to look at a website’s demographics and create a strategy from there. A social media marketing agency like Bright Age is perfect for creating your social media campaign. Here are the main social media demographics and how your business can take advantage of them!

Social Media in General

Needless to say, social media is full of endless marketing opportunities. Here are the general social media demographics that you should be aware of.

  • 8 billion social media users worldwide
  • 37{bfa23e0adf5035fdfa71191ffe91e54dd073cdba85c1f10af47dda85ac37f507} global penetration
  • 22{bfa23e0adf5035fdfa71191ffe91e54dd073cdba85c1f10af47dda85ac37f507} increase in last year

Facebook

As of today, Facebook contains the highest number of users at an astonishing 1.9 billion monthly inhabitants. These users are predominately female, yielding at 83{bfa23e0adf5035fdfa71191ffe91e54dd073cdba85c1f10af47dda85ac37f507} online female users while 75{bfa23e0adf5035fdfa71191ffe91e54dd073cdba85c1f10af47dda85ac37f507} online male users. As for reach, Facebook is the best place to reach Millennials and Generation X (ages 18 – 49).

LENDELEDE, BELGIUM - MAY 24TH 2016: hand holding iphone6 mobile phone which displays the Facebook app on the touch screen

Facebook is a great place to have a detailed and aesthetic digital representation of your brand. Here, you can provide the fine details on why your business is so great while providing attractive picture/text content. Think of this as your business page, but with the ability to reach millions of people at any given time. Once you drive traffic to your Facebook page; make sure your business location, product details, and general info are appealing and easy to spot. And of course, take into careful consideration of the social media demographics we provided above!

YouTube

YouTube is a pretty popular site and has been around for quite a while. Coming in at 1 billion users, it just might be better than TV with more opportunities of exposure. YouTube is predominately male, with 55{bfa23e0adf5035fdfa71191ffe91e54dd073cdba85c1f10af47dda85ac37f507} of users being male with respect to its 45{bfa23e0adf5035fdfa71191ffe91e54dd073cdba85c1f10af47dda85ac37f507} female users. Per minute, there are about 2 million videos watched a day!

This site has been around for a long time and doesn’t really hold a grab on a specific demographic. Young to old and from culture to culture, when looking for a video YouTube is the world’s first choice. With that, YouTube is perfect for anytime you want a create a timeless video on your product. It’s a good way for consumers to learn about your product/business in even greater detail. And if you get really big, you can even generate some ad revenue from YouTube!

Instagram

Instagram is quite impressive in its own right, they’ve grown exponentially and at a rate higher than any other social media site.  They currently hold 600 million monthly users with 90{bfa23e0adf5035fdfa71191ffe91e54dd073cdba85c1f10af47dda85ac37f507} of them being under 35.

insta-demographics

Obviously, Instagram appeals more to the younger generation. It is incredibly important to keep this in mind when creating a post and text content. Include relevant trends, fads, and make sure your hashtags are catchy! Also, it is important to note that 53{bfa23e0adf5035fdfa71191ffe91e54dd073cdba85c1f10af47dda85ac37f507} of users follow brands. This a great opportunity to keep your followers updated and engaged.

Twitter

Twitter is an in-the-moment and live way to keep followers engaged and informed about your brand. It has 317 Million monthly users being predominately male around the ages of 18-29. Only 47{bfa23e0adf5035fdfa71191ffe91e54dd073cdba85c1f10af47dda85ac37f507} of users post updates and spend an average of 2.7 minutes daily on Twitter.

bright-age-social-media-demographics-twitter

Since twitter predominately holds a younger audience content must be create that caters towards this demographic. When you effectively engage, you are creating the opportunity to gain more followers, more engagement, and more traffic towards your website.

Pinterest

To date, this is the most evergreen social media site around. It has 317 million monthly users, which consists of around 75{bfa23e0adf5035fdfa71191ffe91e54dd073cdba85c1f10af47dda85ac37f507} female. As for the age demographic, they are evenly distributed between 18-64.

What is important to note, is that 10{bfa23e0adf5035fdfa71191ffe91e54dd073cdba85c1f10af47dda85ac37f507} people referred to Pinterest are more likely to purchase on e-commerce. Use this opportunity to showcase your product as aesthetically as possible to make it more visually appealing. Text content is not as important on Pinterest, but be sure to provide links that will showcase your product in more detail.

Even though all of these sites have different demographics and require different content. The main goal is to combine the necessary platforms for your brand so that you can create an effective social media campaign. Having the right combination and content between all these social media sites will create the interaction and exposure your brand needs to stay relevant in the market. Our social media marketing agency will help you to create the right combination for your social media campaign!

7 Tips for Marketing Your Business This Spring

Whether you’re starting a social media campaign or doing some spring cleaning, your business can always use some useful social media marketing tips. A Los Angeles social media agency such as Bright Age is perfect for getting your business on the right track. With our social media marketing tips, your campaign will reach your target market, move in the right direction, and create a presence that will solidify you from your competitors. Here are our 7 social media marketing tips for getting your business going this Spring!

Choose and Build the Right Campaign

This first step is the most crucial in starting or maintaining your campaign. Set reasonable goals and establish the tools necessary to reach them.

Different campaigns give different results – Choose a social media platform that will get you to your goals. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and LinkedIn all have different capabilities and reach. Creating the right combination and content between these platforms is an essential first step.

Choose an SEO and Social Media Analytics Service

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a deciding factor on whether your business will make it or break it. No matter how great your product is, without your market being properly informed it is practically useless. Having an SEO engine will assist you in getting your brand some good exposure.

Use a social media analytics service – Services such as Sprout Social and Hootsuite will let you know how effective your social media posts are. You’ll see which posts created the most buzz, which demographic it appealed to, how many impressions it made, and ultimately if it was successful or not.

Reply/Engage with Your Fans

Do your best to build a lasting relationship with your fans on a personal level. Like and comment on their photos to build favorable attitudes towards your brand. Additionally, do the same on potential customers posts for brand exposure. Doing this helps humanizes your brand and increases your social prescence.

Look at Your Top Three Competitors

Take a look at who you’re competing against, especially the top 3 competitors in the market. Compare your strategy with theirs and see what puts them at the top of the market. See what flaws they have in their strategy and build upon your own. Our Los Angeles social media agency are experts in identifying and analyzing competitors for you!

Do a Quick Brand Check

At this point, you’ve established yourself and are almost at your goals. Brand consistency is key and a good cleanup task for this Spring.

Build trust, credibility, and awareness by answering yes to these 3 questions.

  • Is your profile or avatar the same on every photo?
  • Is your header or cover image consistent?
  • Are your bios, descriptions, and URL identical?

Measure and Analyze Your Campaigns Success

As you begin to wrap up your campaign, assess the progress made on your original goals. Measure both quantitative and qualitative results. By analyzing your campaign, you may discover some new information – such as how customers are using your products post-purchase, etc. You’ll see which tactics provided the most reward and which ones were unsuccessful. This is where your social media analytics service will come into play.

Create New Goals

As this campaign comes to an end, it is time to look onto the next season and establish new goals. If you met your goals with these last 6 steps, take those strategies and translate them into monthly, quarterly, and annual goals.

See where you want to be in a year, 5 years, and even 10 years. Having goals and metrics appear on paper creates accountability and the drive to complete them. Our Los Angeles social media Agency is perfect for reaching your short-term and long-term goals!

Instagram Carousel Opens Up New Possibilities for Advertisements

Sometimes one photo is not enough to tell your whole story. Instagram has released a new feature where you can share multiple photos at once. This feature known as “carousel” lets you post up to 10 photos and videos into 1 swipeable post. A social media company such as Bright Age is perfect for capitalizing on this new feature. Instagram essentially wants users to share their experiences to its fullest extent from beginning to end. Imagine cooking your favorite dish and creating a carousel showing your followers step by step how to make it. Or maybe a carousel on a tree in your backyard as it goes through the seasons. This is sort of a side step from the Instagram stories feature and is modeled after Snapchat. New features like this give more opportunities for social media marketing services to expand your brand. Here is how it works and what it can do for your product/service!

How It Works

Instagram has always improved their software by enhancing the features of their competitors. This time is no different. Instagram has become more than just a social media platform, it has become a lifestyle and business that connects personalities around the world. A social media company can capitalize on this and market a brand to its fullest capabilities.

The feature itself is relatively easy to learn. When users post to their feed, they’ll see a button for selecting multiple photos. They can then edit up to 10 photos and videos individually, add a filter if they please, choose the order, and tag the appropriate friends. The location, caption, likes, and comments will apply to the whole post and will follow the same format as a regular Instagram post. Social media marketing services will have endless possibilities with this new feature.

If you’re still a little confused on how this might look, click here for an example of a carousel post.

Use It For Your Brand!

Instagram has always been perfect for marketing and creating brand awareness but never really captured Snapchat’s concentrated marketing scope. One of the main difficulties was that the Instagram story was not the center of the experience like Snapchat. You’d have to scroll up on Instagram to view stories vs. Snapchat where it is the main experience.

Social media marketing services will use this new feature to market products and services in more detail. Brands will be able to show the full extent of their services instead of being limited to creating brand awareness. This feature could showcase the before and after effects of their product insisting on how the consumer will be better off after using their product. 10 pictures/videos give a lot of room for creativity and brands can market their product in more detail giving consumers a more in depth view.  Simple photo editing and filters can accentuate this so the possibilities are endless.  A social media company like Bright Age can utilize this new feature and showcase your product or service!

 

The Benefit of Instagram Stories V Snapchat Stories for Social Media Marketing

Social Media is an ever-changing landscape and brands must be able to adapt to ongoing trends and innovations. Every social media marketing agency should provide the most engaging way for viewers to interact and gain interest in their product. Instagram and Snapchat stories can do just that and much more. These stories provide live and in the moment video/picture content for consumers to see. These stories are easy to utilize for any social media marketing agency. Here at Bright Age, we can optimize Snapchat and Instagram stories to tailor your specifications and brand goals. However, each platform is different and must be utilized correctly in respect to different types of products. Here are some quick tips and what each platform can offer over the other!

Identify Your Audience

The first step is always to identify your audience. Snapchat and Instagram primarily have young audiences but Snapchat grasps an especially younger group – 25{bfa23e0adf5035fdfa71191ffe91e54dd073cdba85c1f10af47dda85ac37f507} of users are young than 18 and use Snapchat as their primary social media and messaging tool. Instagram grazes 22{bfa23e0adf5035fdfa71191ffe91e54dd073cdba85c1f10af47dda85ac37f507} of users younger than 18. Notably, Instagram is best for consumer-focused brands that have channels for products and services relegated towards fashion, food, athletics, and lifestyle. Even if your brand falls out of these categories, Instagram provides a variety of opportunities for engagement. These are some of the factors brands must consider when using Instagram versus Snapchat stories. A Los Angeles social media agency like Bright Age is perfect for relegating what channels are perfect for your brand.

The Difference – Advantages & Disadvantages

An important aspect to consider is how these two platforms differentiate from each other. Instagram gives you the ability to tags users directly so that you can reach brands, members, media, or individuals. You can then continue a dialogue that you have started in your feed which can lead to sturdier brand continuity.

Snapchat on the other hand must add brands intentionally. In general, Snapchat has a distinctly more concentrated scope. A social media marketing agency might be more inclined to use Snapchat for event marketing or connection with a celebrity or public figure.

Although Instagram may seem to hold the throne on stories versus Snapchat, there are creative features that Instagram does not feature.

  • Stories are not the center of the experience, you must scroll up to the top and engage it yourself.
  • Snapchat opens the camera so users can take a picture right away.
  • Snapchat offers bitmoji.

The one true advantage that Instagram may have is that they plug you directly into your existing social network. In other words, you can automatically see stories from people that you already follow on Instagram.

Pros and Cons

Here are some the quick pros and cons that a social media marketing agency might consider when choosing a platform.

Snapchat Stories

  • Geotags give brands an opportunity to insert themselves into private conversations.
  • The audience is more engaged because users must act – i.e., visit your site, manually follow you and take screenshots.
  • There’s more person-to-person contact since individuals view brands on their Snapchat feed as friends.
  • No marketing metrics for ads.
  • No way to measure views, peak hours for engagement or demographic info.
  • It is difficult for advertisers to have active and engaging conversations with consumers.

Instagram Stories

  • Use of visually appealing images.
  • Brands can link out ads in the bio.
  • The ability to post multiple photos at once.
  • Brands can harness the power of Instagram’s advertising father – Facebook.
  • Metrics on organic posts are not robust.
  • Plausible to lead to advertising fatigue.
  • Younger demographic may depart because of similarities to Facebook. Younger generation is often deterred by Facebook software similarities.

Moving Forward

A Los Angeles social media agency like Bright Age takes these factors into consideration when developing an advertising campaign for specific brands. If companies were to ask us which would be the undisputed winner, we would say it is a tie. Different products have different markets and reach potential. We do our best to maximize a brand’s potential while making their marketing strategies unique.

Facebook Advertising Capabilities Increase with More Retargeted Ad Options

The primary reason why 50{bfa23e0adf5035fdfa71191ffe91e54dd073cdba85c1f10af47dda85ac37f507} of new businesses last only 4-5 years is because of a lackluster and incompetent advertising campaigns, which would be vastly improved with the assistance of a social media agency. A great product or service is useless without effectively informing your ideal market. Having an effective advertising campaign is not only essential to a new business, but a lifeline for any business to stay relevant and operational. Facebook has launched “dynamic ads” to maximize reach and potential. These dynamic ads are retargeted promotions that are displayed in newsfeeds after someone looks at a product on a retailer’s website or mobile application. They offer different options on who they want to target and how they want to target them. Here’s how it works and what it can do to optimize your advertisements.

How It Works

The dynamic ads are simple, it lets advertisers target more Facebook users based on their web activity. For example, if someone has searched “social media agency in Woodland Hills” or “social media company in Los Angeles” and has additionally liked Facebook pages or posts on social media agencies, then retargeted ads based on this web activity could show up on their newsfeed. In this example, they might have us, Bright Age, show up on their newsfeed!

Facebook Algorithms

The algorithms used by Facebook is an interesting subject within its own right. It makes output for advertisers and their advertising companies more efficient and capable. Combined with great creative content, these algorithms serve as an exceptional way to reach a potential target market that you may have missed. Advertisers upload a different array of products that they want to promote. They would then select an audience that they want to target. The algorithms then look at traffic patterns on retailers’ mobile sites and apps as well as information on Facebook to automatically serve a targeted promo to users. If performed correctly, brands will be able to create sales beyond people visiting their mobile app or website, especially with new customers.

A Great Acquisition Tool

What makes this such a great acquisition tool is that advertisers can target people who are interested but have not looked at a certain product online. This gives social media agencies and companies a tool to reach as much people as possible while staying relative. There are two main things it can do to optimize your advertisements:

  1. “It automates the process of who it can show its products to” – This simplifies the trial and error period of targeting consumers manually.
  2. “Brands are essentially creating one, extremely efficient advertisement” – In a simplified example, to sell 1,000 products you would have to create 1,000 different ads to reach different people for these products. This tool would create one advertisement that would satisfy your requirements.

With the increase in the capabilities of Facebook advertisements, there is also a drastic increase in what a social media agency or company can do for your brand. Here at Bright Age, we can maximize your brand’s digital and creative potential to create a more than effective advertising campaign!

7 Tips for your 2017 Social Media Marketing Strategy

Present day, social media for business is one of the best ways to differentiate your brand from competitors by allowing you to post creative and tailored content. Here are 7 tips for 2017 to help your company fully utilize social media for business.

1.) Maintain Your Relationships with Current Followers

As we know, it is far more expensive to gain new customers or followers than it is to retain current ones. In saying this it is important to maintain the relationships between your loyal followers. This can be done with thoughtful posts where attempt to get your customers involved in your decision making process for new products or services. Ask questions that engage your audience and start a discussion. You may also feature “customer appreciation days” where you giveaway prizes or offer discounts. When making these posts make sure to truly acknowledge the appreciation you have for those customers.

2.) Use More Discretion When Posting Content

I have come across countless social media business pages that post content completely unrelated to the products or services they offer. When posting 2017 make sure to ask yourself these questions before posting in order to determine if you are going to receive the most value from your post:

1.) Is this valuable information?

2.) Is this information entertaining or practical to my audience?

3.) Does this post relate to my brand?

4.) Will this post help my audience to connect with my brand?

5.) Have I included a call to action?

3.) Take Advantages of Trends

Social media trends come and go but if you catch on within the right amount of time they can help boost your relevance factor as a brand. Constantly educate yourself on upcoming technology or topics people are discussing. Then try to incorporate these ideas into the content you post.

4.) Try Color Psychology

92.6{bfa23e0adf5035fdfa71191ffe91e54dd073cdba85c1f10af47dda85ac37f507} of people say visual stimulation was the reason they pushed the “buy now” button. Colors have been proven to affect marketing because they affect the subconscious are of the brain. Color psychology works because it taps into our emotions. Refer to the guide below when creating colorful posts so you can figure out which emotion you may want to evoke pertaining to your brand.

color psychology

5.) Create 360 videos and images

Consumers more than ever want to feel included in your brand experience. Instead of posting simple videos or images about an event pertaining to your company, try utilizing 360 videos and images to fully immerse them in the experience.

 

6.) Utilize Social Media Advertising

If you have not yet tried paid advertising on Facebook, Instagram or Snap, now is the time. Organic brand visibility has slowly been on the decline due to the amount of competition. Creative and tailored content can help your brand receive the visibility it requires to grow. Prevent the waste of ad dollars by being as specific as possible when targeting your demographic, location and behaviors of the audience you wish to capture.

7.) Focus on One Social Media Platform

We are all familiar with the divide and conquer strategy relating to social media platforms. Without a sufficient amount of funds, developing every social media platform is costly and time consuming. Focus on and refine the social media platform that best relates to your brand and then utilize your resources accordingly. One strong social media platform with a huge following and engagement carries far more weight than 5 different evenly spread platforms.

Social media for business is crucial to differentiate your brand from your competitors. Working with a social media marketing agency such as Bright Age can help your business create a marketing plan for the upcoming 2017 year.

Facebook for Businesses Improves with Launch of Unified Inbox

Managing social media inboxes and responses is a tedious task, especially when it comes to maintaining profiles for a business and maximizing the potential of Facebook marketing. This is why Facebook is attempting to solve this issue for at least a few platforms with the introduction of their unified inbox for Facebook, Messenger and Instagram. This unified inbox allows you to maintain comments, responses and messages all at once. Benji Shomair, Facebook’s global head of Pages, describes the new functionality of the Facebook unified inbox “one of our most frequent requests.” The overall goal of the Facebook unified inbox is to help businesses to manage their social media and better respond to customers.

Before the Facebook unified inbox, users had to sign into and open separate apps. Benji Shomair also added, “There were some people even carrying multiple phones so that they can quickly respond to all the different things coming in.”  This is a tedious and time consuming task considering social media interactions are instant. Spending time on just one platform can take away from the possible connections of another. It will soon be possible to respond to Facebook, Messenger and Instagram information from the Facebook Page Managers app. The app will stream all content including comments on Facebook posts, posts on pages, messages and comments on Instagram and videos. One will be able to quickly scan through their content so as to never miss any important announcements. There are also tabs that will focus on individual channels meaning you can still maintain each channel individually if you choose to do so.

Although the inbox is not out yet, the release will be coming soon. It is currently being tested by multiple companies who specifically use the Pages Manager app (on iOS and Android). Already early testers have said that the updated inbox has allowed them to streamline their workflow which in turn has saved their time by around 12{bfa23e0adf5035fdfa71191ffe91e54dd073cdba85c1f10af47dda85ac37f507}. Working with a social media marketing agency such as Bright Age can help you company properly utilize and understand the unified inbox and the platforms it supports.

Instagram Grows with the Introduction of Shopping

Instagram has recently revealed the creation of their in-app shopping experience, Instagram Shopping. It is said that 84{bfa23e0adf5035fdfa71191ffe91e54dd073cdba85c1f10af47dda85ac37f507} of smartphone users in the US browse, research or compare products via a web browser or mobile app. Therefore, it is no surprise that Instagram marketing is growing and has taken the initiative to make shopping within their app convenient and effective. During an internal survey, Instagram found that only 21{bfa23e0adf5035fdfa71191ffe91e54dd073cdba85c1f10af47dda85ac37f507} of online purchases are made within a day. This is due to a lack of information for the consumers. Also, up until now there has been no simple way to receive information and then buy a posted product.

Dave Gilboa, co- founder and CEO of eyewear company Warby Parker says that “Instagram and Warby Parker share a similar appreciation for design and seamless experiences. But right now, there isn’t a simple, clean way for us to share details about the products featured within our posts. Customers often have to ask, which creates a bulky experience on both sides. We love how seamlessly integrated and consumer-centric this new experience is.”

There are currently 20 retail brand testing Instagram Shopping within their profiles. Brands include Warby Parker, Kate Spade, Levi’s, JackThreads and BaubleBar. How Instagram Shopping works is simple.  First retailers tag products in their photos. Each post can hold up to five products. The product information is hidden behind a “tap to view products” button located on the lower left hand corner of the image. Then the consumer clicks on which specific item they would like to view. After the product is chosen, an in app page brings up the items price description, additional products and a “shop now” button. By clicking the “shop now” button, the consumer is automatically brought to the brand website with their desired product.

Until now, most “shop now” buttons bring the consumer directly to check out for the item, rather than letting the individual decide whether or not they have an interest in purchasing the product. People tend to prefer more information before their final purchasing decision is made. Also, Instagram Shopping keeps users in the app longer than previous online shopping methods. By only giving customers the “shop now” choice, they are pulled quickly away from the app. But giving them information to read and discover keeps them engaged on Instagram longer.

By providing extensive product information, Instagram Shopping is not only enhancing the online shopping experience, but also increasing potential turnover for companies. Time will tell if this exciting new feature from Instagram marketing catches on. If so, Instagram Shopping has the capability to change the game of online shopping.

Does Instagram Shopping sound like a feature that can enhance your business? If so, working with an experienced Instagram marketing agency such as Bright Age can help you utilize this feature to create returns from your products.

Social Media Marketing Tips for the Holiday Season

The biggest shopping days of the year are approaching fast. Is your business ready with an effective social media marketing strategy? If not, here are a few tips that your business or social media agency can use to generate sales during the holiday season.

1.) Brand your Social Media with a Holiday Theme

Consumers love to get into the holiday spirit while shopping online or in stores. Think about the elaborate decorations you may see at your favorite retailers. How do they make you feel? Do they bring back nostalgic memories of last year’s holiday season, or seasons long ago? The same principle applies to creating holiday fueled social media posts. Consumers are more likely to share social media content during the last three months of the year. Take holiday themed photos, create videos and do not forget show your holiday cheer. Also, create your own holiday hashtags to keep the buzz going.

2.) Give Consumers a Taste of What’s To Come

Create a sense of curiosity by releasing tidbits of products or services that you plan on releasing for the holiday season. This keeps consumers engaged and more likely to return to your social media for updates.

3.) Run a Social Media Contest or Competition

It is no secret that people love to win free products or services. Running a contest or competition during the holiday season gives your business a better chance for exposure, and creates much excitement. Offer prizes such as a credit towards your business or service and even a goody bag filled with products. Encourage participants to like posts, tag their friends and re-post images to increase the amount of people you reach. You may also like to offer a daily prize draw that will keep consumers coming back to your social media.

4.) Give Back to Your Community

The holidays are a season of giving. Create ways to give back to your community and document every detail on social media. Donate a percentage of profits from sales or create a campaign collecting donations for a cause related to your brand.

5.) Snag Those Last Minute Shoppers

In December 2015, a Facebook survey showed 54 percent of respondents admitted to being nowhere near finished with their holiday shopping, and that it would happen within that month. This being said, be sure to market perfect last minute gift ideas and even expedited shipping to reach customers in time.

Overall, the main focus of your holiday social media marketing strategy should focus on spreading holiday cheer. By leveraging emotions, one can create a powerful and effective campaign. Using a social media agency such as Bright Age can help your business create the most compelling holiday themed content.