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Due to the coronavirus pandemic, franchises and small businesses everywhere have been forced to quickly adapt to a new reality. The new reality is that social media is not just helping businesses stay afloat. It’s also helping them thrive. 

According to GlobalWebIndex, one-fourth of consumers across 18 markets find new brands through social media. When it comes to getting new customers to walk through the door, there are certain strategies that prove to work very well.

Here are 5 ways to use Facebook and Instagram to get more people to your store.

1. Share your “Why”

Today consumers find it normal to receive business messages through Facebook and Instagram. But what makes them respond better to one business’s post over another?

People want to see your value. They want to connect with you. The best way to do it is to invite people to understand why you started your business and what you want to do for your customers. As Do Good to Do Better author Sheryl Green told Customer Think, “When this pandemic has passed, consumers will remember the brands who took advantage of us in our weakened state and will flock to the brands that stood by our side and found ways to contribute to our well-being.”

2. Listen to customers

Conversations are happening on FB and IG about your brand, competitors, product and more. One of the greatest benefits of social media for businesses is the invaluable insight you can gather.

Facebook and Instagram both provide business audience insights. You must have a business page or profile for you to be able to use them. Be sure you have a business profile set up.

There are also plenty of free tools that can help you track, analyze and respond to these conversations. Two popular and simple tools are Social Mention and Google Alerts.

3. Post consistently and vary your posts

There is no secret formula to decide how often you should be posting on Facebook and Instagram. But one thing stands true no matter the industry: be consistent. 

If you decide you want to post twice a day on Facebook, stick to it. Algorithm changes make it more difficult for your followers to see every one of your posts on their feed. You can attract customers to come to your page if they know you’re posting worthwhile content twice a day, every day, consistently. The more someone engages with your content the more likely they are to become your customer.

Your posts should be relevant, interesting, useful…and most of all varied. This means videos some days, images on others, posting stories, posting reels, etc. These help make your posts more visible on people’s feeds despite algorithm changes.

Pro tip: Social media scheduling and automation tools can help you be consistent. Some popular automation tools are Hootsuite and Onlywire.

4. Use a powerful call-to-action

A call-to-action is a prompt to get someone to take a specific action. Your content (from your posts down to your business bio) should invite potential customers to do something. Some examples call-to-actions are:

• Enter our contest
• Get your free instant quote
• Call us today

The CTA should be clear and direct your audience to an easy task. You should include strong action words and a sense of urgency if possible. The right call-to-action can make a huge difference in engagement.

5. Offer exclusives, create contests, make events

Exclusive deals and contests can engage your audience, create brand loyalty and get local customers to visit your store. 

• You can make offers that can only be redeemed at the store (Facebook has a Facebook Offer tool that’s specific for this type of campaign. Facebook can create reminders for users who save your offers and encourage them to redeem your offer at your store. Click here for more information).

• You can do a giveaway and make it a rule that participants must visit the store, saying phrases like “Only those who visit our shop are eligible to win!”

• You can create monthly events where the store offers big discounts to your FB and IG followers only.

Even on a small budget, you can create several different sponsored ads to test out what can work best for you and give you bigger returns.

In conclusion

There is so much content on every social media platform that people are choosy about what to click on. Remember that social media should be used primarily to engage people and not to sell. 

To get people to visit your store using Facebook and Instagram, you have to have an authentic and personal touch. Simply talking about your product all the time is not the way to go. 

Share your “why?” and listen to what people are asking for from your product or service. Create a strategy centered around these two ideas and post consistently. Using powerful call-to-action phrases, make offers/giveaways that can incentivise people to visit your store. These strategies over time will get you results.