Your 2019 Social Media Checklist.
February 18th, 2019 | Business News
Dozens of new features are released across social media platforms annually. And yet, many coffee businesses admit their social media strategy hasn’t changed much over the past few years.
If your coffee business is looking to up its social media game in 2019, our checklist will help you identify any areas for improvement & get the ball rolling!
1. Are you neglecting any profiles?
Coffee businesses often feel they need to be omnipresent across many different social media channels to reach the widest audience. However, the simple truth is, if your business can only dedicate a few hours each week to social media, it’s better to hone your efforts towards just one or two platforms.
Review your business’s current social media profiles. Are they sharing content regularly? If not, it may be time to rethink your platform presence or consider how you will maintain these going forward.
Remember: You can always link your business’s Instagram to your Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr accounts and reshare any content onto your other profiles in just a few taps.
If you wish to share the same piece of content across multiple platforms, we recommend sharing these on different days. This ensures people following your business across different platforms do not feel bombarded with the same messages each day.
2. Do your profiles contain up-to-date information?
It’s easy to forget what information we place into our social media biographies and about sections after we first make our account. Do your profiles contain up-to-date information which is relevant?
Make sure your Instagram business profile has active ‘Call’, ‘Email’ & ‘Directions’ buttons which point potential customers to the right place. Ensure this information is present on your other social media profiles too in the relevant sections.
Also be sure to include your coffee business’s website link on each of your social media profiles and signpost key features which may entice customers to visit e.g. ‘Check out our Summer ‘19 drinks menu at www.example.com’.
3. Is your online branding up-to-date & aligned?
Your coffee business’s visual branding should be consistent across all your social media channels. This concerns things such as profile photos, header images and featured photography. These should align with your website & offline branding too!
An online audience should be able to quickly find & recognise your brand through both the textual and visual elements of your social profiles.
Remember: Where possible, social handles, page names and usernames should be kept similar across all your business’s social media profiles to make it easier for customers to find you.
Businesses should avoid using generic coffee photography as profile photos, always ensure these contain either your business’s name or recognisable logo.
4. Are you promoting engagement?
Being social implies two-way conversation and exchange. In the competitive coffee market, it is simply not enough for businesses to create a social media profile and upload content. They must also dedicate time to interact with their online audience.
This means responding to comments and questions, tagging others in content, liking & re-sharing follower’s posts and/or following them back.
Social media also offers your business the opportunity to ask questions, conduct polls and strike up conversation- perfect for forming and strengthening B2C relationships.
5. Are you utilising a brand hashtag?
Your brand should utilise a unique branded hashtag & encourage followers to use it whenever possible.
This can be done through example – use it yourself in every upload and signpost it alongside an encouraging call-to-action whenever possible.
Remember: It’s important to engage with followers who are using your brand’s hashtag. This will strengthen your online B2C relationships and encourage future engagements.
Top tip: Don’t just ‘like’ a customer’s photo if they took the time to share their positive experience with your business to their followers. A thank you or personal comment response can go a long way. You could also follow your customer back or re-share their photo to your own profile – this will also encourage other customers to follow suit.
6. How are you seeking out new customers?
Social media offers your business the perfect opportunity to easily seek out new potential customers and join in and contribute to local, relevant conversation. Are you dedicating time to this each week?
Features such as Instagram’s explore will allow your business to seek out content shared by others at specific locations. For example, searching ‘Glasgow Central Station’ will bring up photos shared in real-time in and around this area. Liking, commenting or following users posting in this area will encourage them to check out your coffee business’s page & perhaps even visit your premises.
Don’t forget! Geotag your own content so that people can discover you too!
7. Are you analysing performance & tracking competition?
Do you know how much your online audience is growing by each month compared to your closest competitors?
Utilise free online tools to track your businesses performance over time automatically (as well as competitors). This will highlight what’s working and what’s not and should help guide your strategy.
We recommend:
– IGBLADE – Track personal & competitor Instagram profiles over time for free. Monitors account growth and engagement & allows data to be exported via pdf for reporting. (for new users: tracking begins from the time of first search)
– Likealyzer – A free tool to assess the quality of any your Facebook busienss page. Provides recommendations to improve based on a quality score.
– SocialBlade – Allows tracking of a wide variety of social media platforms (for new users: tracking begins from the time of first search).
– Buffer – Schedule your social media posts in advance. (Free to use for 3 social media accounts – Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram or Twitter)
As always, feel free to reach out to Matthew Algie with any questions you may have
