Social butterflies: how to engage online to drive sales

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How retailers operate on social media

Eat 17: The swish retailer/restaurant in Hackney uses Facebook to show off its latest in-store offerings, menu selection and to push blog posts.

Singh’s Premier: The retailer has nearly 14,000 members in its Facebook group where it regularly showcases deals. This one shows 10 Budweisers for £6.99, while offering customers the chance to win the beers. It works - this post got 131 likes.

Max’s Londis Sheppey: Mixing Twitter and Snapchat, Max’s puts its staff in the spotlight, connects directly with customers and the local papers to generate likes on social media.

Only 15% of small retailers use social media, The Grocer revealed in its social media masterclass last year, with time and technology the major sticking points.

Slowly but surely retailers are picking up the social media gauntlet, and their smartphones, to engage with the local communities. With a plethora of different social media platforms from Facebook to Snapchat, Pinterest and Twitter, where should c-store owners start? And, what should they be posting?

“With Facebook advertising you can now target shoppers in the catchment area of your store and select the audience that is the most relevant to the messages you wish to communicate. It really is easy and cost-effective.”

“Facebook is by far the most effective as it enables you to reach the largest social media audience or, indeed, to select the segments that are the most likely to react to your messages,” says Philippe Rondepierre, Spar head of marketing. “With Facebook advertising you can now target shoppers in the catchment area of your store and select the audience that is the most relevant to the messages you wish to communicate. It really is easy and cost-effective.”

“I don’t think anyone in the c-sector is doing social media right. A lot of them think they’re doing it right but they end up just making noise…”

Singh’s Premier is a great example of this (see box) with 13,739 members in its Facebook group, encouraging users to like, share and comment on posts in order to win the goods. The posts regularly get more than 100 shares and likes (often required for the prizes to be won), and they also offer Singh’s a great way to advertise it’s weekly promotions.

Simply Fresh, meanwhile, is more focused on Twitter with 6,733 followers on its central account. MD Kash Khera believes there is still a lot to be done on genuinely engaging younger audiences on social media.

“I don’t think anyone in the convenience sector is doing social media exactly right,” he says. “A lot of them think they’re doing it right but they end up just making noise because they’re not doing it from a store perspective. The intention is good, to engage with the younger demographic, but they turn it into more of an industry thing rather than just connecting with the community.”