Get the most out of your Social Media

Used by over 64% of the UK population, social media has become the largest form of communication. Despite this, 25% of retailers do not use any form of social media. In a recent Palmer and Harvey survey, one in three retailers admitted they do not consider themselves social media savvy and prefer more ‘traditional’ marketing methods.

Social media can help you become more interactive, engage with your customers and boost your business.

	Introduce Yourself Think of your social media profiles as a digital shop window. To stand out, you’ll need your own distinctive look and style. Remember that social media is a very visual medium, and that high-quality photos and content will help you build a large, engaged audience.
	Active Communication and Engagement At its core, social media is about communication. Whichever platform you choose, you’ll be able to reach out to your followers with posts and messages. You should also take the opportunity to listen as well, as your customers will love to feel valued and heard.
	Social Peers (experts and leading retailers) Social media provides the opportunity to connect with leading retailers and cultivate relationships that will help you develop as a retailer and as a business owner. You can also use social media to spread your own knowledge and become a positive influence within your social sphere.
	Understanding customer opinion Understanding your customers’ thoughts and feedback is important and a great way to improve your business. There are many tools available (such as Hootsuite and Sendible) which analyse the intention of every communication sent to you or about you providing a unique, valuable insight.

Which platforms are available?

With a variety of platforms available, it’s tough to know where to focus your social media efforts. Studies suggest that the most popular social media platforms are Facebook with 94% of daily use by UK shoppers followed by Twitter at 55% and other networking sites such as Instagram and LinkedIn which are not far behind. To get the most for your time and money, you should focus on the platform with the tools and audience that’s right for you.

Gender Split

Age Penetration (%)

Did You Know?

Facebook has 37.7 million UK users.
You have the ability to create an in-depth profile
You can post high quality, varied content (text, images, video)

Gender Split

Age Penetration (%)

Did You Know?

Twitter has over 16.4 million UK users
Focuses on shorter ‘micro’ content (140 characters or less)
Twitter supports rich media such as images and videos.

Gender Split

Age Penetration (%)

Did You Know?

Instagram has 14 million UK users
Instagram uses images and photos exclusively, so focus on visual content
You can post high quality, varied content (text, images, video)

Gender Split

Age Penetration (%)

Did You Know?

LinkedIn has 20 million UK users
LinkedIn features the ability to create rich blog posts
Designed for connecting with other professionals in your social sphere.

What next?

Take a look at introducing social media into your business and choose the right platform and style for your business. There are several ways to get started including online courses such as HubSpot and Udemy as well as Booker workshops. It is all about making social media work for you.

Investing a little time into marketing through social media will let local people know about your business, create a dialogue between you and your customers and, if done right can lead to an increase in turnover.

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