Today it is nearly impossible to run a business without an established online presence. If your business relies on clients from outside your immediate surroundings, you definitely need to make use of online channels to reach them. And this means channels in addition to your website (that your website is a must goes without saying).
Creating and nurturing profiles on social media networks is the most effective way to attract new clients and grow your private label supplement brand significantly. If that’s news to you, then keep reading. We’ll tell you how to get started on social media.
#1 Choose the Right Network
First and foremost you need to actually create social media profiles. Which networks should you choose? This depends on two factors.
1. Your capacity: Who within your company will be taking care of them and how much time can they devote?
2. Your audience: Assuming that you have at least one full-time person to do this work, you should opt only for those outlets where your audience is located. Keep in mind that as a supplement retailer, you’re a B2C (business-to-consumer) business.
Your top network choices:
Facebook is by far the largest B2C social media. With about 900 million unique monthly visits, it should be first on your list. Next, we have Twitter and Google+. The latter, while not so densely ‘populated’, has some great community-building features and will benefit your brand from an SEO perspective.
Pinterest is another great network but it’s only relevant if you can offer good visual content. About 80% of its users are women, so adjust your content accordingly. Pinterest is well worth your time: with its incredible growth rate, the network is a real powerhouse in driving online sales.
A final note: LinkedIn is not really relevant for your B2C interactions as it is more of a professional network, where you might find other retailers but not direct clients. A personal LinkedIn profile is good to have, though, as it will help you build relationships within your industry.
#2 Create a Strategy and Set a Course of Action
Before you start gathering followers and engaging with them, it would be wise to seriously consider what it is you want to accomplish. Be aware of the following, so that you’re consistent in your social media activity:
Brand identity. Consumers engage with brands in much the same way as with other humans. So the question here is: if your brand were a person, how would it behave? What tone of voice would it have, how would it connect with clients? Once you have this established, use this voice in your social media interactions.
Consistency. As we already hinted, make sure you have someone who can actively engage with your audience. If you don’t have the resources (time, budget or manpower) to keep the interaction going, your efforts will see only minimal results. Imagine a person on a counter responding to only half of the people visiting the shop. That’s definitely something to avoid.
Uniformity. Make sure to have consistency across all social media profiles. Not just in your tone of voice but also in the information about your brand, logos, cover photos, contacts. This will make your brand identity more coherent and users will find it much easier to relate and remember you.
#3 Building Your Community
Once you’ve implemented all of the above, your next step should be to start interacting with your community-to-be. In order for people to follow you, you have to make them aware of the existence of your brand. You also have to reach out to them, i.e. find them and follow them.
Keep in mind that you won’t be creating your community from scratch. There are already numerous communities centered around nutritional supplements, healthy living, natural remedies, etc. In those communities there are also influencers. Connecting to these people, following them on Twitter or Google+, and reaching out to them is one of the ways to raise awareness about your brand and its online presence.
Once people start following you back, they will also begin to engage with the content you are posting (more on this in Part 2). As a supplement retailer you must know that social media is not the same as a physical store. If you keep your content strictly promotional and with the intention to sell, you won’t be able to build a community.
Engagement and interaction are key in social media outlets. Since they are considered everyone’s territory, people are present not only in their role of consumers but in a myriad of other ways. They will come to you with specific questions, express doubts or needs, or offer their own solutions to problems. In engaging with them, what you’ll be most appreciated for is your tone of voice and the value and usefulness of your engagement.
#4 Managing Your Customer Relationships
In communicating to your audience you need to keep the following things in mind: timeliness, comprehensiveness and consistency. If someone reaches out to you, for whatever reason, make sure to answer them.
Don’t delay your answers. Ideally, answer within the same day or within two day at most. Social media outlets are very dynamic environments. Comments, replies, and interactions peak quickly and are soon lost in the unceasing flow of information. But impressions still count, as they’re long-lasting.
How you deal with negative feedback and critique is another important issue.
Adhering to your brand’s tone of voice, answering in a clear and concise manner is important. Never ignore negative feedback because your response or lack of such will be visible to everyone in your community. Based on how you deal with it, people may either decide to leave the community or will become even stronger advocates of your brand.
#5 How Often to Post
Depending on the outlet you’re using, you should post differently. Consider, for example, that there are 500 million tweets daily. While you won’t be competing with all of them, it should be obvious that Twitter is quite an active network.
As a business you might want to tweet at least 5 times per day (and up to 10). What type of content you should tweet, when and how are questions we’ll address in Part 2 of this article. For Facebook, the number of daily posts should be a maximum of 2.
#6 Keep Reading
Part 2 of this article, which will be published next week, will go into more detail about how to engage with your audience, what type of content to post, and how and when to post it. It will offer you useful tools with which to monitor all the networks you are using, and ways to attract followers to your social media profiles.
As a supplement retailer it is important to have all aspects of your business in check – from your marketing strategy to your product labeling. Private Label Supplement can offer you tailored and expert advice for your business in all areas. Contact our sales team at 855-209-0225 ext. 2 or email us at sales@privatelabelsupplement.com and get started right away.
All my best,
Stefani Thionnet
Stay focused and never give up!
