As the Food Council’s resident digital marketing expert, I get asked a lot on how businesses should be using social media and which platforms they should be on. With restaurants, established food or beverage products, and even startups, it has never been easier to market your brand online. Historically, brands have always followed consumer attention, and today that’s spent on social media.
Here are 3 very simple ideas that I share with all members of the council whenever we speak.
Dominate Instagram – If your businesses isn’t currently on Instagram, please stop reading this post and create an account right now. Instagram is dominating the social media scene, especially with users aged 30-45. Contrary to what most business owners believe, the platform is getting older as are its users. Instagram is always evolving, including the recent addition of “stories” and live video. It can be the perfect combo to feature your product from concept, to creation, to the final product. Social media is the best platform to poll the audience and get live feedback from your followers.
Facebook Ads – By far the best targeting platform to get in front of your ideal customer. Want to build your birthday email list? You can target people who have a birthday coming up in the next 7 days. Want to target people that only buy frozen food? Facebook has prior purchase history data. For our member, Park Place, I promoted their Whisky Wednesday on Facebook/Instagram. I made sure to use a crisp image of the bar stocked with brands of Whisky. The best part? I targeted only those people who “Liked” the specific brands already.
The best time to post – A common question is always “when is the best time to post on [insert platform here]?” The answer is ANYTIME. Anytime is a good time to post, because people check their phones over a 100 times a day. A majority of the time people unlock their phones it is to go on a social media platform like Instagram, Snap Chat, Facebook, or Twitter. Whether it is 1pm or 1am, your post has the opportunity to be seen. If the post is good enough it will ultimately get liked/shared and more people will see it.
These are just a few elements of the everchanging social media landscape. It is impossible to run your business AND stay up to date with trends. Feel free to reach out to me via email if you have any questions – Chris.Scala@DrivenLocal.com or Connect with me on LinkedIn here.
