Social media is the perfect way to showcase your participation in Shop Small Saturday or Small Business Saturday. Here are 7 social marketing ideas that will Jumpstart your customer engagement for the big day:
1. Make it Mobile. Offer a coupon or QR code that’s good for Small Business Saturday / Shop Small Saturday only and redeemable in-store. Start promoting it several days in advance and gain more opportunities to increase foot traffic to your location.
2. Take to Twitter. Add the hashtag #SmallBusinessSaturday to your tweets and be sure to add your city, #SmallBusinessSaturdaySanRafael. You want your local followers to know that you’re participating.
3. Utilize your website/blog to post about the upcoming event. Then share those posts on Twitter and Facebook. Make every mention count leading up to November 30th. Small Business Saturday is not just about sales; it’s about letting your customers know that when they shop with you, they’re investing in local businesses and helping their community and their state via their tax dollars. That’s a big deal.
4. Social cross marketing. Are there other shop owners in your area selling complimentary (but not competing) products? Have them mention your business on their website, Facebook and Twitter pages while you do the same leading up to Small Business Saturday. Let customers know that if they shop with one of you on Small Business Saturday and bring the receipt to the other participating shop owner that same day, they can get a discount on their purchase.
5. Promote personalities. If you sell a lot of local, artisanal products in your shop, ask the crafter to come in for a demonstration or ask a local author to come in for a book reading/signing. Use Facebook and Twitter to let your followers know who, what, where, and when. It’s a great way to drive customer engagement and earn additional business.
6. On the big day, take short videos of your events and post them to YouTube or just share lots of great photos on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Bonus: you can use all of this in your social marketing next year.
7. Find out if the local chamber of commerce is promoting Small Business Saturday on their social sites. If they’re highlighting businesses who are participating, get your name added to their list. They want the day to be successful, so help them promote you!
This is a day of involvement and celebration, not just of putting a Sale placard on a table of stacked items, hoping your customers will get the message. Small Business Saturday is about forging long term relationships not short term sales. Shop Small Saturday can easily become more and more popular until every day is shop small business day! This is your time – Make it count.
