Author: d.esses

As mentioned in the previous post, we are in the midst of a tremendous opportunity to build your social media presence while everyone is on their phones and scrolling live never before! It is now or never to build a platform where you can add that extra kick of sales to put you over the top. I took the liberty of providing a few tips so that you guys can create professional looking facebook lives in no time!

1. Hold the cell phone horizontally as opposed to vertically when filming
2. Ensure lighting is sufficient. Lighting should be at your back. Try to avoid any bright lights behind your subject.
3. Focus on having a nice uncluttered setting. DO NOT worry about having your LOGO in the background. Having a clear uncluttered wall behind you will help the viewer focus on what you’re showing them, and will be more keen to the eye
4. Goes without saying, make sure the setting is quiet.
5. DO NOT try to zoom in and out. Just film from one camera lens and manually hold camera closer to product if necessary
6. Add a caption for ensuing steps if they see anything they like
7. Be yourself. Have fun. Don’t worry about being perfect. Envision that you are just talking to your friend, customers will love the personality.
8. You can be creative with it. Make games for your customers to keep them engaged.
9. Consumers respond to warmth, humor, sincerity, fun or any combination thereof.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us if you have any questions. Every company can and should try to incorporate social media in some way, It’s free advertising! Good luck!

**To the mom and pop store and small retailer**

During these tough times, retailers around America are struggling to stay afloat. While the big chains like Target and Walmart were deemed essential and thus have been able to stay open and even see sales increase, the smaller stores were forced to shut down operations and potentially lose everything they’ve worked so hard to build. While I’m not here to debate whether this is fair for everyone, I am here to tell you that you actually have an opportunity amongst all this chaos.

Whether you like it or not, as a smaller company, you have a presence in your community. It may be large or small, but you’re smack in the middle of it. While you’re closed, this is an opportunity to build another aspect of your marketing, your social media presence. If you have a strong following built already, great! If not, it’s the perfect opportunity to start now.

You can promote your products with Facebook and Instagram. Don’t be afraid to reach out directly to your customers and try to sell during these strange times. People are obtaining unemployment and stimulus checks and sometimes don’t know what do with the extra money, since they’re spending even less that usual. Also, live feeds are proven to obtain 10X more viewers. Holding an everyday time slot like a 1:00 Facebook Live can also be helpful and provide structure for both your employees, and your customer. Even if you don’t get the viewership you desired, many people will log on later and see it on their feed. The best part of social media advertising is that it costs little to nothing to do, and can be done using just a phone camera. It does not need to be professionally done!

Good Luck! We will have another post soon on useful tips to social media advertising!