It’s hard to beat free publicity, and that’s exactly what you’ll get if you establish social media accounts for your convenience store or travel stop. Social media will let you put a personal touch on your communications with your customers, giving you an unprecedented reach into their lives and personal time.
Once you get comfortable using social media, you may wish to take it to the next level by paying for even more connectivity to your customers. You may find this powerful tool well worth the small cost of advertising.
Here’s an overview of some of the leading social-media services.
With more than 17 billion active users, Facebook is a huge potential audience for your message. People share personal news, photos, videos, links and humor. Companies do, too. To establish a page on Facebook for your business, you must have a personal account first. Then you can create a page. The process is fairly intuitive. Once you have a page, you can pay to boost a particular post or create a Facebook ad connected to that page that can send customers to your website. You can target the audience by interests and geography.
Twitter has more than 300 million active monthly users. Tweets are short messages often used with hashtags (e.g. #giveaway). Many opinion-makers and celebrities are on Twitter, and part of the service’s appeal is that you can reach them or follow them directly. Just as you can share a post on Facebook, you can retweet a post on Twitter. Consistently posting, sharing and following other users can help you build your followers organically. Beware of services offering to sell you hundreds of followers. Many are not legitimate. With Twitter, you can also pay to promote your Tweets.
Instagram has more than 500 million users; more than 300 million use the service every day. Posting creative photos and short videos with a generous use of hashtags is a way to reach a dynamic audience. Instagram also lets you share to other services at the same time. It’s a great way to hit multiple services with one post. And since Facebook owns Instagram, when you plan ad campaigns on Facebook, you can also plan Instagram ad campaigns.
Snapchat has more than 100 million users, with a large reach among users ages 18 to 34. Regular Snapchat messages vanish within a few seconds of someone sending them. But it also has “stories” that last longer. Because its video stories expire in 24 hours, it’s ideal for covering and promoting live events — say, special appearances or celebrations at your store. You can use videos to deliver promo codes to fans who watch your stories.
YouTube is a video sharing site with a billion active users each month. Videos with audience appeal work best. A straight-up promotional message might not find traction, but showing how your sandwiches are made or doing quirky interviews with mechanics in your service garage might find an audience.
Pinterest has 100 million active monthly users. It’s all about the visuals. Good graphics or photos are essential if you want to promote your company on Pinterest.
Other services of interest are Google Plus, Tumblr, LinkedIn and Flickr.
Want to know more about reaching customers on social media? Check out Part 2 of our social media overview, with five practical tips on making the most of your social media content.
