Empower Your Community to Promote Your Business

Empower Your Community to Promote Your Business

One of the great things about social media is that it can be used to promote your business, not just by your company but by your fans, too! What if I told you you could promote your business using social media without working hard? Yes, your customers and fans can promote your business for you! In this article, we’ll explain a few ways your community can help promote your business and how you can help make it happen. Large corporations harness the power of their communities, and so can you. Being present on social media and creating helpful content will help your community do this.

Let’s Talk About #Hashtags

Primarily used on Twitter, Instagram, and Google+ but gaining popularity on Facebook, the hashtag is a powerful tool you can use to your advantage. Hashtags allow people using social media to create an automatic link to that specific hashtag. How? Hashtags assign topics to your posts, status updates, and articles. Using the pound sign # {or hash} on a social network turns any word or group of words that directly follow it, into a searchable link, allowing you to organize content and track discussion topics based on those keywords. That means if you wanted to post about your visit to NYC, you would include #NYC in your status update to join the conversation. Click on any hashtag to see all the posts that mention that topic/subject in real-time.

For example, if you have a small coffee shop named “Coffee Club,” you can have a “#CoffeeClubRocks” sign in your shop encouraging customers to tweet, take photos, and post on Facebook using your creative hashtag, #CoffeeClubRocks.  As customers discuss your brand and business across their social media platforms using the hashtag #CoffeeClubRocks, it will link all the conversations around your brand, promoting your business and your content. Thus, providing publicity to your business with minimal effort on your part!

Delta Airlines recently blew up on social media when it ordered hundreds of pizzas for frustrated, delayed passengers. People whipped out their phones, took photos, and used the hashtag #DeltaPizzaParty. The photos and positive public relations (PR) were everywhere within minutes. The pizza party gained so much attention that local and national media covered it. Hello! #FreePublicity! Delta didn’t even have to announce they did something nice for their customers; their customers took care of that!

“We don’t own our Social Media Channels, The fans do”- Dunkin’ Donuts Marketing”

Jessica Gioglio, head of Dunkin’ Donuts’ social media department, said, “Instagram is one of [our] fastest growing channels with our community, especially with hashtag use around #DunkinDonuts” and “#MyDunkin.” The community’s social media use of the Dunkin’ Donuts brand has allowed the company to expand its marketing and content creation.

Four Ways to Empower Your Community to Promote Your Business:

1. Celebrate Your Fans

People enjoy sharing photos, not just text. Therefore, share photos of your community enjoying your product or services! Consider creating a “fan of the week” post to encourage people to continue to share stories about your brand.

Loved talking to @joelmchale and he made some promises !!! #VisaCheckout #DunkinDonuts pic.twitter.com/5gEshtMQH0

— Jenny Hutt (@jennyhutt) June 17, 2015

2. Embrace Fans as Storytellers to Help Promote Your Business

Listen to how your fans are sharing your product or services. Did it impact them visually or intellectually? If so, listen to them! Consider sharing how they were impacted positively by you on social media. Rally your community in positivity! Your community can create content for you.

#Transformers need #Energon. #NewEnglanders need #DunkinDonuts. Fueling up for @afterbuzztv #TransformersRID! pic.twitter.com/j3qp9SMtO3

— Emma Fyffe (@EmmaFyffe) June 14, 2015

3. Seek Inspiration from Fans

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Trish Forant (@dayngr)

Seek inspiration from fans for contests and promotions. Consider doing a small contest that you can share on your social media. It will generate content for you. Not everyone might want to participate, and that’s ok, but people will enjoy seeing those who did participate.

4. Have Good Conversation Skills

Good conversation skills = good social media. What I mean is, listen, engage, don’t monopolize the conversation, be authentic, encourage other voices to be heard, have something to say, be funny and entertaining, but never inappropriate.

In conclusion, if you support your community, they’ll support you. They’ll help you get your brand out there and market and advertise for you. Just remember to celebrate and embrace your fans, put them in the spotlight, and encourage conversation. These factors will allow you to create a positive social media presence while allowing your community to work for you, and with you!

I’d love to hear how you’re using social media to help promote your business? Are you currently empowering the members of your community, and if so, what results have you seen?