How to Drive Local Engagement on Social Media

How to Drive Local Engagement on Social MediaCredit 13_Phunkod/Shutterstock Today more than ever, a brandssocialpresenceis critical, no matter the size of the business.On one end of the spectrum, small local retailers need to drive traffic to their shop. On the other end, franchise and enterprise businesses with multiple locations need to master a local social presence to effectively manage their reputation.Most business owners or absatzwirtschaft teams (in the case of large businesses) arent aware of the critical conversations that are happening on thelocallevel, and this can be due to a few factors, such as bedrngnis understanding or underestimating the power of local marketing, a lack of resources or an emphasis on other marketing priorities.Regardless of the reasons, its never too late to implement a strategy that will boost your local following and spark engagement among local consumers. Here are six steps you can take to build a local social presenc e.Editors note Looking for the right social media management service for your business? Fill out the below questionnaire to be connected with vendors that can help.1. Claim your localprofilesBy not claiminglocalprofiles, responding to feedback in a timely manner and controllinglocalmessaging, businesses are putting their reputations on the line, which can result in a major crisis for their bottom line. The impact of poor consumer feedback can be detrimental to future sales.Ninety percent of consumers read online reviews before they visit a business, and every 1 star increase in a Yelp rating translates to a 5 to 9 percent increase in revenue, according to Forbes. Responding to positive reviews is just as important as responding to negative reviews. Based on your involvement or lack of involvement, consumers note whether you value their feedback or not.The first step to claiming your local pages and finding pages that may already exist is to search these channels using keywords about your industry and your company name. As part of your search, seek out your company name and phone number. In step No. 2, claim unclaimed pages. For help with specific channels, visitFacebook Claim an Unmanaged PageYelp How to Claim Your geschftsleben2. Frequently post content to alllocalpagesSimply claiming your local pages is not enough. According to local social expertAfif Khoury, CEO and founder of social media marketing and management toolSOCi, if you dont frequently post to your Facebook pages, Facebook actually deranks your pages. Further, if you dont post often, consumers may think your company went out of business and/or cant be relied on for social media support.The bigger your company is, the more overwhelming it can be to post content frequently to all local pages, but theres a way to get relief when staffing extra help is not possible.Khoury believes that when the pages targets are different and far enough away from each other (New York or New Jersey, for example), post ing a lot of the same content is okay, but you want to cocktail in some hyperlocal flavor. Always create content that is on brand, and dont ever post just for the sake of posting, Khoury stated.3. Post content that is relevantWhile Khourys recommendation about posting content that has local appeal can work well, its imperative that you know who your audience is.Facebook Insights offers great morsels about your target consumers. Through Facebook Insights, you can learn which towns your audience lives in, what gender they are and how old they are. Plus, with Facebook Lookalike audiences you can reach new people who may be interested in your page because of some type of correlation they have with your existing customers.4. Build and implement an engagement strategyThere are two parts to this strategyOn your social media accounts, engage with followers who engage with you.Get out in local communities by engaging with other local business.parte 1 Engaging with followersDo the basics, wh ich should be a no-brainer if youre comfortable on social mediaPost engaging photos and videos.Ask questions and conduct polls.Respond to the social media engagement on your page and via private katecheses.Part 2 Engaging with other local businessesIve been doing what Im about to tell you for years to build a community and a following, drive website traffic and create brand awareness.I create a list of other local businesses where my target audience may shop without including direct competitors. I then analyze what they are doing I dont engage with pages that have not posted at least within the past two weeks, and I only engage with pages that are posting great content.Next, I look for opportunities where the business posts something that interests me and then I engage with it. My favorite way to engage is to ask questions. Most of the time, Ill get a reply. But, when engaging with a business, be sincere. How many times have youve seen someone leave a comment that says Great page o r I love your work For me personally? Too many times. Dont engage for the sake of engaging. Instead, engage with other business pages that posted content that actually interested you, and you want to build a relationship with that business.5. Use location-targeted Facebook and Instagram adsFacebook and Instagram ads help you to get your message in front of the right people. With location targeting, you can refine the particular audiences you want to reach, including everyone in a particular area, only people who live there, individuals who were recently in that area and individuals who are traveling to this location.6. Create location-based groupsCreating and managing a group can be a time-consuming task when you are first getting started, but all the hard work can have a big, positive impact on your bottom line. Not only do Facebook groups help foster community, but they reach more people than organic page posts do. Buffer details how to create a Facebook group, build a community a nd increase your organic reach.Additional resources5 Market Resource Tools to Read Your Audiences MindsHow to Use Social Media for Customer ServiceUsing Social Media to Manage the Reputation for Your verkaufskonzession Locations Marisa Sanfilippo Marisa Sanfilippo is an award-winning marketing professional who has more than six years experience developing and executing marketing campaigns for small and medium sized businesses with a focus on digital marketing. After graduating Stockton University with a B.A. in Communications and minor in writing, Marisa worked as a freelance journalist for numerous publications, ultimately earning a position as an e-marketing specialist for a credit union. While in that position, she earned HubSpots Inbound Marketing Certification and helped build the organizations digital marketing strategy from the ground up. Her efforts helped lead the credit union to success on and offline including a 200%+ organic increase in Facebook followers, a sales generating blog, and much more. Later on, she worked on a social media campaign that gained recognition by The Huffington Post. 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