Provided by AGTA
Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn - what to use, what to focus on, why its worth it, and how to incorporate it into your business!
AGTA INSIGHTS: Social Media Marketing, Best Way to Foster a Relationship Today
Regardless of whether or not you use social media for yourself, you simply cannot ignore the power that social media can have for your business.
How many tools are there that you can use for free to discover and communicate with prospective clients? How many tools are there that you can share your products without being pushy or sales-y? Almost none.
Social media enables your company to share what you're doing, new products that you've recently acquired or finished, and the behind-the-scenes of your business with consumers in a friendly and personal way. The more you share, the more consumers you can potentially reach.
The key? - "Know thy audience."
AGTA INSIGHTS: How to communicate
Like we said before, each social media platform is different; therefore, consumers of those platforms have different objects and a different frame of mind.
The important thing is to keep it social. The selling should be kept to a minimum.
Social media is one of the best tools for discovery - discovering new businesses or customers. So share your products, keep it fun, express your love for what you do. Consumers react to authentic brands, brands that authentically love what they do. If you're trying to sell to consumers right off the bat, they will notice. You don’t want them to think you only see them as is a dollar sign.
So play to their interests. Simply share. Share the beauty of your products. Share your knowledge. Share how much you value your customers.
The golden rule is to give on social media. Once you've given, then you're in a much better position to ask.
How often can you ask, though? Some say use the 80/20 rule, but we say lean more towards 90/10. If you don't know what the 80/20 rule is in content marketing, it means to share 80% of the time and to ask, at most, 20% of the time. In other words, if you were to look at your next ten social media posts, eight of them should be nothing but sharing, and only two of them should be promotional.
Each social media platform is different; you need to understand how to communicate on each platform. Remember, these are social media platforms, not sales platforms. Can you sell on these platforms? Sure! But selling should not be how you're communicating on these platforms. After all, when you go out on a first date, do you lead with "Will you marry me?" or do you build a relationship first?
Let's go through how you should be communicating on these platforms and how they benefit your business long-term.
AGTA INSIGHTS: The Platforms
Remember, we said that your messaging should be tailored for each platform. These could be subtle changes, though, depending on how you communicate.
With many different social media platforms out there, we have picked three that we feel would be most impactful for your business today.
Instagram: The visual platform. Consumers go here to be visually stimulated and informed. This is also a very simple and fun platform. So have fun and share pictures and videos of your products, your studio, and your staff. But to be successful, you need good photographs and videos!
Facebook: The most prominent social media platform. Today consumers use Facebook for a myriad of different purposes; keep up with friends and family, sign up for events, purchase products, and so on. Your messaging can be similar to that of Instagram here; in fact, many people cross-post on Instagram and Facebook since Facebook owns both platforms. But Facebook does give you more tools to communicate.
LinkedIn: The professional platform. LinkedIn is intended to form professional connections. So unlike Instagram and Facebook, we advise you to have your communication be more professional on LinkedIn. Since this is a more professional platform, people are in a more business frame of mind. But even still, remember it's a social platform.
AGTA INSIGHTS: Social Media for Your Business
We've just gone through telling you not to view these platforms as selling platforms. So you may be asking yourself, "why even bother?" The reason why you bother is discovery and communication.
First, social media platforms enable consumers to discover your business in a relaxed, non-sales-y environment. Consumers can see what your brand is all about, and over time, once they've followed you, they can grow an appreciation for your products.
Second is communication. Social media gives your business a tool to showcase your products without pressuring people to buy, buy, buy. You're able to increase your brand exposure in a friendly and cost-effective manner.
When your prospective clients need you, you'll be top of mind for them because you have spent the last couple of months enriching their lives on social media. Social media is all about fostering a relationship, which will lead towards sales.
AGTA INSIGHTS: How to Get Started with Social Media Marketing
If you're thinking about getting started with email marketing or even want to shake things up with your current provider, here's a list of different email marketing providers that highlight what they're best at, so you can decide who would be best for your business.
For more resources and advice about social media marketing by platform, and the first three parts of this series by AGTA, please visit: https://agta.org/social-media-marketing-during-covid-19/.
About The American Gem Trade Association
The American Gem Trade Association (AGTA) is an association of United States and Canadian trade professionals dedicated to promoting the long term stability and integrity of the natural colored gemstone and Cultured Pearl industries. The Association pursues its goals through the combined use of educational programs, publicity, industry events, government and industry relations, and printed materials for both the trade and consumer. The AGTA is well-known in the gemstone and jewelry industries for maintaining the highest ethical standards and is recognized as the authoritative source on natural colored gemstones and cultured pearls – The Authority in Color.™ For more information, please visit www.agta.org.
