As featured in Furniture Today – Unsure of how to get the most from your furniture store’s Facebook page? Start the new year with these easy-to-implement tips and you’ll be well on your way to maximizing your page’s potential to drive traffic into your store.
Respond to customers
“XYZ Furniture is a rotten company!” is the last thing you want any potential customer to read on your store’s Facebook page. But it happens and the best remedy is to reply quickly, graciously, and helpfully. Potential customers don’t expect all your reviews to be five-star; they know happy customers rarely write reviews. Your next customer is looking for how you handle those complaints and questions as an indication for how you’ll interact with them if they have a question. Respond to every one fast; it’s the best FREE advertising you’ll get. After all, your next customer is already on your Facebook page and getting them there was half the battle.
Be active
Your Facebook page is a reflection of your store; customers view your level of engagement online as representative of your level of attention in your store. A Facebook page with three posts from July 2016, and nothing since, is as depressing as a store that hasn’t added new merchandise in that span of time. Furniture is a fashion business; show customers that you are on top of the latest trends in style, functionality, and comfort. A weekly post will be enough to show you’re interested without clogging your Followers’ News Feeds. Don’t get bogged-down trying to think of content; it almost doesn’t matter what you post as long as you’re demonstrating that you take your Facebook page, and your business, seriously. (This goes for your website Blog as well.)
Post videos
“(Facebook) discovered that people gaze 5x longer at video than at static content on Facebook and Instagram.” Pictures trump text, but video trumps pictures when it comes to engagement. Use your phone to record a quick video around the store or a clip of new items being unwrapped. Show some behind-the-scenes from Market or introduce one of your star employees. Customers don’t expect cinema quality; they’re accustomed to some of the best videos online being shot with mobile phones. And if you make a minor flub in the video, leave it. You never know when you’ll have created something interesting enough to go viral – the panacea.
Reward customer Shares and Check-Ins
Having customers Like your Facebook page will do little to promote your business to their list of Friends. You have a better chance at getting your store noticed if you tie a contest, giveaway, or promotion to customers Checking In at your store or Sharing your posts. Offering a prize for Sharing before and after photos of their newly furnished rooms with your Facebook page Tagged in the post is a fun way to attract the attention of new and existing Followers.
Boost posts
Nobody is seeing your posts. I’m sorry, it’s true, but it’s not your fault. Facebook wants to show its users content that the user wants to see. It determines what a user wants to see by tracking which posts the user interacts and engages with. Over time, Facebook pushes the posts the user is more likely to Like to the top of their News Feed and those they are less likely to Like will be pushed down in the feed so that only the most active users will scroll far enough to see them. They only way to overcome this is by creating posts that are so clever/funny/informative that they cannot be ignored and garner lots of interaction form your Followers, or by Boosting (creating a Facebook ad using your post) your posts. Choose your best performing posts and Boost them with a modest budget ($25 is a good place to start) using the highly-targeted demographic profiles Facebook offers. This will introduce your Page to potential customers who may be unlikely to find you otherwise.
Facebook is a powerful and inexpensive tool for promoting your furniture store with ease. Apply these tips to make sure you’re getting the most from your store’s Facebook presence.
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