If you have a country business, this blog is for you. It’s all about how to use social media to promote your country business. And it’s really, really important that you do. Even if your strongest ‘marketing’ is your customers and word of mouth, or even traditional forms of media like printed ads, I would urge you strongly to get on board with social media. It’s free to get started and allows you to reach people who will have never heard of you. More than this, it adds a new dimension to your PR and marketing as the world is your stage. Not just people in the local vicinity. Social media does level the playing field and also expands your audience to global. Even if you have a local business who serves the local community, you need to get on board. Yes, social media can have global reach, but you can also really focus in on your local area if that’s what you want to it. It also helps you to create a real brand. The kind that brings people in from afar. So let’s get cracking, shall we? Here are five ways to use social media to promote your country business.
Five ways to use social media to promote your country business
- Who are you? Use social media to introduce people to your team. Who do they speak to when they call you? Who packs orders? Who serves in the shop? Who churns the ice cream? Who started it all? Share the information. This can be done through images and text or, even better, video. This helps people get a real feel for your business and what makes it tick. It’s a really easy thing to do that can make a real difference.
- Where does the magic happen? If you’re a country business, why not show people where you’re based? You don’t have to give people your full address and postal code, but why not show a studio for a craft business? Your animals? The surrounding countryside. Help people buy into the lifestyle, the animal welfare, the feeling that your company wants to create in its customers.
- Share tips. If you sell produce, create some recipes- video them/write them up/take some nice images. If you create clothing – style tips. If you run a rural accountancy firm- how to keep track of your receipts. Tips help people and they also help you and your expert status. You can decide to display these tips in a blog, as graphics, as video… or, better still, all of the above.
- Document, don’t create. This advice is from Gary Vaynerchuk, and it’s so right. Your everyday life as a country business is filled with things that you might find mundane but, to someone who doesn’t know about what you do and how you work, it’s fascinating. If you run a farm shop, opening up in the morning, dealing with suppliers and restocking could create really great content. Maybe you’re talking about new season’s asparagus that only comes in for a limited time. Yes, it’s your day to day life, but why not share it with your customers? Get them excited about your new asparagus too!
- Get people involved. User generated content is a really big deal, and it is a great way to use social media to promote your country business too. Retweeting, sharing and reposting content from your customers can help them feel special and cared for, but it does huge things for your social media too. You could always introduce a competition to encourage this kind of engagement too.
So here are five ways to use social media to promote your country business. Of course, there are loads more, but it’s a good start!
