mary and martha
5 Ideas to Increase Engagement in Your Customer Group
I honestly hear from my Directly Social group members every single day asking for help on how to get people to engage with them in their Customer Groups.
For me, I think the answer is pretty simple… look at your own social media behaviors, what things do YOU engage with?
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Now, I’ve been focusing more on my business page than my customer group. So just know that these ideas apply to both.
Pay attention to what catches your eye and what stops your thumb scroll. What gets the coveted “reaction” from you, or better yet, what gets a comment or a share? Your group members are just like you, so once you figure out what gets interaction from you in other groups/page, you will better understand how to post things that get engagement in your own groups.
I will share some ideas of what gets great interaction for me in my customer group, which I discovered based on my own social media behaviors. Now, just because these work for me doesn’t mean they are the magic pill for you and your group, these are just ideas. You need to commit to doing the work and finding out what DOES work for your group.
1. Creating Polls:
Every time I create a poll in my customer group, I get fantastic interaction. Polls are great for waking the dead in the group too, it seems like people I haven’t “seen” in my group in months come out of the woodwork to participate in a poll!
Which room do you need to organize the most?
- Living room
- Kitchen
- Bedroom
Here’s a video on how to create a poll in your customer group: CLICK HERE
2. Asking Questions:
If you want people to engage with you, ASK QUESTIONS! It gives them permission to respond, otherwise they just scroll on by! This is called a CTA or Call to Action. I never let a post leave my fingers without a CTA attached to it at the end of the post.
Post a picture of your dinner and ask…What’s everyone cooking tonight?
Post a picture of what you’re doing and ask…What is everyone doing this weekend?
That’s a CTA!
3. Posting Interactive Posts:
Some of my best engagement posts have been where I ask my group “Have you ever tried XYZ?” or “Have you ever heard of ABC?”. Sometimes it is specific to my product, but most of the time it is not. It is usually something “mom” related, or something that would be considered parallel content to my product line, so maybe something about organization, packing, etc. Everyone has an opinion they want to share about those interactive questions and I am always loving their comments!
Who has been to the Container Store?
Who has an IKEA near them?
How do you store your Tupperware containers? I need a new system!
Those are examples of interactive posts.
4. Rewarding for Interaction:
I wholly believe in rewarding what you want repeated, so I reward people who hop on live to my Facebook LIVES. I have GREAT interaction and attendance on my FB Lives in my group! It might be a discount for all of them, it might be a digital goodie, or maybe a free product drawing, it all depends on the LIVE video. They never know what I might giveaway or do, so they are sure to hop on as soon as they get the notification for fear of missing out on something awesome! #FOMO !
5. Games:
I love games and reward for them. You don’t have to give away the farm to do giveaways often. I just went to Party City last night and got a Minnie Mouse lunch box, adorable pen, and cup for $2.50 for the whole set. My customers get giddy about little cute collections like that. I scour the clearance bins there, Target, Dollar Tree.
I do a giveaway every Friday. They know it’s coming. When you get people participating, Facebook believes they WANT to see your posts and they show them more often.
Here’s an example of a fun game:
Click on this link and you’ll find a million of these Family Feud ones you can make:
CLICK HERE FOR FAMILY FEUD QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
I want to make my Customer Group and Facebook Business page a place where I personally want to come every day! I want to LOVE my own pages/groups! Here’s the deal, guys…. we are in the Customer EXPERIENCE and ENTERTAINMENT business, regardless of the product line we are selling! Think about it! People buy from people they know, like, and trust and I want to be that person for them. If they do not LIKE you, they will not BUY from you.
And did you notice anything about all the posts above?
NONE of them have anything to do with YOUR PRODUCT! Stop shoving sales and bookings down their throat with every single post. If your goal is community and interaction, you must focus on creating that environment. And salesy, spammy posts are not going to get it.
I am 100% committed to the experience, entertainment and engagement of my group and business page members. Are you?
10 Ideas to ROCK Your June
Hellooooooo summmer!!! I am so excited summer is finally here and I can spend some quality time with my kiddos, making memories & making messes!
We have a whole summer bucket list that I cannot wait to get started, including a Donut Trail here in Cincinnati where you visit 12 different donut shops, they stamp your passport and you get a free t-shirt at the end! We are gonna be in donut heaven! (Local friends – check it out here: https://www.gettothebc.com/donut-trail)
Who else is excited to get their summer on? Summer is an amazing season of the year, but you need to keep in mind that it is just a season, and if you don’t work it right, your business could totally wilt or die this summer if you don’t continue to water, nurture and plant new seeds. You will have no fall business if you don’t keep your summer business moving!
So here are 10 Ideas to ROCK your June:
#1 National Donut Day (6/1) – Idea #1
Hello?? This might just be the best day of the year, right? Be sure to be one of the first announce National Donut Day to your followers so they hear it from you first. Schedule your post using CinchShare to hit your FB business page at 6:00am, then turn around and SHARE that post from your public business page to your Customer VIP group and your personal timeline on Facebook so you will be the first in their timeline to tell them what day it is, and they will share your post with all their friends!
#2 – National Donut Day (6/1) – Idea #2
You can even take it one step further and do a little research about who has free donuts on that day, I know that Krispie Kreme and Dunkin’ Donuts both do something that day! Be a resource and your followers will definitely share your posts!
#3 National Donut Day (6/1) – Idea #3
Do a “Donut Drop” at a local business or office! This is something you will need to start working on this week. You make a post to your FB Business Page, your Customer Group and your timeline asking if anyone works in an office that would like to host a Donut Drop party with you. You will bring a dozen or so donuts, catalogs and order forms to her office and she can do a catalog party with donut bribery for her co-workers! You can do with with cookies on another day (Cookies and Catalogs), but just imagine if you lined up 2-3 Donut Drop parties on June 1st! It is a Friday (payday!) and you can close the parties a couple days later. You could have a couple thousand dollars in sales the first week of June just from the Donut Drops! Take lots of pictures and share them on social!
#4 National Donut Day (6/1) – Idea #4
“Do-nut” miss the opportunity to really play up this day in your social media posts. You can share products and specials that your followers “donut” want to miss out on, or “you donut know how excited I am about this new product”. Or letting them know that they are the “icing on your donut”, “I donut know what I would do without you”, “I like you a HOLE lot”, “hope your day is sprinkled with fun”. You can have so much fun with this day and your followers will have a blast because it is fun and different! Run a contest and give away a gift card for donuts!
#5 Change your FB Customer Group cover photo to something more “June” themed
This is an easy way to update your group and get a post into your group member’s news feeds. Make sure you are using that prime real estate of the cover photo space as best you can. Make sure you are not always just featuring product, be sure to include your smiling face sometimes! And use the group photo size 1920×1080 for optimal visualization of your awesome banner and details!
#5 Update your Facebook Business Page cover photo to something more June-like
Make sure you are updating your Facebook Business Page with the season, you definitely don’t want a cover photo featuring Christmas items up when it is June But I cannot tell you how many times I see this on some of your business pages. Your cover photo is like your storefront window for your business, make sure it is attractive and in-tune with the season. Use a filter and add a summer frame, jazz it up!
#6 Beach Bucks
Remember Cupid Cash from February and the Bunny Bucks in April? You can totally summer-ize it up by allowing your customers to “earn” $1 in Beach Bucks for every $10 they spend with you in June. The Beach Bucks are only redeemable with you and only redeemable in the following month, in this case July. So this idea gets you sales this month and potentially next month too. If you want to move some cash and carry products, you could easily change the coupon to where they can only redeem the Beach Bucks toward something you have cash and carry and then payout the difference. For example, if they have $10 in Beach Bucks and the item is $31, they give you the $10 in Beach Bucks and pay the $21 difference. That’s a sale for June AND a sale for July!
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CLICK HERE TO JOIN
#7 Happy Mail – Send crazy fun goodies in the mail to upcoming Hostesses and team members
Imagine what the response will be when you a flip flop or beach ball to a Hostess in the mail (no box or envelope) letting her know she will FLIP over the Hostess special this month, or you cannot wait to have a BALL with her at her party! Walk around your local dollar store, pick things up, ask yourself “Can I mail this?” and figure out a fun pun or play or words that you can feature with your happy mail! If this mailing stuff without a box or envelope freaks you out, go and and box it up, but I will tell you it is far more fun to get sill random stuff in the mail without the envelope. They REMEMBER this and they remember you (and they talk about you and share on social media)!
#8 Share summer recipes, crafts and tips with your followers
One of the best things you can do to have your followers engage with you is to curate good seasonal content that your followers will love and share! Think all things summer and share those cute tips and ideas to get people sharing your content. Share a tip a day or at least a few a week!
#9 Create a June Ideas Pinterest Board and share it
Head over to Pinterest and create a theme board specifically for June and pin what you love for June (tips, recipes, crafts, DIY, outdoor cleaning, etc). Once you have a minimum of 10-15 pins (I am sure you will find far more that you love), share the link to your Pinterest board in your customer group, your FB business page, your personal timeline, your customer newsletter, etc. Share it everywhere! Invite them to follow you while they are over on Pinterest!
#10 Summer-ize Your Vendor Booth
Summers are a great time to do vendor booths at fairs and festivals. People completely pre-judge your vendor booth in about 3 seconds. Think about ways you can completely “summer-ize” your table and display to make it attractive to those scanning the room or just passing by. Be sure to use colors that go well together, maybe just 2-3 colors. Keep things simple and clean! I have seen amazing vendor tables in the summer, using beach towels as tablecloths, pool noodles as jewelry bumps for bracelets and watches, sand buckets to hold Hostess Packets and goodies! You can really have a lot of fun and catch a lot of attention with a seasonal table.
What fun June ideas do you have?
Melissa Fietsam @DirectlySocial
