You already know that social media is a great way to promote events and specials, so why aren’t your promotions as successful as you’d expected?
Most likely because you are doing the same thing as everybody else, and you are not measuring your results.
In social media, not only do you need to be creative to impress customers, but you need to do it right, and most importantly, you need to keep track of everything. Another huge aspect overlooked by most businesses is simply planning. To use social media marketing effectively, you need to watch trends and plan ahead of time.
Here are a few tips to help you get more results from your social media efforts:
1. Keep up with trends: Using Facebook and Twitter to promote your business is old news. Everyone is doing that. In order to stand out, you need to know what’s trending and take advantage of it. For nightclubs & bars, you should be working with Instagram (photos), Vine (short videos) and Snapchat (deals).
2. Have a plan: Making a post on Facebook three days before an event is not going to cut it anymore. There is a lot you can do to promote events and specials, so you need to have a plan. You should start planning at least a month ahead, to ensure you cover all steps. That way, you’ll have time to spread the word online strategically and run other types of promos, like contests and giveaways.
3. Identify your customers’ niche: Where do your customers hang out online? Which social media sites do they use the most? Knowing that information will help you come up with the best plan. You don’t want to waste time on Twitter if your customers use Instagram. To find your customers’ niche, research what is popular around your area, have your waiters ask customers, and test different strategies. Promote the same special on different platforms, and see which one gets you the best response.
4. Be consistent and cross-promote: Make sure to have the same message across all your social media pages. Keep the same designs and information, so you don’t confuse customers. Also, when deciding which strategies to use, combine social media promotions (i.e. run a contest on Instagram, but promote it on Facebook and Twitter as well and use the same hashtag on all platforms).
5. Get everyone involved and excited: Especially your staff. Let them know what is happening and how they can help you. The more excited they are about your event, the more excited customers will be as well. Get your staff to share your posts on their personal pages to help you spread the word.
6. Track everything: That way you can calculate the ROI. Keep track of all the responses you get online and offline, so you can compare and improve for the next promotion.
For more practical ideas and trends of how to use social media for your nightclub or bar, watch Moving Targets free webinar “How to use Social Media: To Promote Events and Target Loyal Customers.”
If you have additional social media questions, feel free to email Natalia Morais, Director of Social Media at Moving Targets at natalia@movingtargets.com.