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Using Social Media to Promote Small Business Saturday

It's that time of the year again! The Thanksgiving feast leftovers are in the fridge, the football games are over, and Black Friday is officially done. This means one thing for small business owners nationwide: Small Business Saturday!







It's imperative to build a buzz on social media leading up to Small Business Saturday to make the most of the holiday. Small Business Saturday is also a great opportunity to capture content from the busy day; this content can be used later on to carry that buzz through the holiday season! This event provides an opportunity for the customers as well to share their photos of their experience and get the conversation going about your brand. Whether you plan on joining on Small Business Saturday as a neighborhood champion or a shopper, keep the following tips in mind to ensure it’s just as successful online as it is off.

#1. Provide as many #hashtags as possible

Before Small Business Saturday kicks off, send out an email blast to your customer base alerting them that you'll be participating, and share the news on your social media accounts. Along with knowing where they can find you on social, include hashtags that customers can use when they’re out and about shopping. The official hashtag for Small Business Saturday is #ShopSmall and it's a great idea to create an additional branded hashtag for the day that related directly to your business.

Also, encourage customers to use the relevant hashtags across social platforms so that you can find photos and tweets about their experiences for likes and shares. You never know what kinds of milestones they may be shopping for!




#2 Pause on your existing social media initiatives

Definitely go ahead and hit pause on your current social media editorial calendar for a minute and think about the posts you can create to drum up excitement over your Small Business Saturday offerings.

            Here are a couple of ideas to get you started:

·      DIY a social lookbook - Curate the products your business has that would make great gifts for every kind of wishlist in flat lay photoshoots, then share on your Instagram account. The swipe function enables you to add multiple images to show off your inventory to interested shoppers, creating an easy holiday lookbook.

·      Offering deals? Make sure your customers know about any discounts offered through e-newsletters and your social media platforms, along with any promo codes necessary to redeem them, or extra incentives to spending a certain amount in-store at your shop. You might even want to offer a deeper discount to shoppers that follow you on social media

·      Create social ads - On Facebook in particular in order to further extend your reach to a wider audience along with your existing one.

·      Update your contact information. The last thing you want is for customers to accidentally go to the wrong location if you've moved. Update your address, phone number, email, and hours - including (importantly) holiday hours





#3 Encourage Location Check-Ins

One way businesses have been increasingly included in milestones is through check-ins made on Facebook and Instagram. On Small Business Saturday, encourage new and returning customers to check-in when they’re at your store in order to get an extra view of what your foot traffic looks like. Another option would be to post photos on Instagram from your brand account and add in your own location to show potential visitors at all the fun that’s going on at your store. 

Use this next week to utilize the above tips and start drumming up some buzz for the big day!









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