Getting to know your customers is the most important thing you can do as a small business owner! Here's how you can use social media to learn more about the community you sell to.
Today is Get to Know Your Customers Day. It is the perfect holiday for small business owners to celebrate! Knowing your customer is essential to the success of your small business. Hopefully your customer research isn’t just beginning, but even if so, social media is a great place to turn to in order to learn how you can improve your small business. Here’s a few ways to sneak customer research into your every day social media posting.
I have found the first piece of this puzzle is to be personable and relatable. People are much more likely to share information with someone they can trust. Don’t be afraid to post more personal content on your small business page. Stories is a great place to do this, as they aren’t permanent to your brand image, like an Instagram photo is. Quick pictures or photos of what you are doing on a day off or your favorite place to get work done from are perfect to help give your shoppers an idea of the face behind the business. There are so many ways to tie personal information back to your business focus. I love sharing our two dogs and to tie them back to the businesses I refer to them as our “interns”. Simple, cute, and fun. As another example, smHauler LLC focuses on supporting and promoting small businesses, so I shared a bookmark a small business had sent me, and took the opportunity to also share how I’ve been reading more recently to avoid burnout. I also asked how my followers enjoyed spending their free time. I shared a piece of me while still staying true to the focus of smHauler LLC. I was even able to squeeze in a bit of customer research, which I’ll focus on next. Below are a few photos for some inspo on how you can share your personality within your brand!
The best way to get answers is to just ask questions! Now, most won’t respond to very open ended questions. The key is to ask simple questions with generally short answers. An example of this may be asking followers what their favorite music is. How does this help? If you have people share a lot of country songs, then maybe you want to focus on some western designs. If they share pop music maybe you have a customer base that enjoys more mainstream trends, like smiley faces or Y2K fashion. This is very general and may not give you direct correlation, but it certainly can be useful. Not only are you collecting information, you are making your followers feel like they are a part of a community that cares and that they can relate to. They will be so much more likely to remember your brand and want to shop from you! Another trick is to utilize the features or stickers different apps offer. Tapping a poll answer is easy for followers and they are more likely to do that than comment. The sliding scale emoji with heart eyes is perfect to use when trying to gauge how popular a new style or idea may be. K.I.S.S – Keep It Simple Sweetheart, and don’t underestimate the power of it!
As a thank you for reading this article and to kickstart your customer research on social media, you can find a fun Instagram story template here, for completely free! It will download in a zip folder once you click the link. If you love it, be sure to check out the entire set of Odd Holiday Instagram Story Templates. Use code GTKYCD at checkout for 40% off! This code is only valid on our Odd Holiday Social Media Packages.
Looking for more examples of how to sneak customer research into your social media posts? Snoop the smHauler LLC Instagram page!
The Best Deals for Black Friday Weekend from Small Businesses
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! The holiday season is not only full of friends, families, and heartwarming traditions, but also DEALS, DEALS,
Holiday Gift Guide From Small Businesses | Online Shopping Made Easy
Shop 17 small business finds from smHauler that will make the perfect gifts this holiday season!
5 Motivational Quotes for Small Business Owners
5 Inspirational and Motivational Quotes for Small Business Owners Sometimes when you’re stuck, it’s nice to hear words of encouragement to get your mind and