As a florist, you wear lots of different hats - from floral designer, to accountant to social media manager and everything in between! It can be pretty tough being an expert in each of these areas and making sure you're up to date with the best practices.
A strong social media presence is a great (and mainly free!) way for you to retain current customers, attract new ones and build your brand. We've listed some handy social media tips below that you can use to ensure your social channels are generating more visits to your florist website and in turn generating more sales.
1. Define your social media goals.
Before you start posting on your social channels, it’s important to define your goals. Do you want to increase your brand awareness? Generate leads? Drive sales? Knowing your goals will help you create a social media strategy that aligns with your business objectives. Make sure you always finish off each of your posts with a relevant call to action detailing what you want your customer to do after they've seen your post e.g. 'Shop now at <insert your website>, 'Like and share to be in with a chance of winning', 'Find out more over on our blog'.
Don't forget that social media is also great for customer service, product education, recruitment, market/trend research and credibility.
2. What's your social media strategy?
Having a solid strategy will help you meet the goals you've set.
Ask yourself:
- What are your objectives?
- Who is your target audience?
- Describe your tone of voice and brand personality.
- What content will you post?
- What are your growth tactics?
- How will you measure success?
The answers to these questions will help you with your social media master plan.
3. Choose the right platforms.
There are many social media platforms available, but not all of them are suitable for every business. As a florist, you may lean towards platforms such as Instagram, TikTok or Pinterest, which are image-heavy and have a strong focus on visual content.
Whilst Tik Tok is a relatively new platform, we’re still seeing huge growth from it. It’s ranked the 6th most popular channel in the world with a massive 1,051 million users per month! Interflora’s TikTok page is filled with some blooming great content that you could replicate on your page.
Top tip! Be realistic about how many social channels you're able to maintain, only use the social channels where you have a clear target audience and that you can create engaging content for and don't let any of your channels go dormant - always post a 'holding' message.
4. Create a content calendar.
A content calendar is a schedule of the content you plan to post on social media. It helps you stay organised and ensures that you are consistently posting content. You can plan your content around holidays, events, or promotions that your business is running.
You can create your own content calendar using programs such as Microsoft Excel, OneNote or Planner. Alternatively, there are plenty of ready-made content calendars available online that you can download.
Top tip! Once you've created/downloaded your content calendar, start populating it with key dates such as your shop holidays, local events or national/international recognition days e.g. World Chocolate Day. From this, you can then start to plan out your posts. It's recommended that small businesses should be posting on their social channels between 2-5 times per week!
The Floristry Trade Club have a great 'Dates for your Diary' page which you can access here.
eflora subscribers - don't forget that over on our private Facebook group (exclusively for eflora florists), on the 1st day of each month we share upcoming dates for the month ahead. Request access to our exclusive eflora Facebook group here.
5. Showcase your work.
One of the most important things you can do on social media as a florist is to showcase your work. Share photos/reels of your floral arrangements, close-up shots of the flowers you use and behind-the-scenes glimpses of your work process.
Really show-off your knowledge about flowers by letting your customers know about the variety types you're using/stocking or any facts about certain stem types e.g. did you know that there are over 3500 named varieties of tulips?!
Don't be shy to try out different post styles such as carousel images, reels, videos where you're talking to your followers on your stories. Canva is a great tool that you can use to design and create some of your posts.
6. Engage with your audience.
Social media is all about building relationships, so it’s important to engage with your audience. Respond to comments and messages, ask questions, and encourage your followers to share their thoughts and experiences on your social channels.
Top tip! Here's just a couple of ways you could create some engagement with your followers:
- Share two different bouquet designs and ask customers to vote for their favourite.
- Share your 'Stem of the day'.
- For new products, present your customers with two different product names and ask them to vote.
- Share a previous review and ask your followers to leave their feedback.
7. Use hashtags.
Hashtags are a great way to increase the visibility of your posts on social media. Research relevant hashtags and include them in your posts to reach a wider audience.
Top tip! Here's a quick guide to hashtags:
- Always start with #. They won’t work if you use punctuation, spaces or symbols.
- Make sure your accounts are public. Otherwise, posts with hashtag content won’t be seen by any non-followers and stops you from reaching new audiences.
- Don’t use too many words. The best hashtags tend to be relatively short, easy to read and easy to remember.
- Use relevant and specific hashtags. If it is too obscure, it will be hard to find and it's unlikely to be used or searched for by other social media users.
- Limit the number of hashtags you use. Sometimes less is more. Too many hashtags can look like spam.
8. Collaborate with other businesses.
Collaborating with other businesses can help you reach new audiences and build relationships with other business owners. Consider partnering with wedding planners, photographers, or event venues to showcase your work. Be sure to tag any collaborators in the relevant post - hopefully they will share your post to their followers meaning your account will reach new audiences.
9. Offer exclusive promotions.
Offering exclusive promotions on social media is a great way to incentivise your followers to engage with your content and make a purchase. Consider offering a limited time discount code or running a competition to win a free bouquet for followers who share your post or tag your business in their own posts.
eflora subscriber? If you'd like a discount code setting up on your florist website, let us know by emailing eflora-digital@interflora.co.uk.
10. Link to your social channels from your website.
Seems like an easy one, right? But you'd be surprised at how many business don't! With an eflora site, we'll set this up for you automatically as just one of our many fab florist website features..
Linking to your social channels from your website is also a great way of boosting your website's search engine optimisation (SEO), for more SEO tips take a look at our 'A beginner's guide to SEO' blog post.
Social media is no longer optional for any business, florist or not. It can be a powerful tool for you to reach new customers, generate orders or boost your brand awareness. We hope you've found this blog helpful, you can read our other blogs here.
Not part of eflora yet? What are you waiting for? Find out what an eflora florist website could do for your business and book your demo.
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