CDD is that scary disease known as Content Deficit Disorder! It is where Social Media pages like your Facebook page does not have consistent quality content posted to it daily. CDD is the leading cause of Social Media marketing failure!
Not everyone is online and active on Social Media websites like Facebook at the same time. For this reason it is imperative to have fresh new content added every day, especially on the weekends and holidays when more people are actively engaged on social media. If your jewelry store’s posts are sporadic and hit-and-miss, then you will not be as successful as you could be.
Do you know what happens if you don’t post high-quality jewelry-related content to your page every day? Absolutely nothing! Nothing happens! Nobody comments! Nobody shares your jewelry! And nobody comes into your store!
A recent survey revealed that over 48% of adult Americans believe a lack of advertising by a retail store indicates that the business must be struggling. Likewise, the vast majority of adult Americans perceive businesses that continue to advertise as being competitive or committed to doing business.
What is worse is that when a business page on Social Media websites – such as Facebook – does not have current content, it looks like a company that went out of business. When you are consistent in posting fresh new content you will bolster consumer confidence in the future of your business.
Henry Ford had it right when he said, “A man who stops advertising to save money is like a man who stops a clock to save time.”
Social Media offers retail businesses the opportunity to provide a constant stream of information to consumers today at a fraction of the cost of traditional advertising. It is the easiest and most cost-efficient method to present your business in a positive light, build your image, and strengthen consumer confidence in your store.
If content is king, then most jewelry stores are paupers!
The downside of living in the Information Age is that to keep up, you need more and more information – i.e. content. Social Media channels are overflowing with content. To be successful marketing your jewelry store you need interesting content that grabs customer’s attention, posted daily!
No one spends time on Social Networks for the advertising. However, 82% of consumers do enjoy content from a brand as long as it provides personal value. In addition, Facebook announced in November that “Beginning in January 2015, people will see less promotional content in their News Feeds. Pages that post promotional content should expect their organic distribution to fall significantly over time.”
If your main use of Facebook is to let people know about a sale you are having or new products you carry, expect your reach to dramatically drop in the coming months. If you mostly talk about your store and what you are doing, last year’s drop in organic reach is only the beginning. This new algorithm change will limit your reach to only a very few of your very best Fans.
So what can you post on Facebook? The Facebook Business center goes on to say, “Businesses should think about their Page as a cornerstone of their online identity, not simply as a publishing service.”
Your Social Media content needs to tell a story. Nothing bores people faster than a product picture on a plain white background that looks like it came directly from an online store’s catalog. At Internet 4 Jewelers we have a team of professional graphic artists and copywriters to create content for our client’s pages. Each image is crafted emphasizing top selling jewelry, gemstones, or diamonds, with background images and text that conveys a story that is entertaining and/or educational. The goal of each post is to create a desire to own and wear jewelry and give it as gifts to loved ones, and/or build the store’s brand establishing them as a knowledgeable jeweler and a premier store at which to purchase jewelry.
Newsjacking
Newsjacking is a new form of creating marketing content by taking a current news story and tying it to your store and/or products. For example, many jewelry stores today post content about celebrity engagements. It is a prefect tie in as it features our main product, engagement rings, and celebrities are well known by consumers (the reason they are celebrities). However, if done too often and if this is your main source of content, your jewelry store page can begin to look like a grocery store checkout-line gossip tabloid!
Another popular form of Newsjacking by jewelers is to post about and/or link to feel-good stories of someone finding their lost jewelry. It features jewelry prominently in the news item and it is a feel-good story after all, so it must be a great use of content, right?
It baffles me that so many jewelers use this type of Newsjacking in their marketing. When someone reads this type of story their first thought is; “Oh, how nice.” Then, their very next thought is, “I would never be so lucky!”
Which then leads them to think: “Maybe I should not buy that new piece of jewelry I wanted because I would only loose it!”
Instead of creating a desire to own and wear jewelry, you are actually driving customers away with this type of marketing.
Word-of-Mouth Advertising
As store owners and managers we know the least costly and most effective form of advertising is Word-of-Mouth. There is nothing better than getting your existing customers to become ambassadors for your store and promote it to friends and family.
You should never underestimate the social aspect of Social Media. Social Media is like Word-of-Mouth advertising on steroids! But if you are not visible on social websites, providing your customers the opportunity to share and comment on your content, you miss out on this powerful feature.
Your posts, if crafted properly, provide consumers a chance to share their experiences with your store to friends and family, and openings for ladies to share with their significant other their desire for a gift of jewelry. One of the best comments we ever received on a client’s post was “My husband hates all your posts, but I make sure he sees every one of them!”
Brad Simon is co-owner of Internet 4 Jewelers and specializes in Social Media Marketing, and Mobile Message Marketing exclusively for retail jewelry stores. They are dedicated to making social media simple and affordable for every jeweler, and provide content packages for jewelry stores doing their own marketing, as well as affordable full-service social media management. For more information go to http://www.Internet4Jewelers.com.
