Finding the right content for social media, by Jeet Bansi, Meon Vale Londis, Stratford-upon-Avon

Updating your social media is always very important. At Christmas, we extend our opening times. People rely a lot more on convenience stores at that time, so making sure people know about it is key for them and for us. Social media is one of the most effective ways to get that message out there. As we come towards Easter, it’s the same scenario.

Updating all our special offers and posting them on social media worked really well for us at Christmas. We’ll be doing it again in the run up to Easter. We’re now a lot braver with it. At the moment, we have 70cl bottles of Smirnoff which we’re selling £12.99. We’ve found that our local Morrisons has it on offer at £15. The nearby Tesco is selling it for even more than that. We’ve posted their prices alongside ours on social media. It shows we’re beating the multiples on price, even when they’re on offer.

Competing with the supermarkets

We did this with our Baileys at Christmas. Tesco had put them front and centre in the early part of December, selling it at £10. When they ran out, closer to Christmas Day itself, we posted on social media about our own promotions.

You need to find things that are relevant and will land with your customer base. You have to be on top with the key messages. Competitions and giveaways work, but they have to be relevant. Social media is also an opportunity for customers to see what else you’re doing. It doesn’t always have to be about the money. People will get a feel for who you are as a local community store and not just a place where they shop.

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It’s hard to monitor how much impact social media has. One solution is putting up deals that require someone to mention seeing them online. We did an offer where if they bought three bottles we’d work out a deal for them . That’s one way to see where that sale has come from.

The one thing we want to do as a business is get stronger at social media. We’re only on Facebook at the moment, so we want to get onto Instagram and TikTok. There are so many great retailers doing amazing things on social media. It’s important for us to look and learn from them as well.