Love is in the air! In February, those in the wedding industry can look forward to all of the new business coming their way. Lots of couples are sharing their engagement news on social media, so why shouldn’t the wedding business industry use social media to gain clients as well? But how to do that effectively? We here at aJuxt have just the information you need to help your business ring those wedding bells loudly!
The first thing you must know is which best social media platforms are the best ones to reach your customers. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, and Instagram are the top five we recommend.
As a top social media site, Facebook is an easy way to stay connected to your brides and grooms, get referrals, and create a constant stream of information to your clients and prospective clients. More than 71 percent of Facebook users visit the site daily, and 40 percent visit multiple times a day, making it the most popular social media website used today. In August 2014, 2.6 million couples announced their engagement on Facebook. Facebook makes it easy to reach these newly engaged couples by allowing you to specifically target your paid ad to them. These ads can appear directly in their news feed or on the side as a sponsored ad.
Twitter is a micro blogging site. It’s easy to update frequently and you can tie it to your blog, website and Facebook account. Twitter is great for making other connections in the industry. You can follow fellow wedding businesses and get them to follow you back, creating a bigger market for your brand. You can also use hashtags as a way to make yourself searchable so brides-to-be can find you. Most importantly, you can create a custom hashtag for your business so that you can use your current clients to attract new ones and make you even easier to find. Last year, more than half of brides used a specific hashtag for their wedding, 20 percent shared the hashtag on their wedding ceremony programs and 10 percent didn’t use a hashtag but wished that they had. Hashtagging is on the rise in the wedding industry. For more information on hashtags and how people search them, check out our previous blog “Search On!”.
YouTube is the top video sharing network and it’s primary demographic group is 18-24 year old male users, making YouTube a GREAT way to attract young grooms! YouTube is a wonderful way to showcase your work and your brand’s unique style and personality. Brides also love to use YouTube to learn tips and hints by watching other brides’ big days. Using clever titles and topics combined with well shot videos is a sure way to get you the social media attention you long for!
It is important to link your YouTube videos back to your website. You can maximize your YouTube videos for your search engine results and use them to get higher search rankings for your website. There are also highly targeted paid ads available on YouTube. You can place a text only ad or video ad to individuals in your local area or all individuals watching specific genres of videos. Keyword targeting and demographically targeted ads are a great way to optimize your return on investment. A good place to get more information on this type of advertising is here.
Pinterest is a social bookmarking site. Pinterest helps users discover things they want to plan, create, buy or do sometime in the future. As an image-centric social network, Pinterest is one of the best ways to reach potential wedding clients because brides (and grooms!) will often use Pinterest for wedding inspiration. Pinterest estimates that tens of thousands of wedding-related and themed boards exist on its network. And those brides pin up to 20-30 times A DAY on those boards. They could be pulling information and inspiration from YOUR pinterest board! To maximize your exposure, you could join a group board of local area vendors; group boards are a great tool because they put your pins in front of a larger targeted audience in a much shorter time. Pinterest has also launched “promoted pins,” which essentially are ad pins that you pay to have show up when people search for wedding related topics. These may not be feasible for most small businesses at the moment, but they are available for larger ad buys.
Last but not least, Instagram is a photo sharing website. Instagram is visited almost as much as Facebook is, and more than 90 percent of Instagram users are under the age of 35. Instagram, like Twitter, relies heavily on hashtag usage, something you should be a pro at if you are using social media for your business. Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags per photo, so make sure you are using them all and that they are relevant to your photo and business. And again, make sure you have created your own custom hashtag so that you can make yourself searchable and help spread the word about your business. You can also network with other local wedding industry vendors by giving them shoutouts with the @ tag, growing your followers at the same time!
The most important rule with social media is to be consistent and active, which might be tough if you are bringing in tons of new business from all of your social media use. That is where aJuxt can help! We excel in Social Media Program Management, Social Media Content Creation, Social Media Blueprint and Social Media Training. Contact us today and let us help you fall in love with your business’s social media!
Written by Carrie Hellbusch || Digital Warrens Master