What to use?

Retail Businesses are having to adapt more than ever to social media markets as the use of them is changing every year. With more social media platforms being created and new features being added to current platforms, it can hard to successfully operate and make use of for retail businesses. For Businesses to be successful they should only operate around 1 to 3 social media platforms as this helps manage resources and target specific markets with greater success and accuracy.

The most common platforms used by businesses are:

Twitter

Facebook

Youtube

Instagram

Some other platforms that are becoming relevant and Retail businesses are adopting to use include:

Snapchat

Pinterest

Linkedin

Spotify

By trying out new platforms of Social Media, Retail Businesses can target new markets and discover new possibilities. An example below is of Coca Cola, you can see how they only use 3 Social media platforms.

Selfie Marketing, Snapchat's Sponsored Geofilters

Last year the social networking platform Snapchat released their new added feature Geofilters. These  are digital stickers that Snapchat users overlay on photos and videos that they send or post to other users. The different Geofilters are only available in certain locations, determined by the mobile phones sensors.

Snap chat have recently added sponsored Geofilters, Where businesses can pay for a sticker to be added of their brand to be available in determined locations for users to use. This is a great feature that  businesses can use to target Snapchat’s young audience, which has nearly 100 million daily active users.

McDonald's was one of the first Brands to take advantage of the sponsored Geofilters. When in one of their restaurants the McDonald's Geofilter pictured below becomes available. 

  
Mc Donald's Have increased the reach of their Snapchat's filter by also adding sponsored instagram posts about their snapchat filter and account. This is very good use of their social media platforms, making sure to link them up. They also have added a promotion of users being able to feature in their Snapchat story by sending a selfie with the McDoanld's fitler to their snapchat account. These are both great uses of Snapchat by McDonalds that other Businesses should strive for if they wish to stay relevant with a younger target audience.

McDonald's Sponsored Instagram post 

Being Suggestive

Facebook has brought a new edge to social media advertising with the introduction of the Suggested Post.  Recently you may have noticed on Facebook when scrolling through the news feed posts that are by businesses with the 'Suggested Post' marking next to it. This Genius move by Facebook benefits both the business and Facebook, with the suggested business paying for this promotion. 

Bacardi Suggested Post on Facebook.

The suggested posts work by collecting the browsing history data from the user, This data is then sorted and matched into different categories for which the user will see. The business which pays to have this promotion is put into a category and and users fitting that category will see the suggested post. This is great for the business as they get their market targeted directly.  

Instagram also has a very similar targeted advertising platform, with the Sponsored posts. These are very much the same as the suggested posts, the photos that are selected for users to see are targeted to them using data from their browsing history. Both of these features from Facebook and Instagram are very useful to use for businesses to greater target their market.

Ben And Jerrys And Levis Instagram sponsored posts.