These locals are doing their social media marketing right!

Social media marketing is all around us. It’s nearly impossible to own a business without a presence on social media, and even harder when you have a small business that you want to gain exposure in the community. The proliferation of social media outlets means that followers are looking for more than a promotion of a product or service.

They are expecting your company to actively and creatively engage with them and build relationships. If you’re struggling with your social media marketing presence, you can start by learning from those who have it down pat. They don’t just have to be direct competitors. Start with local businesses who have succeeded at gaining exposure in the same town that you wish to do so. In honor of my birthday month, I chose to showcase some other local businesses and talk about what they’re doing right. These companies are getting interaction and gaining more awareness by using the “social” part of social media to their fullest advantage. Check out these three social media outlets run by local Orlando businesses and what you can learn from them.

1. Facebook- Purple Rock Scissors https://www.facebook.com/PurpleRockScissors?fref=ts

Let’s start with Facebook, the king of social media. Purple Rock Scissors is a digital creative agency focused on web development, interactive business intelligence, and user experience design. Much like their mission, their Facebook page focuses on follower engagement and has a way of tastefully showcasing their work in a way that’s not show-offy or too direct. For example, in honor of Labor Day they posted a high quality, captivating video that showed their expertise without trying to directly sell their service. Their social media marketing and audience engagement is on point, as seen in a ticket giveaway post where they asked the audience to comment with a reaction GIF to enter for a chance to win. This led to some hilarious submissions, each of which Purple Rock Scissors replied to individually, thus showing that they were talking to a real person not just a company.

2. Instagram- Farm-Haus https://instagram.com/farmhausorlando/

While Facebook lets you post virtually any form of media you want the beauty of Instagram is its aesthetic appeal and easy to consume content as users steadily scroll through their feed, usually stopping at whatever catches their eye. The key is to be that catch, and that’s just what local home-cooked takeout delivery service Farm-Haus does. With a new menu made from local in-season produce available each week, they do well to post the list every Sunday so followers know exactly what to expect. This is followed by beautifully photographed meals peppered with pictures of what the staff is doing to prepare for the next seasonal menu. Not only does scrolling over their Insta page make your mouth water, but the color scheme and crisp quality of the photos shows that they know what they’re doing in terms of creativity. Maybe that’s why they have over 2,000 followers after less than a year of business.

3. Twitter- Full Sail https://twitter.com/FullSail

Twitter is perhaps the trickiest social media platform to master for a business due to its 140 character limit and how rapidly the content is consumed. This means to be successful you must be posting at least 3 to 5 times a day with valuable content that will stand out among a steady influx of tweets. Full Sail University, a local for-profit college with focus on entertainment and design, is on their twitter A-game by posting around 5 times a day with tweets relating to different departments, what students have accomplished, contests, relatable quotes, and the recurring use of hashtags. One such hashtag #WednesdayWisdom is attached to an inspirational quote while others like #DoWhatYouLove reinforce their mission to prepare young people for a creative career. Another tweet encourages followers to submit their website, demo reel, portfolio, or SoundCloud to showcase their work, which brings us back to the audience engagement of Purple Rock Scissors. Overall, Full Sail does a stellar job of providing relevant and rapid content that all of their followers, not just students, will be drawn to. What do these three seemingly different local organizations have in common? They are using social media to brand themselves as a living, breathing thing that doesn’t just provide a service but interacts with the community, shows their creativity, and is relatable. All small business owners would do well to follow their lead to gain exposure in their town. If you or someone you know needs help with their marketing, contact us here. Otherwise, follow us on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Google+ and Instagram for more tips and tricks of the marketing trade!

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