February 2022 - 40

MARKETING
Increase
Your
Social
Media
Reach
Here are the best ways you can
increase and maintain your garden
center's social impressions.
By Joe Tacosik
W
hen it comes to the
ever-evolving algorithms
of social media giants like
Facebook and Instagram, keeping
your store's organic reach steady
can be a challenge. Whether you're
starting from scratch with building
your garden center's social audience,
or simply trying to navigate the latest
changes, here are a few quick changes
you can implement with your social
media channels to help increase and
maintain your social impressions.
Keep it Short
For Facebook and Instagram
specifically, it is important that
your organic posts keep the text
to a minimum. This is because of
somewhat-recent changes made to the
social media platforms' algorithms that
place a higher emphasis on organic
images and videos that will garner
more engagement.
When posting to these platforms,
make sure you're keeping your text to a
minimum of one to three sentences at
most. Also, avoid using links in the text
when possible on Facebook (you should
NEVER use links in text on Instagram);
instead using the rich link preview that
Facebook provides.
Video Content is King
Did you know that social posts
containing video see over 48% more
engagement and interaction, with a
share rate of 12x that of generic text
and/or static image posts? That's
because social media algorithms place
a higher priority on seeing organic,
engaging video content above almost
anything else.
If your garden center isn't using
videos to tell your story, showcase
your latest products and more, you're
missing out on valuable real estate in
the social media news feed.
Be Social
Another way you can help boost your
company's social media impressions is
to drive engagement on your organic
posts - and a good way to do this
is by interacting with users who are
interacting with you.
40 | LAWN & GARDEN RETAILER | FEBRUARY 2022
When someone comments on your
video or post, don't just leave them
hanging - like and comment back!
You can be witty, helpful or even
complementary, just as long as you
keep it professional (you don't want
your garden center to seem rude or
unbecoming to current and potential
customers). By engaging with those
that are engaging with you, Facebook
and Instagram's algorithms will see
a high-performing post, helping your
content to show up higher in the news
feed - and, in turn, bringing more
engagement to engage with.
Joe Tacosik is a marketing specialist
with SmartSolutions, a partner to Lawn
& Garden Retailer. Our team of expert
marketers bring their unique perspectives
and diverse experiences together to
provide a one-stop, full-service marketing
solution to help your business thrive. For
more information on how your company
could benefit from a comprehensive
marketing strategy, contact Joe at
jtacosik@smartsolutions.media or visit
www.smartsolutions.media today.
http://www.smartsolutions.media
February 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of February 2022
