Olympia 2018: Handy Tips for Using of Social Media - Olympia Horse Show

Olympia 2018: Handy Tips for Using of Social Media

Social media is a highly effective, low-cost way to find and connect with new customers, build
awareness and drive sales. This document is designed to provide some handy tips to help you to best
utilise social media to benefit your business in the run up to and during Olympia 2018.

   1. Pick the Platform that is right for you
      By focusing your efforts on the social media platform that is right for your product and/or
      business, you can spend more time engaging your customers and producing quality,
      effective content.

       Key Social Media platforms:

         Facebook                             Twitter                           Instagram

       Facebook :
       Facebook is an attractive option for social media marketing as it opens up your business to
       over two billion monthly active users, making it possible to tap into a huge market that
       otherwise may not be possible to reach. In addition, more and more people are using
       Facebook as a search engine to explore products and services which makes having a strong
       Facebook presence it as important as having your own website.

       Twitter:
       Twitter’s appeal is the brevity of posts due to the 280-word limit per tweet. It provides
       snapshots of information that can be partnered up with links, images, videos and GIFs. It’s a
       fast moving global social media platform making it ideal for news and communications.

       Instagram:
       Instagram is incredibly popular for both personal and business use meaning the two often
       overlap and benefit from one another. It allows you to find and connect with your audience
       in a visual way that matters to them, spreading awareness and generating sales. Customers
       want to connect to your product on a visual level before investing in it and Instagram
       facilitates this for a wide audience, whilst providing detailed product information and
       insights through features such as tagging and Insta Stories (explained later).

   2. Ensure that you are connected to Olympia’s Social Media Platforms and other industry
      contacts
      By connecting to our social media platforms, your posts will appear on our feed so we can
      see them and vice versa, enabling promotion of each other’s content by sharing or
      reposting. Below are instructions of how to connect on social media:

Using the example of Facebook, you can either open the Facebook App on your phone and
    search for using the ‘Search Facebook’ search bar at the top or, by following this link, you
    can find the Olympia Facebook page on your desktop.

    Once you’ve reached the page, click the ‘Like’ button and ensure that the ‘Following’ icon
    next to the ‘Liked’ button is also selected to ensure that are posts appear on your News
    Feed.

    When using Twitter or Instagram, you can follow the same method on the app or on your
    desktop via this link for Twitter or this link for Instagram.

    Olympia’s social media pages: top left Facebook; top right Twitter; bottom left Instagram

3. Incorporate visual elements as much as possible – videos, photos and graphics
   Visual elements are very engaging for customers, whether it be static images, videos or even
   GIFs. The more eye-catching the better, in order to stop your customers scrolling long
   enough to take notice and read the post. Humour can also be useful in making the post
   entertaining and memorable, as well as allowing the account to be a little more personal and
   human.

4. Utilise all features of the platform
   If you see a post that you like and is relevant to your product and/or stand, it is useful to be
   able to share it with your own social media following by either clicking share on Facebook or
   retweet on Twitter. Likewise, if your post is relevant to Olympia, or any other industry
   contact, and you’d like it to be shared with their followers, you can tag them in your post by

referring to their account in the copy of your post. For example, for Olympia you would
include @olympiahorse in the post or tag us in the image itself.
This interaction is two way and also allows engagement with your industry as well as brand
promotion to a wider audience who can then follow tag links and explore your brand.

There other features that can enhance the effectiveness of your account depending on the
social media platform:

Facebook:
Geotagging – It is important to ensure Geotagging is set up properly as this allows people to
check-in when they are at your business. Each time a customer checks-in, this is shared with
their social network who will see it as a positive recommendation (otherwise the customer
would not have shared it!) and works as effectively free advertising for you.

Facebook Live – Facebook’s live streaming feature is useful for reaching out to your audience
in real time, for example, at the Show when there are lots of exciting things going on that
you want to share. It can be effective in creating the feeling of wanting to be there and not
missing. By featuring members of your team in action it can also help your audience to feel
connected, giving your brand a more personal feel and building a level of trust.

Facebook Advertising – Facebook have created an advertising system that promotes your
posts and targets them towards the most appropriate audience for your product. This can be
combined with stats, generated by Facebook, in regards to levels of engagement with your
content to help prioritise certain themes and types of posts allowing you to spend time and
money more effectively.

Twitter:
Use @mentions and tag people—When you mention followers, influencers, or other brands
in a tweet, including an @mention is a nice way to drive a little traffic their way. You can also
tag people in photos when it’s appropriate to do so, as covered in our post on Twitter best
practices.
Twitter Polls —Tweet a question using the Twitter Poll function and see how your followers
respond. It could also be used for customer service feedback, quick product or service
opinions, and direct social listening opportunities.

Instagram
Tagging – Not only can you tag other Instagram accounts in your posts and images but also
detailed product information and a link back to your website too. This appears as a small
white dot that appears over your image which when clicked opens up as a small pop-up.

Instagram Stories – Unique to Instagram is its stories feature which can be used to
potentially show people what they would normally not see behind the scenes. This could
include an office tour or perhaps how the team work in the back ground or how products
are made.

In terms of Olympia, it could be that you want to share the journey of getting to and setting
   up for the Show to build excitement or customers visiting your stand to create the feeling of
   wanting to be there and not missing out.

5. Have a plan!
   Creating a social media calendar as part of your marketing plan, including intended dates
   and times that you want to publish will help you to ensure consistency in quality and
   frequency of posts. By having a plan you can time your posts when your followers are most
   active for maximum impact.