After taking a look at Vsupply’s current social media profiles, the main things that I would like to explore are, firstly, what can we do to diversify the types of posts that are being made? And, secondly, how can we put a greater focus on providing value to the account followers with these posts?
Generally speaking, a successful social media account wants to avoid a situation where their account exists simply as a vehicle for the business to get free advertisement to their followers and to be constantly throwing sales pitches at them. The public are already constantly bombarded with advertisements, the last thing they want is for their attention to be further exploited.
It is important for the social media relationship to be a two-way street. There needs to be value provided to the followers, not just extracting value from them.
Having said that, Vsupply’s current social media is not egregiously exploiting it’s followers or anything like that, but at the same time I do think that there is a missed opportunity to be providing more value there. If the content has value, people will want it in their feed and the account will grow.
1. The types of social media posts (Categories)
After referencing our competitor database and assessing the social media profiles of Vsupply’s direct competitors, I’ve narrowed down the types of posts made into the following 14 categories.
– Installation
– Public holiday etc.
– Sales/Promotions
– Business News/Announcement
– Advertisement
– Service Announcement/Reminder/Demonstration
– Product Spotlight
– Tips & Expert Advice
– Event Announcement/Reminder/Highlights
– Best Sellers/Latest Trends
– Store/Warehouse/Showroom Highlight
– Merchandise Giveaway Announcement/Reminder
– Year in Review
– Other/Miscellaneous
Some of the categories do have some overlap.
If we take a look at the distribution of the social media posts for Vsupply’s last 50 posts, we’ll see that 39 of them are photo albums of recent installations.
When compared with Bowens, who currently have the top performing Instagram profile in our database, you will see they have a much more varied distribution of the types of posts being made.
Now, to be fair, Bowens is a large franchise with 19 stores across Victoria. So, they obviously have a much larger budget for this sort of thing and some of the types of posts that they can make are simply not going to be practical for Vsupply.
In fact, having the majority of post types be albums of recent installations is probably ideal for the foreseeable future. It’s just a matter of, firstly, exploring if there is room for greater diversification and secondly, what can we do to improve those types of posts and have them be providing some meaningful value to the audience?
Before we look at that, let’s briefly go over the 14 identified types of social media posts that are applicable for Vsupply.
2. Post type definitions
– Installation
Image or video posts of recent installations.
Currently the dominant post type.
Examples:
https://www.instagram.com/p/C39BSO8hJuq/
https://www.instagram.com/p/C3rQIT5Ov9L/
– Public holiday etc.
Posts participating in the celebration of various public holidays etc. such as Christmas, New Years, Australia Day, Easter, International Women’s Day. Ideally accompanied with trading hour updates, sales/promotions.
Currently the second most frequent post type, Vsupply is actively engaging with these.
Examples:
https://www.instagram.com/p/C2ibxPChZvA/
https://www.instagram.com/p/C00WC8pP3Ka/
– Sales/Promotions
Posts that are highlighting current or upcoming sales/promotions.
Examples:
https://www.instagram.com/p/C2dt4f1B7is/
– Business News/Announcement
Posts related to the running of the business itself, such as new store openings or job opportunities.
Examples:
https://www.instagram.com/p/C15V05bhdZm/
https://www.instagram.com/p/C16PkoaRPMy/
– Advertisement
Posts that are simply encouraging people to purchase the business’s products and/or services. There is little or nothing else to the post beyond that.
Examples:
https://www.instagram.com/p/C0xc1SABY0I/
https://www.instagram.com/p/C3yvLrqP-AO/
– Service Announcement/Reminder/Demonstration
Posts that either announce a new service that’s being offered, remind or inform the public of an already existing service, or demonstrate how to use the service.
Examples:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CzFitazhCrz/
https://www.instagram.com/p/C3oP7WYPgqS/
– Product Spotlight
Posts that are designed primarily to inform the public about a specific product and showcase it. Differs from “Advertisements” in that the primary purpose is not to push people to purchase it. Rather, the Call to Action is often to “learn more about it”, as opposed to “buy it”.
Examples:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cx_53EshSOe/
https://www.instagram.com/p/C2wkQIKPAKW/
– Tips & Expert Advice
Posts that are simply sharing tips, knowledge & expertise about subjects related to the business and industry.
Examples:
https://www.instagram.com/p/C4KQfLCvzX5/
– Event Announcement/Reminder/Highlights
Posts that are either announcing upcoming business/industry events, reminding the public of upcoming events, or showing the highlights from the event that took place.
Examples:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CtsNCO4heQX/
https://www.instagram.com/p/C3WlyUUPz-i/
– Best Sellers/Latest Trends
Posts that keep the public up to date on the latest trends and popular products.
Examples:
https://www.instagram.com/p/C36b6C9Pw-Y/
– Store/Warehouse/Showroom Highlight
Image or video posts of the business store, warehouse or showroom. Can be highlights, can be a tour.
Examples:
https://www.instagram.com/p/C3jJ2swvNGZ/
– Merchandise Giveaway Announcement/Reminder
Posts that are announcing or reminding the public of branded merchandise giveaways.
Examples:
https://www.instagram.com/p/C3REvIdvW3B/
– Year in Review
Posts that are concluding the last 12 months for the business, highlighting some notable achievements and giving some previews for what to expect in the upcoming year.
Examples:
https://www.instagram.com/p/C1IXV6QuSv8/
– Other/Miscellaneous
Any posts that don’t fit into the other categories.
3. How can we diversify and add value?
Firstly, let’s get rid of the types of posts that we definitely can’t do.
As I look over the list, the only thing that stands out as probably not being practical is “Merchandise Giveaway Announcement/Reminder“, simply because the budget is not going to be there for it.
Beyond that, the “Year in Review” is dependant upon whether or not Evan wants to do it. Either way, that wouldn’t be until December.
We’ll take a closer look at what’s remaining in the next post.