Business owners often wear too many hats to devote the time and attention needed to create impactful social media posts, according to Lisa Martin.
Yesterday, Martin, CEO of Media and Marketing Advisors in Augusta, attended the Augusta Metro Chamber of Commerce’s Third Thursday Business Builder. The event featured a panel discussion on effective strategies for boosting online sales this holiday season.
“You really can’t do it on your own,” she said. “You need to hire someone.”
The panelists were Rafy Bassali, owner of The Swank Company, Posh Tots Children’s Boutique and Escape Outdoors; Mellow Mushroom Area Manager, Alexandra Bauer; M3 Agency Media Strategist, Dale Hill; and Courtney Currie, owner of Sugar Magnolias, an event venue business.
They discussed social media marketing strategies. Like Martin, Bauer said her job is so demanding that she doesn’t have time to create posts for various platforms on a consistent basis. That’s why the business hired M3 to handle that task for them.
“The best thing we ever did was hire a marketing agency,” she said. “It’s not as expensive as you might think.”
Mellow Mushroom has locations in Evans, Augusta, and Aiken, and M3 tailors the platform to each area’s demographics.
“In Evans, we have a younger demographic, so our social media is very Instagram-focused,” Bauer said. “In Aiken, we have an older demographic.”
Instead of hiring an agency, Bassali has employees with all three businesses who post as many as 30 stories a day.
“Ninety-five percent of our advertising or how we reach our customers is through social media,” he said. “We consistently post on all platforms.”
Bassali said he gives these employees freedom in how they present content to customers.
“I can always delete their posts, but to me, there’s no such thing as a bad post,” Bassali said.
He said the more content they can post, the better, but not all content will have the same impact on customers.
“People like seeing faces, groups of faces, and people they know,” Bassali said.
Hill said whichever platform a business chooses, it’s important to ensure all posts are clear and consistent. But the same post may not get equal traction on every platform.
“What works on one platform may flop on another,” she said. “It’s so easy to do what everyone else is doing.”
Currie hired an intern to handle her business’s social media. That frees her to focus on other important tasks, such as booking events. She uses four platforms: Instagram, Facebook, Tik Tok, and Pinterest.
“For Sugar Magnolias, I get the most traffic through Instagram,” Currie said.
