CSN EXCLUSIVE: Building Brand Loyalty With Social Media
CHICAGO — Facebook. Twitter. X. TikTok. Instagram. The social media landscape is crowded and moves like rapid fire, but it is where convenience store retailers need to be. After all, it's one of the most effective ways to reach an array of consumers, engage with them and build brand loyalty.
Recent data shows that on average, consumers spend two and a half hours on social media each day. Although this time spent digitally is substantial, there are countless brands, creators and public figures, among others, vying for attention.
If c-store operators can create social media content that captures someone's attention, makes it feel relevant to them and warrants engagement or sharing, it can only enhance brand loyalty, according to Ryan Kristobak, associate director, social media at Bounteous x Accolite, a digital transformation services consultancy.
"And when brands actually respond to customers in comments, in direct messages, resharing content they've tagged the brand in, etc., people feel seen. And when people feel seen, they want to return that energy through loyalty and advocacy," he told Convenience Store News. "Social media is just a step away from person-to-person contact, so it has an incredible ability to establish lasting, personal connections with customers."
A valuable opportunity for convenience retailers to build brand loyalty through social media is collecting user-generated content, noted Harbor Foods Marketing Manager Melissa Harbeck. This can include images or videos customers take when visiting an operator's store or consuming a brand's product(s) while they're out and about.
"Not only does this make collecting content easier, but you also encourage that personal relationship with your customers visiting your store," Harbeck pointed out. "If you're looking to get photos, I recommend holding a low-stakes contest, asking customers to send you a picture of where they drink their morning cup of coffee. Then, if they're featured on your page, maybe they get a free cup of coffee in the future, or a free pastry."
Making Connections
While social media can be an effective and engaging tool for convenience retailers to utilize, it is not a one-size-fits-all solution. There are many factors at play when determining a social media strategy — everything from where an operator is located, to what their goals are, to what audience base they are trying to capture will play a role in how each retailer uses and optimizes social media.
Instagram, TikTok and Facebook are generally the three social media platforms that form the foundation of social presence for brands today. They cover a wide range of audiences in terms of ages and interests, and allow retailers to share content and engage customers through multiple mediums.
"Are you located near a college town or campus? TikTok is probably the platform for you. Are you located in a more rural area? Facebook may be the primary social media your customers are using. If you aren't sure, you can ask your customers," Harbeck suggested. "I think Instagram is also a safe place to start. By using Instagram stories, there are a lot of options to help engage your customers, like polls, questions and templates, so you can easily connect with your followers."
#What's Trending
Participating in trends should play a role in any c-store retailer's social strategy. Operators need to show their audience that they are just as interested in the daily conversations and cultural happenings consumers find meaningful.
Social Media Guidelines
Jason Zelinski, vice president of North American Retail, Convenience at NielsenIQ, offers these simple guidelines for building an optimal social media strategy:
- Know Your Audience: Understand which social media platforms your key customers prefer and start there.
- Stay True to Your Brand: Emphasize what you're known for — whether it's frozen drinks, a pizza program, coffee or customer service. "Consistently reinforce these messages," he said.
- Ease of Engagement: Make it simple for customers to engage with your brand. Ensure that once they find you on social media, it's easy to visit or buy from your store.
- Consistency With In-Store Experience: Ensure that your stores can back up your social media messages. "The internet can be fickle. If you claim to have the cleanest bathrooms, they better be spotless. One negative review with a photo can undo your social media efforts," he emphasized.
- Effective Management: Have the right team managing your social media accounts. They should respond to customers in a way that reflects your brand values.
"However, it's also important that c-stores experiment with content that can establish them as trend creators," Kristobak explained. "It's an arduous process that takes significant time, especially when following trends tends to deliver bigger social results more immediately. But the benefits of following trends eventually plateaus when you don't commit to also becoming a trend driver."
Although what is popular today could be considered cringe tomorrow, short-form videos like TikToks and Instagram Reels are what’s hot right now. The good news is these platforms make it easy to capture videos, edit them and add effects such as music.
"It's important to remember videos don't necessarily need to be super high-quality productions," Harbeck noted. "It could be a video of something as simple as preparing a food order for a customer. With the editing tools that TikTok and Instagram Reels provide, they can easily help you create a polished finished product."
If retailers are interested in integrating short-form videos into their social media marketing strategy, Harbeck recommends setting a goal of posting one video a week. Then, when posting once a week becomes part of a normal workflow, retailers can start creating more videos, she said.
Another venue to explore is influencers. This kind of campaign allows an influencer to engage with a brand's audience by posting to the company's account, or hosting contests or giveaways in collaboration with the brand to increase engagement and visibility.
"If using influencers, ensure they are well-vetted and truly represent your brand values," cautioned Jason Zelinski, vice president of North American Retail, Convenience at NielsenIQ.
Using AI to Get Started
Because social media is such a crowded space, c-store operators need to be strategic with their messaging. An avenue to help guide their approach is using artificial intelligence (AI), Harbeck pointed out. Tools such as Claude, ChatGPT or Copilot allow users to do a deep analysis on their online presence and identify themes. These themes can drive messages that resonates with those following a retailer on its social media pages.
"If you're looking to use AI for your social media, some tips I would suggest would be to download page data from Meta Business Suite and drop it into ChatGPT, and ask it to summarize it for you and identify your audience demographics. From there, you can develop a 'consumer persona' in ChatGPT and have it start suggesting social media posts that would resonate with your social media audience," said Harbeck.
It's also important to optimize content for the pages retailers are posting on, and AI can help with that as well. "When prompting the AI, include that you're a convenience store and which social media page the post will be shared on. It will change the message to be best suited for Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, etc., and help you save time," she added.
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