10 Tips On Using Social Media For Marketing Your Dispensary
Thinking of a world with no social media is crazy. However, it is actually a very new phenomenon in the business world. Words like “Pinterest,” “Instagram,” “Twitter,” and “Facebook” didn’t yet exist when a majority of us were in high school or college. And with the explosion of cell phone technology occurring at an unprecedented rate, most of your customers and many of us have these platforms all available at our fingertips and in our pockets, on a 24/7 basis.
However, this isn’t news for you. You knew all of this already. However, do you really know how social media can be used for marketing your dispensary effectively? You hopefully already have a Facebook. And perhaps a Twitter account as well. However, that isn’t enough any longer to just have those accounts for doing occasional updates or posts. With technology moving so rapidly, you have to stay on top of your accounts, and provide engaging, informative, and useful content regularly. This is why social media management has turned into its own field. Quite often the very best thins that a business owner can do is to hire a social media manager. It isn’t absolutely necessarily, however, after you have learned the tips for how to use social media effectively for your business.
1. Engage your audience. Pose a question and ask your followers to post their responses. Suggest that they post photos of themselves using products from your store, or pics of them in your shop. Come up with a contest where one lucky poster receives a nice reward when they visit your shop the next time. Take chances. Get creative. Just keep in mind that your audience is a lot more likely to interact with you and pay attention when you engage them, and not simply by reading posts and not asking them to contribute anything.
2. Don’t be overly promotional with each post. People grow tired of reading ads very quickly. Don’t use social media for just self-promotion or posting ads. There is a rule, in fact, that states you should only do that about once in every seven posts you make. Share your insight instead. Share your opinions. Allow people to know what you think about various topics. Just make sure that you don’t fall into that category of posters that is Me, Me, Me. That is a definite way of turning off your audience and making them stop paying any attention to you.
3. Link to content from outside sources. What else could you post that would hold your customers’ interest? Many things! You don’t even need to come up with this content. Use the internet instead. There are tons of excellent resources and articles that are important to you and that will be important to your clientele as well. This can also help with the SEO for your cannabis site.
Think about what things interest you. Are they things that would be interesting to the people who come into your store? In the weed world there’s lots going on, and not everyone will be scouring the internet on a daily basis searching for relevant and new information. This is where you come in. You can be the trusted guide and offer content that people want to read, and have it all in one locations – yours – whether that is on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or someplace else.
4. Get a YouTube channel set up. Post fun, quick videos of your staff as they share their favorites, tricks, or tips. What about a POV experience of your dispensary? Allow them to see both the inside and outside of your store. Encourage your followers to make videos of themselves and post them. Hold a contest and let them choose their favorite video with a chance at winning a great prize. You can also ask for video reviews and testimonials.
5. Get a Pinterest board set up. This is a great resource for posting photos of all of your favorite nugs. Each strain that you carry should have its own high resolution, beautiful photo. Post photos of any pretty glass that you have. Customer photos? Staff photos? Store photos? There are endless possibilities. Also encourage participation from your customers and ask them to re-pin to their boards to increase social media amplifications. You can even run a contest. People love looking at photos.
6. Use Instagram. Instagram lets you share your photos on various social media platforms such as Flickr, Tumblr, Twitter, and Facebook (you might be beginning to understand why there are social media managers), all form a distinct and separate Instagram account. All of us have heard that a picture is worth a thousand words. There is a lot of truth to that. What kind of world would it be without visuals? Make sure to take plenty of photos, then use Instagram to share them to various platforms.
7. Twitter. Get on Twitter and begin to follow important people from your industry. Follow pro-marijuana analysts, lawyers, and legislators. Follow bloggers, journalists, vendors, and anybody else who has positive things to say regarding legislation. Tweet opinions, news, images, pictures and more to get customers to follow you on Twitter.
8. Engage local audiences. Use local content to target your customers. Weather. Events. Sports. News. You name it. Anything that is happening locally, use it to connect with other locals. Also ask them what their opinions are. Sports is a great for this. Harness the multi-billion dollar pro sports industry’s power, for free. However, don’t forget about other local events and issues that are important to your customers.
9. Personalize your content. Just be yourself. Allow your followers to develop a relationship with you personally, and not only your brand. Allow them to know what you stand for and who you are. Be genuine, and allow your true character and personality to shine through. This will be appreciated by your customers and they will value your transparency and honesty. Nobody want to connect with a brand that is soulless. Connecting with real people is what they want.
10. Market your product. After you have following all of the other tricks,tips, and rules, and created a group of connected, loyal followers, make sure to market your promotions as well. Feature your most popular promotions, most engaging staff members, and your best products. Offer referral incentives, loyalty rewards, and deals. Uses monthly specials to encourage new follows and likes. Get creative, but be sure that about one in seven of all of your post provides your loyal followers with a good reason for coming into your store and spending money!
DENVER, CO – April 25, 2016: Cannabis flower is on display at Denver Relief. The pot shop purports to be the oldest marijuana dispensary in Denver, opening their doors in 2009. The shop is open to both Colorado red card holding medical marijuana patients and adult use recreational cannabis sales. (Photo by Vince Chandler / The Denver Post)
