5 tips on getting more sales out of social media

and figure out what works, Facebook offers a lot of insights on posts that retailers can use to see what their customers like best.

3. Listen and respond to everyone. When people are interacting with the store on any social media channel, employees must respond back. Even if the retailer gets negative feedback, don’t delete or ignore it as that shows them that the store doesn’t care. No response can still be seen as a response, Kroese said.

Likeable suggests the LAST strategy---listen, apologize, solve and thank. The fact that the store acknowledges that a bad incident happened means it’s listening and puts it ahead of the game, according to Kroese. It’s also a good idea to respond publicly and resolve privately--respond directly to the comment where it happened, acknowledge the comment and apologize for any issues, and then let the poster know that the store would like to send them a private message to resolve it.

Graff noted that if the employee or store owner is too emotional to respond in a professional and productive manner right away, it might be a good idea to take some time before responding. Kroese added that Likeable’s best practices say to wait no longer than 48 hours to get back to someone.

4. Advertise on social. As anyone who uses Facebook for business has likely seen, the “Facebook Reachageddon” resulting from the social network changing its algorithm means that organic reach is much smaller now. In fact, for any business that isn’t paying to boost posts, only 1 to 2 percent of fans will see posts organically. Therefore, to be successful, businesses do need to pay in order to see any sort of significant reach.

Given that Facebook allows business to target very specific demographics and that they now also offer the ability to advertise on Instagram at the same time, businesses can more strategic than ever. 

During the holidays, retailers also should look into promoted pins on Pinterest, Graff said. Pinterest users in general have a higher income and a higher rate of purchase from brands they connect with on the social channel, so this would likely be worth a retailer’s time and money.

Overall, be sure that advertising investment is going to a channel in which the store already has a strong presence.

5. Make tools and automation your best friend. It’s important to stay active on social media to remain top-of-mind with customers.

When time is limited, there are a number of tools retailers can use to set up and schedule posts ahead of time and keep on top of responding to comments. This also allows businesses to reach social media users where they really are--on mobile. Tools that businesses can use for this include HootSuite, the Likeable Hub and TurboPost Technology.