The roles social media networks play in the bathroom world
Date Added: 27.07.2021
The roles social media networks play in the bathroom world
While in many ways we’ve been forced to be less social over the past 18 months, in others we’ve never been so connected.
Social media has been on businesses’ radars for well over a decade now, but 2020 was the year it became one of the only ways to instantly connect with your (locked-down) audience.
Thanks to our 2020 Industry Report, we know that the majority of bathroom retailers have a presence on at least one of the major social platforms, with 91 per cent being active at the last count, up from 85 per cent in 2018.
But, for those who have yet to dip their toes in, what are the main advantages to being social in the digital age?
Show what you’ve got
In the past, if you wanted to showcase your showroom, you had to prepare your own glossy brochure – an expensive and time-consuming business – or get customers through the door.
Your product range is your most valuable asset, so it makes sense to share it with as wide an audience as possible, and social media – especially the more visual platforms such as Instagram or Facebook – is the most cost-effective way to do this.
With just a mobile phone camera and a few words, retailers can share everything they’ve got to offer with unlimited numbers of people, who can browse in their own time from wherever they are.
For an even more interactive experience, you can even upload videos to your showroom page, a tool that became even more important during the pandemic, as retailers could bring their stores to life for clients.
Keeping your community connected
A new product on the shelves? An emergency closure? A special offer? Social media lets you keep your followers updated about everything, as soon as it happens.
It also lets you build a community around you, bringing your showroom to life in more ways than one.
It’s an old marketing adage that people buy from people, so social media is a great way to show the face behind the brand.
Behind-the-scenes shots, product reviews and ‘Meet The Team’ videos are all great ways for your audience to connect with your business on a more personal level, allowing you to show more of your personality and become that friendly, trustworthy face that people love to buy from.
Which brings us to customer feedback; positive comments on your posts and glowing reviews of your products or service are worth their weight in gold – and again, it’s all free.
Boost your website rankings
Nowadays, when people are searching for a product or service, the first place they look is Google. Therefore, if you want to be noticed among your competitors, you need to be on that first page – as many as 92 per cent of all website clicks come from there.
And while social media does not have a direct impact on your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), linking from there to your website certainly will.
That’s because the more hits your website gets, the more authoritative Google’s algorithm thinks it is and the higher it moves it up the rankings.
So if, when you post on social, you give readers a reason to click through to your site, that’s a double whammy, giving you two bites of the audience cherry.
Where to post
However, it’s important to remember that not all social media platforms are created qual. To decide which is right for you, you first need to assess what type of content you’ll be posting and who your target audience is.
The bathroom world offers plenty of scope for beautiful photography, which could be why our Industry Report found that use of the very visual Instagram doubled between 2018 and 2020, with 52 per cent of respondents saying they used the platform. Twitter use, meanwhile, fell nine per cent to just 36 per cent; perhaps not surprising for such a text-heavy site.
Whichever you choose, social media is here to stay as a marketing tool – can you afford to be left behind?
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