It’s been eight years since we’ve advised froyo shops on social media. Much has changed since 2016, including the rise and fall of social media platforms. And of course, each platform has added many new features. Each is constantly changing. While there is no one-size-fits-all strategy that’s best for every frozen yogurt shop, almost every frozen yogurt shop can benefit from social media.
Social media platforms facilitate conversation and connection with your customers and community. The largest social media platforms are free to join and easy to set up and manage. Also, they’ve created tools for businesses to encourage platform use. For consumers, social media platforms make it easy to connect with your shop, stay informed, and share their opinions with others in the online community.
Interestingly, we included an open-ended question in our 2023 National Frozen Yogurt Consumer Survey that asked respondents what froyo shops could do to get them to increase the frequency of their froyo shop visits. The third most popular response write-in response was social media. The importance of social media in restaurant marketing continues to increase, with many people making dining decisions based on social media content.
These are the key benefits of social media for froyo shops:
- Deepen engagement, loyalty, and trust through interactions. Social media platforms make it easy for your shop to talk to customers, answer customer questions, see what people are saying about your shop, learn more about who your customers are, and get the word out about what’s happening at your shop. Shops that actively respond to posted comments, questions, and reviews provide better customer service and build customer loyalty and trust.
- Encourage word of mouth. When your customers post positive content about your shop, that content has a high degree of credibility and trust. Social media provides your customers with a platform to become influential brand advocates. While some of this will occur without your shop’s involvement, you can encourage recommendations by being active on social media, thanking those who mention your shop, and sharing their content so that more people see it.
- Increase visibility and brand awareness. By showing users relevant content from accounts that they don’t follow and by making it easy for users to share content, social media platforms are a great way to reach people who might be interested in your shop but haven’t visited yet.
- Build your business with ads and influencer collaborations. Social media ads are less expensive than traditional advertising methods, and they allow for more precise targeting. Ads can be targeted based on the user’s geography, interests, the other accounts they follow, etc. Alternatively, you can also find influencers and work with them to reach new audiences and gain credibility through endorsements.
In our next post, we’ll recommend which social media platforms to use.
