How to get customers to take photos of your business
If you followed the recommendations of Google, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn and every marketing consultant that ever operated, you’d be spending more time taking photos and making videos than serving the customers that are right there in your store or waiting for you to respond to their email. So it makes sense to get others to do the heavy lifting for you by:
· Asking customers to take photos for you
· Encouraging customers to mention you online
· And creating special moments that they can’t help sharing
The problem with keeping up with social media
I love Gary Vaynerchuk (or Gary Vee) because he sets a standard that so many of us want to reach. Content everywhere, on every platform, followed by millions, engaged with by millions. The trouble is that he has a team of people producing this content for him, and he has a business model that works with sports stars, celebrities, influencers and, let’s face it, his business is probably more interesting than yours or mine. So we have to do what we can with the resources we have, to create compelling content the easiest way we can.
If you don’t ask, you don’t get.
Want more photos of your business on Google My Business and Facebook? Ask your customers to take them. People don’t generally do something out of their regular routine unless they are asked to. Ask your customers to take photos for you. Ask them to take photos of your product when they get it home and send it to you. You’d be surprised just how many customers will actually do this. I’m serious, try it!
Some creative ways of raising the subject could be to:
· Ask them to take a photo of you and them so you can post it on socials
· Ask them take a photo and send it to you
· Ask them if they can take a photo of you with their family for Facebook
· Ask them if you can take a photo of them with their new purchase
Ask for reviews and mentions
This is pretty much the same thing as above. If you feel like your customer is particularly motivated and becoming quite a fan of who you are and what you do, ask them to give you a review. The best place for reviews is on Google. Even for businesses like hotels, who often think that TripAdvisor is their best friend. We generally search on Google before we go elsewhere, even hotel booking sites. I get that most customers won’t give you a review, even if you ask for one, but I can guarantee that almost none will give you a review if don’t ask for one.
The same goes for mentions on social media. While not every customer conducts themselves like they’re some kind of influencer on Instagram, some do. In fact, a surprisingly high number of people carry on like they are influencers, because they actually are. The idea that influencers are artificially pumped up, plucked and pruned show ponies is a bit old. The most common kind of influencer is the “micro” influencer. They may not have an audience of hundreds of thousands of people, but they are far more connected to their audience than the big names tend to be. They answer messages and comments. They make personal recommendations on everything from restaurants and hotels to chiropractors and dentists. The often are the primary influencers of family decision-makers. While they may not lead you to change your make-up to a Jeffree Star palette, they may be able to sway you into trying out a new Indian restaurant nearby.
Creating Moments
When we design stores and workplaces, we tend to design for ourselves, not for our customers or visitors. And this squanders a perfectly good opportunity to create a place for our customers and clients to share a moment with their audience that just so happens to be at your business premises.
We call these “moments.” They can be big, obvious moments like The Big Banana, the Big Merino or the Big Prawn. They can be citywide moments like the Darwin Street Art Festival, Sydney’s Vivid or Melbourne’s White Night. But more often, they are small moments like a Lego corner in a toy store where fans take a photo in front of a wall of their favourite brand. Or a park bench on a beach at a resort that is perfectly positioned to take a photo of someone in front of the sunset. Or a painted background that says something like “I got stoned with Tom” and the logo from Tom’s Gravel & Stone.
Moments are created when a business recognises that they are more than just a shop or a service — they are now responsible for their own marketing and public relations. So they do things that make it easier for people to share their products and services around on today’s modern media — like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, TikTok and LinkedIn. When you create moments, you create opportunities for free advertising that money simply can’t buy.
