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Four Social Media Marketing Tips for Furniture Brands

As the social media strategist or social media manager for a furniture brand, you know what makes your brand unique and different. A seemingly simple accomplishment like finding the perfect couch can make your customer happy and comfortable. However, putting that perfect couch in front of that customer at just the right moment relies on a lot of individual strategic choices.

When it comes time to craft a marketing strategy, social media plays a key part. That’s why the ThumbStopper team has identified what we consider the four most important social media marketing tips for furniture brands. Use them to build a loyal customer following, increase audience engagement, and make the most out of your branded content. 

1. Provide Value

Give customers a reason to follow you on social media by sharing valuable, unique content. Let it show what differentiates your products and customer service from other furniture brands. Tailor your social media content to your audience’s preferences and interests. 

What might social media users want to see from a furniture brand’s Facebook page or Instagram posts? Think about the information a customer wants to know in order to choose your brand from your competitors. Share product information like dimensions, materials, color options, sustainability, price and shipping options. 

Now, make the information valuable. For example, you could post a detailed video demonstrating how to put together a not-yet-released bookshelf. (That’s a great way to tease a new product, too!) Or, you might share rave customer reviews of your most popular coffee table. You can also create tools, like a room layout tool or an augmented reality app that lets shoppers visualize a piece in their own home.

Consider your customers’ needs, and you’ll easily find ideas for social media content.

2. Engage with Your Followers

You can create the most amazing on-brand content and have the most efficient plan to execute it…but if you don’t engage with your audience, your content will fall short of its potential.

One of the easiest ways to invite social media engagement is to ask them questions. When your followers respond, keep the conversation going! Like comments, reply to them, and react to them. 

Different types of content you share will spark different kinds of engagement, too. For example, if you post an Instagram Stories poll asking customers about their favorite furniture piece you offer, share the results. 

If the results weren’t what you expected, explain why in your next story! Film reactions from others on your brand team. Behind-the-scenes content puts a human face to your brand.

Put out the call for user-generated content, a method to share new content and build customer loyalty. One idea might be to ask customers to post photos of how they style your brand’s pieces in their home or office.

When you engage with your audience regularly and consistently — not just when you’re trying to drive sales — you lift your furniture brand’s reputation. Your audience will see that your brand genuinely cares about the customer-brand relationship. The sales will follow soon after.

3. Design a Strategy

A content strategy involves more than following a daily social media checklist. A good strategy involves planning and scheduling content ahead of time.

Brainstorm content ideas and then use a content calendar to organize them. A calendar will help you plan a good variety of different types of content: posts that ask your audience a question, posts that sell a product, posts that inform or inspire, and so on. You want an interesting mix of content so keep your pages interesting and reach shoppers at all stages of the funnel.

Your editorial calendar will remind you when to post, what graphics or photos to include, and what product or promotional links to use. Using a social media automation platform can make the process even easier.

4. Tap Your Retailers’ Networks

Your retailers provide a direct line to your local markets. Tap into it. Unfortunately, if you leave it up to them to post about your brand, they might forget, get too busy with other tasks, or post less than stellar quality product images.

Think of retailers as your secret weapon for your social media marketing strategy. Once you create unique branded content, you can partner with retailers and enable them to share it on their social media platforms. You’ll reach a wider segment of your target audience, increasing the chances of finding new leads and boosting sales.

How can you partner with retailers, exactly? ThumbStopper can help.

Let ThumbStopper Take Over

Don’t squander your investment in content. Get the results you want from your social media marketing strategy by letting ThumbStopper take care of your content automation and distribution. 

ThumbStopper helps you amplify your brand’s message across your retail network. With our machine learning algorithm, we’ll share your branded content in the right place at the right time — every time. No more publishing content and hoping it performs well.

With ThumbStopper, you can spend more time creating valuable, high-quality content and engaging with your audience. Our brand services take care of the rest. Learn more about how ThumbStopper can help your furniture brand today!

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Key Points:

 

  • Companies should understand the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) to ensure their websites are accessible.
  • Brands that concentrate on accessibility on social media demonstrate care for their customers and build a positive brand reputation.
  • Brands should always consider inclusive design, such as plain, straightforward language, in their social media posts.

 

 

Accessibility may not be a term you usually associate with the internet and social media. You might picture wheelchair ramps, directional signs in braille, or sign language interpreters at live performances. The landmark Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 dictates the legal necessity of these and similar accommodations in public spaces. As we’ve come to rely on the internet for everything from entertainment to buying groceries, it’s become clear that the internet is now also a public space. It must be accessible to everyone. And like other applications of ADA, businesses that do not comply are liable for damages caused by inaccessibility.

 

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are an international set of standards to provide instruction on meeting accessibility needs. It’s important for companies to understand how this applies to their websites, especially if they engage in e-commerce. In terms of social media, the requirements are less concrete. But prioritizing accessibility on your company’s social media is essential to your reputation, even if the legal requirements are uncertain. We’ll look at why it’s important to your customers, how it affects the perception of your brand, and how to make these changes efficiently.

Social Media for All

The cornerstone of accessibility is inclusive design: products or experiences that are accessible for everyone regardless of disability. The most important place where this shows up is on company websites where most users expect to also find links to the brand’s social media profiles. Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of websites are not accessible, despite the fact that the application of ADA to the internet is over 20 years old. Making websites accessible is a complex process without the use of specialized software like Accessibe or EqualWeb.

Unlike websites, making sure your social media is accessible is a straightforward, ongoing process. Every social platform has been quick to release optional accessibility features. These features are important to many users even if they don’t rely on them to use social media.

Making your social presence accessible tells users that your brand cares about people, not just profits. It’s the same idea as the push for the representation of different body sizes in fashion or more expansive skin tone ranges in beauty products. Brands that meet the needs of underrepresented groups endear themselves to others as well. And while optimizing your brand website for accessibility might be a larger project you aren’t ready to tackle yet, starting with your social media pages is a great way to show customers that you’re listening to their concerns. 

 

Making Content Accessible

Shifting to accessible content means incorporating inclusive design into your creative process. The practice varies by type of media. For platforms that have graphics or videos with captions, it means not only adjusting each component but also being mindful of how they interact with each other.

For example, YouTube’s automatically generated closed captions and subtitles are often inaccurate. It's one of many examples where the caption generation software has issues picking up strong accents and mumbled words. This could be remedied with handcrafted video transcription services. If that’s not in the budget, the video creator could add their script or transcription to the video description.

None of the technology for accessibility is perfect yet. Teaching computers to digest complex information for human understanding is difficult, and the variations in disabilities further complicate it. The majority of adjustments creators need to make revolve around helping assistive technology better understand their content. Let’s look at how to make different kinds of content accessible. 

Text

  • Use plain language that’s easy to understand 
  • Avoid text in all caps
  • Capitalize the first letter of each word in a hashtag, like #SocialMediaMarketing, a practice called camel-case

Videos

  • Provide descriptive captions. Instead of just displaying the words people on-screen say, explain background noises and other sounds that are relevant to the scene.
  • Add your own subtitles or enable auto-subtitles on the video platform of your choice
  • Use captioning for live videos when possible

Graphics

Distribute Accessible Content

Many users find their new favorite brand through social media. When disabled people (who make up 26% of the population according to the CDC) can’t access your brand’s social posts, you miss the opportunity to connect with a demographic that’s eager to engage in online communities. On a hyper-local level, that kind of connection goes even further.

That’s why ThumbStopper exists to help brands distribute their social content to their retailer network. Retailers can connect with their local audience - with your accessible, branded content - in a more personal way. And since content goes to their page automatically once they sign up, retailers can effortlessly promote your brand online while focusing on running their business. 

Ready to see how ThumbStopper can help your brand improve its reach? Check out our brand reach calculator or book a demo.

 

 

accessibility
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[/et_pb_row]
[/et_pb_column]

Key Points:

 

  • Companies should understand the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) to ensure their websites are accessible.
  • Brands that concentrate on accessibility on social media demonstrate care for their customers and build a positive brand reputation.
  • Brands should always consider inclusive design, such as plain, straightforward language, in their social media posts.

 

 

Accessibility may not be a term you usually associate with the internet and social media. You might picture wheelchair ramps, directional signs in braille, or sign language interpreters at live performances. The landmark Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 dictates the legal necessity of these and similar accommodations in public spaces. As we’ve come to rely on the internet for everything from entertainment to buying groceries, it’s become clear that the internet is now also a public space. It must be accessible to everyone. And like other applications of ADA, businesses that do not comply are liable for damages caused by inaccessibility.

 

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are an international set of standards to provide instruction on meeting accessibility needs. It’s important for companies to understand how this applies to their websites, especially if they engage in e-commerce. In terms of social media, the requirements are less concrete. But prioritizing accessibility on your company’s social media is essential to your reputation, even if the legal requirements are uncertain. We’ll look at why it’s important to your customers, how it affects the perception of your brand, and how to make these changes efficiently.

Social Media for All

The cornerstone of accessibility is inclusive design: products or experiences that are accessible for everyone regardless of disability. The most important place where this shows up is on company websites where most users expect to also find links to the brand’s social media profiles. Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of websites are not accessible, despite the fact that the application of ADA to the internet is over 20 years old. Making websites accessible is a complex process without the use of specialized software like Accessibe or EqualWeb.

Unlike websites, making sure your social media is accessible is a straightforward, ongoing process. Every social platform has been quick to release optional accessibility features. These features are important to many users even if they don’t rely on them to use social media.

Making your social presence accessible tells users that your brand cares about people, not just profits. It’s the same idea as the push for the representation of different body sizes in fashion or more expansive skin tone ranges in beauty products. Brands that meet the needs of underrepresented groups endear themselves to others as well. And while optimizing your brand website for accessibility might be a larger project you aren’t ready to tackle yet, starting with your social media pages is a great way to show customers that you’re listening to their concerns. 

 

Making Content Accessible

Shifting to accessible content means incorporating inclusive design into your creative process. The practice varies by type of media. For platforms that have graphics or videos with captions, it means not only adjusting each component but also being mindful of how they interact with each other.

For example, YouTube’s automatically generated closed captions and subtitles are often inaccurate. It’s one of many examples where the caption generation software has issues picking up strong accents and mumbled words. This could be remedied with handcrafted video transcription services. If that’s not in the budget, the video creator could add their script or transcription to the video description.

None of the technology for accessibility is perfect yet. Teaching computers to digest complex information for human understanding is difficult, and the variations in disabilities further complicate it. The majority of adjustments creators need to make revolve around helping assistive technology better understand their content. Let’s look at how to make different kinds of content accessible. 

Text

  • Use plain language that’s easy to understand 
  • Avoid text in all caps
  • Capitalize the first letter of each word in a hashtag, like #SocialMediaMarketing, a practice called camel-case

Videos

  • Provide descriptive captions. Instead of just displaying the words people on-screen say, explain background noises and other sounds that are relevant to the scene.
  • Add your own subtitles or enable auto-subtitles on the video platform of your choice
  • Use captioning for live videos when possible

Graphics

Distribute Accessible Content

Many users find their new favorite brand through social media. When disabled people (who make up 26% of the population according to the CDC) can’t access your brand’s social posts, you miss the opportunity to connect with a demographic that’s eager to engage in online communities. On a hyper-local level, that kind of connection goes even further.

That’s why ThumbStopper exists to help brands distribute their social content to their retailer network. Retailers can connect with their local audience – with your accessible, branded content – in a more personal way. And since content goes to their page automatically once they sign up, retailers can effortlessly promote your brand online while focusing on running their business. 

Ready to see how ThumbStopper can help your brand improve its reach? Check out our brand reach calculator or book a demo.

 

 

accessibility
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