Social media has become one of the go-to ways for businesses to connect with people, be they current or prospective clients. There are a number of reasons for this – advertising on social media can cost less than traditional advertising, and the biggest social media platforms have millions or billions of users. In order to fully appreciate the value of booking clientele through social media, it’s worth taking a deep dive into some statistics about the users of the major platforms.
The Statistics
Instagram has over a billion monthly active users and over half visit the site daily. 80% of those users follow at least one business page and 72% of users have purchased something they’ve seen on the platform. For those doing the math, that’s 720 million people who have purchased something they’ve seen on Instagram – an enticing number for any business. Facebook (which owns Instagram) has over 2.3 billion monthly active users, 74% of whom visit the platform daily. That means a hefty percentage of the world’s population uses the platform every day, so if you have products you’re looking to ship to a global audience, Facebook is the place to be.
Twitter’s statistics are a little different. They look not only at daily active users but monetizable daily active users – in other words, the users who actually see ads (many people use ad-blocking software). There are 145 million such users every day. The company also reports that ad engagement is up and the cost for advertising is down.
Which of these platforms should you set up for online booking? Preferably, all of them, but that may require more resources than you’re willing to commit. Should that be the case, it’s important to understand where your customers are hanging out. You want to focus your efforts on the platforms that host the most users of your target demographic and you want to post during the hours those users are active – but we digress.
In order to book clients, you’ll need a business page on all of the platforms you want to use. Setting up these pages is fairly straightforward. For those who don’t have a business page, you can check out this handy guide that explains how to create a business page on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
How to Implement
With your business page set up, it’s time to start booking clients. The simplest way of doing this is to incorporate a link to a booking page on the business page of your main website. Each platform has a slightly different way of going about this.
When using Twitter, you’ll log into your account, go to “Profile”, click “Edit my profile” then add the link to your booking page in the Web section. Simple!
Want to book clients on Facebook? You have a number of options: The most commonly used is going to your business page, clicking “Add a Button”, selecting “Book with you”, then “Book now”, then clicking “next”, then selecting “Link to Website” and adding your link. Recently, however, Facebook has added its own appointment booking software which you can use for free by clicking “Appointments on Facebook” and following the prompts.
How about booking clients on Instagram? The process is fairly straightforward: go to your business page, then edit profile, change your URL to your booking page, then change your Bio to something like “Click here to book!” (or a more exciting, emoji-filled call-to-action).
It’s worth noting here that there are many types of booking software available and they can save you a lot of time. Researching this software and finding the one that best suits your needs can drastically improve the efficiency of your business, especially if you find yourself suddenly flooded by a swell of social media requests. This software can automatically sync with your Google calendar, they can send you text message alerts, and they can even accept payments on behalf of your business. While their utility depends heavily on how much of your clientele books online, they can be incredibly useful.
Getting Clients to Book
Now that we’ve gone over the mechanisms of how to set up booking through social media, it’s worth taking a look into how to get clients to actually book. We could write whole manuscripts on the topic, but we’ll take a brief look now.
Consistency is key on Instagram and on other platforms. You’ll want to post at the same time of day, every day, at least once a day, in order to grow your following. Remember, every person who sees your profile sees your booking call-to-action, so each view is a prospective client. You’ll want to be careful not to oversaturate followers with posts, however, or they might unfollow you. Quality, not quantity, is key. This is especially true on visual platforms like Instagram; a couple of tweets in a single day doesn’t hurt as much as a barrage of image posts.
You’ll also need to learn how to use hashtags properly. In brief, you want to use hashtags that are common enough to be searched for, but uncommon enough that you’re not drowned out in a bunch of noise. You might also find value in following trends being set by the platforms’ power users. In essence, you’re looking to carve out a niche on the platform. There is a lot of room on most platforms to use multiple hashtags, so don’t be shy about using multivariate testing to see which ones have the most pull.
Finally, you’ll want to make sure your call-to-action is eye-catching. Depending on what business you’re in, that could be something as simple as “Book Now” (seniors, for example, are often not looking for wacky call-to-actions). An amusement park, however, might have firework emojis and “Start your adventure here!” as a call-to-action. Know your industry and tailor all of your social media marketing appropriately.
Guest Post: About the Author
Kiara is a natural organizer and she understands how important time and resource management are for small businesses. That’s why she is the perfect Content Manager for BookedIN – because BookedIN software is the perfect way to organize your business life. She enjoys spending her time reading and learning new things.”