Two florists share their hacks for creating better content to elevate your business on social media.
Your business’s social media channels offer a new way to sell to customers and build brand awareness with the next generation of customers (hello, TikTok!).
But how do you get followers and create engaging content? What can you do to make sure your posts get more visibility?
In the second of two articles, Jackie Levine of Central Square Florist in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Mercedes Castro of In Bloom Florist in Orlando, Florida, share their hacks for elevating your business on social media.
Go for variety
Castro emphasizes the importance of maintaining engagement and trying videos to see what type of content viewers like.
“The more you post, the more you show different types of content, that’s what’s going to get you more engagement,” she says. “Just keep thinking of new stuff, what works, and don’t shy away from it. Start doing more of that specific type of video. It’ll never get boring to your viewers.”
Levine knew that their customers liked seeing wedding flowers, so she tried her hand at making a Reel of a wedding bouquet. It now has more than 12,000 views.
“I know my followers like that content so I took an easy ,” she says. “Do those things until you get comfortable, then try new things.”
Be active about being social
To promote Central Square Florist’s social channels, the shop includes a card in each delivery that includes their social media accounts and link to the accounts at the footers of their emails and website.
She also promotes the shop’s accounts to customers whenever possible. For example, when plant enthusiasts ask about new arrival, she tells them to keep an eye on their Instagram account because they post when they get new shipments of plants. “They’ll follow you right there,” she says.
The shop also follows a lot of local businesses because their likes, comments and engagement on other businesses’ social media accounts helps introduce their customers to the flower shop.
Get tagging
There are several elements to a good post or Reel including music, captions and hashtags. One element that will help make your page more discoverable is tagging your account, Castro says.
This enables social media users to click through to your business profile, and it archives the post on your tagged feed, too. (The tagged feed is on the far right of your Instagram profile, represented by a portrait icon.)
Get musical
Business accounts don’t have access to trending music on TikTok or Instagram. But there are work-arounds if you want to include music with your Reels or TikToks.
One way to add music is to save any original audio that you hear and like.
“I was really overwhelmed by why I couldn’t use popular music to make a Reel, but I realized you could just save original audio,” Levine says. “There’s so much great original audio. If I like something, I just save it. I’ll eventually use it.”
Beyond original audio, there are sites that provide music downloads for Reels and TikToks. Levine likes using SoundStripe because they add new music daily.
One feature Castro likes on TikTok is how it automatically matches the beat of the music to the video frames. She cautions that you shouldn’t create a TikTok and use it on Instagram because it doesn’t upload correctly.
Use in-app features
Posts, Reels, stories, music, location sharing and tagging on Instagram all add up to more visibility on your followers’ feeds.
“The more features you use, the more Instagram is going to push your content to viewers,” Castro says, adding there are more advanced techniques, such as using Instagram’s fonts and GIFs as well as paid partnerships and captions, that can give your account even more of a boost.
The more you use a feature that Instagram is pushing, such as shopping or Reels, the more the platform will show your posts, Levine says. It’s a bit like rewarding good behavior, she says. If you’re trying to crack the algorithm or if your engagement has gone down lately, these in-app features may be a good place to start.
Nicole Stempak is a contributing writer for the Society of American Florists.
