LOS ANGELES — There are more opportunities than ever before for dry cleaners to connect with their current and potential customers through social media, but it’s important to invest the time and effort correctly to make sure that your message is reaching them where and how they are most comfortable.
Patty Ross, a social media expert, brand manager and business marketing advisor at Golden State Marketing in Los Angeles, offered this advice during her presentation, “Social Media Marketing Strategies for Your Small Business,” a webinar recently hosted by the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE).
In Part 1 of this series, we explored some of the reasons why dry cleaners and other business owners shouldn’t ignore their social media game. In Part 2, we looked at some common mistakes business owners make when it comes to engaging customers through social media. Today, we’ll conclude by examining some of the most popular platforms and how to take the best advantage of them.
The Social Media Platforms
Before offering information about the platforms available to dry cleaners and other business owners, Ross once again urged leaders to determine who they are targeting with these efforts.
“When you’re deciding where to go on social media, you have to pay attention to where your ideal audience is,” Ross says. “If you’re one of those who says, ‘I can help people from birth to 109,’ that’ll be kind of hard to target your social media and messaging.”
On the subject of age, Ross offered the following breakdown by demographics: Gen Z (ages 12-27 in 2024) makes up 56.4 million social media users in the U.S., Millennials (ages 28-43) make up the largest group at 68.5 million, Gen X (ages 44-59) account for 51.8 million, and the Baby Boomers (ages 60-78) make up 36.9 million.
Ross offers information gathered from SocialPilot, a social platform management software company.
Facebook — As of Q1 2024, Facebook has 3.06 billion monthly active users. The average person spends 35 minutes a day on the platform, and 39.8% of the total world population uses Facebook every month. More than 70% of Facebook users view local business pages at least once a week on the platform, and the average engagement rate for a Facebook post is 0.07%.
“Facebook is the top dog here,” Ross says. “It’s not going away.”
When it comes to the subject of how often to post, Ross suggests once a day is optimal, with a bare minimum being three times a week. The best times to post, data suggests, is between 9 a.m. and noon on Tuesdays, but users should pay attention to their own statistics. “Try 9 a.m., then try a little later in the afternoon. See when your engagement changes.”
It’s important not to post too much, she says, citing data from Hubspot, finding pages with less than 10,000 fans experienced a 50% drop in engagement per post if they posted more than once a day.
“Some of you might be posting twice a month,” Ross says, “so don't freak out. Work your way up. Get consistent.”
Instagram — Instagram has more than 2 billion monthly active users. The average person spends 30 minutes a day on the platform, and 30.94% of global internet users use Instagram regularly. About 200 million businesses promote their services and products on the platform. Instagram Photo posts have an engagement rate of 0.59%, 1.26% for carousel posts and 1.23% for Instagram Reels.
“On Instagram, there are different types of content,” Ross says. “You could do posts and carousels and stories and reels — their video content — or go live. You should experiment with the different content types. Mix it up. See what works for you. It's about posting quality content.”
Data shows that the best times to post on Instagram are weekdays between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.
As for posting frequency, Ross says the optimal is once or twice a day, with a minimum of three times a week. Again, consistency is key. “Don't do the quick succession or disappear for weeks at a time, because that will affect the algorithm,” she says.
X (Twitter) — As of Q1 2024, X has 611 million monthly active users, and the average user spends 15.4 hours a month on the platform. The U.S. has the greatest number of X users, with 106.23 million. Tweets with a GIF image gain 55% more engagement than those without.
“Most social media platforms have a closer to 50/50 breakdown when it comes to men and women,” Ross says, “but Twitter has a 63% male to 37% female split, so it’s almost double for males.” Demographically 38.5% of its user base are ages 28-34, with 20.7% 35-49 and 17.1% both in ages 18-24 and 50+. Statistics show that the best time to post on the platform is noon to 1 p.m. each weekday, with Saturdays and Sundays being the worst days to post.
Pinterest — Pinterest has more than 518 million monthly active users, and people watch close to 1 billion videos a day on the platform. Women make up 70% of the users on Pinterest, and compared to Facebook, Pinterest sends 33% more referral traffic to shopping sites. Approximately 78% of Pinterest users say brand content on the platform is useful.
Ross shares that the top categories on Pinterest are home design, women’s fashion, health and fitness, weddings, party, travel and food and drink. The best times to pin, data suggests, are after work hours, between 8 and 11 p.m. on the weekend.
TikTok — TikTok has 1.582 billion monthly active users, and the U.S. has the largest audience of 150 million, with users in the U.S. spending at least 53.8 minutes daily on the platform. The average engagement rate is 2.65%, and the gender breakdown is 52% of the platform’s global users are male, and 48% are female.
One data point that might be of particular interest to dry cleaners is that TikTok users are twice as likely as users of traditional social platforms to recommend a product or service they’ve discovered on the app and 1.5x more successful at convincing others to try the product or service.
YouTube — There are more than 2.5 billion monthly active users on YouTube, as of April 2024. About 31.5% of the total global population uses YouTube. In January 2024, YouTube accounted for 8.6% of total TV usage, surpassing other streaming platforms such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime Video. More than 70% of viewers say that YouTube makes them more aware of new brands.
The best times to post on YouTube, Ross has found are noon to 4 p.m. during work days, and 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on weekends. Thursday and Friday are the best days to post because Saturday and Sunday draw the most views.
There’s also a new facet to YouTube that might be of interest to dry cleaners: YouTube shorts.
“If you're not familiar, YouTube Shorts (videos lasting a minute or less) was launched around 2021, and competes with TikTok and Instagram reels,” Ross says. “So short content is out there, and you do get more engagement with it. People love consuming short videos.”
LinkedIn — LinkedIn has more than 1 billion users across 200 countries, and a LinkedIn user spends an average of 7 minutes and 38 seconds on the site. The U.S. has more than 230 million users, making it the largest audience base. Businesses that post weekly have twice the engagement rates than those that don’t, and organizations with complete information get 30% more weekly views on the platform.
LinkedIn is much more a business-to-business (B2B) platform than the others discussed here, Ross says. In fact, data shows that LinkedIn is used by 93% of B2B content marketers for organic social marketing, and 70% of marketers say LinkedIn delivers the highest organic results.
The best times to post, data suggests, are 11 a.m. on Mondays, 6 to 8 a.m. on Tuesdays, noon on Wednesdays, 2 p.m. on Thursdays, 8 a.m. on Fridays, 4 to 5 a.m. on Saturdays, and 6 a.m. on Sundays.
Growing a Social Media Following
In closing, Ross offers the following list of things to consider when growing a company’s social media following:
- Be regular and consistent — create a calendar that makes posting a routine
- Speak to your market
- Have a clear brand “voice” and brand identity
- Provide quality content
- Include social media “Follow” buttons everywhere possible
- Follow influencers and share their content
- Remind your email subscribers about your social accounts
- Respond to your followers
- Use hashtags where appropriate
- Make it easy for others to share your content
- Use your stats to identify popular posts and topics
“Make sure you're keeping up with the trends that are going on out there, and have a plan to grow and have a plan to evolve on it as well,” she says. “It's not about just posting. Things change, consumer habits change and the platforms change. So, keep all that in mind.”
For Part 1 of this series, click HERE. For Part 2, click HERE.
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Dave Davis at [email protected].
