Flower Shops and Social Media - Still Perfect Together

 Last Thursday I wrote a post in my other Blog - The Retired Florist about how I can still get revved up when talking about the Floral Industry. Discussing with the hubby over drinks the other night I happened to mention that I thought many of the positive aspects of social media for florists were still relevant, even after 10- 14 years. 

I was an early adaptor of social media to market my shop and presented on the topic a few times at conventions. See my post HERE with Rick Canale where I write about our time being a panelist at a Society of American Florist convention back in 2010. 

This got me to thinking about my current floral friends and how they are (or not) using social media for their shops. I would never want to sound like a know-it-all (no, really, I don't want to sound like that) but I've noticed quite a few doing things really well and others not so much. It gave me the idea for this blog post to share what I think current florists should be doing with their Facebook. Now don't get me wrong, I too have a love-hate relationship with Facebook on occasion. During the last years of owning my shop, I had trouble with them changing my address to an incorrect street location and having them accept a credit card for advertising but hands down, Facebook brought the most value to my shop from the very beginning. 

Here are my tips to doing Facebook right, without spending any money advertising with them! 

1. Link your personal page with your business page - I am constantly surprised by how many business owners don't use their personal page to mention that they own a flower shop (or any business for that matter). I know sometimes we don't want to mix business with pleasure but Facebook is such a great way to remind your family and friends that you own a business. How can your friends support you if they don't know? The Bio and Intro section of Facebook lets you show where you work, what education you have and also links to your business website and other social media pages. When I see a floral friend post something, sometimes I want to refresh my memory as to what shop they own and all I see is "No Workplaces to Show". My suggestion would be to completely fill out your "About" section.  These areas are often blank and it just baffles me.
2. Many years ago a florist told me that they didn't like social media because there was no privacy and my response was "If you own a business, you should want to sing it from the highest mountain"! Now don't get me wrong, when I owned my business, I was always aware that I was putting myself out there for the world to see and so I perhaps kept my personal page a little more rated G then I would have liked, but I let my personal page be a way for not only my friends to see the real me but my customers. It's wonderful to share your flowers on your Business Page but it's so much more genuine and unexpected when you share a picture of pretty flowers on your personal page. That leads me to my second tip....
3. Be friends with your good customers!! I love being linked with my family and friends on Facebook but some of my biggest joys have come from my connections to customers, especially past wedding couples. First I see their wedding pictures, then their baby pictures! Such fun!! My customers have become my friends and even in retirement, I can't imagine not being linked with them. Although I'm not relying on my past customers for future sales, I can say that I'm 100% sure that my Facebook-Customer friends continued to order from me because of the connection they felt to both me and my business. That's a good thing, not a bad thing. People want to do business with people they feel connected to. 
4. If you do become friends on Facebook with your customers, as I mentioned above, let them see the real you and those around you. My friends got to know who I worked with, my customers got to know my husband.  Many of our shop customers became friends with both my husband and my staff. Facebook feeds all over were being flooded with pictures of our shops beautiful flowers. How could that be a bad thing?
5. Lastly and most importantly, continue to post on your Business Page daily. I know it can feel like a lot of work to post every day but it's still an important tool, right up there with your Google Business Page and your Business Website. I've been on way too many florist pages that haven't had anything new posted since 2022!! These are viable businesses but when you see the last post being 1 year old, wouldn't you think they have gone of business? Don't just post during holidays, post daily about anything happening in your shop.  It really only takes a minute. Show your staff, show some flowers that just arrived, show a new gift item, anything. Anything is better than nothing and you would surprised how posting daily helps your page to show up in feeds. If you have a link from your website to any social media page, it has to look current. Even posting once a week is better than nothing. And you know what else? It's FREE!! For those of us in the business 20 plus years, we remember Yellow Page Ads costing thousands of dollars - Per Month!! 

While speaking as a panelist in 2010 at a Society of American Florists Convention, someone asked me if I thought Social Media was worth the time. My answer was "While I'm sitting here with you my staff are setting up a $5,000 event. How did I get the job? A friend sent me a message on Facebook Messenger because she saw a flower post. She asked if I could help her out with a last minute job and I told her yes! Seems to be pretty worthwhile to me"!! 

I also spoke at a SAF Growth Solutions in 2011 in Dallas. Click HERE to the watch the interview with Shelly from Flower Shop Network! I think it's still very relevant information.