I’ve compiled 12 digital marketing bites for the food and retail industry.

I spoke at Ireland’s Food & Drink Expo recently and it inspired me to take a look at social media for this sector.

If I could sum up my social media advice, I could probably do it in less than 140 characters. So here goes:

Personalization, video and real-time marketing are the biggest trends in social media marketing. Adopt this strategy & the algorithms will thank you for it! 

One of the most frequently asked questions I get from brands is:

HOW DO I BOOST ENGAGEMENT ON SOCIAL MEDIA?

Well here are three ways to do it instantly!

1. Personalization is like salt – it gives flavor to your content.

Start showing behind the scenes at work, exclusive updates from management, encourage staff to go front of screen to show the personality of the company and tell the consistent story of your brand to connect and engage not just to sell. The conversions will come if you add personalization!

2. Video is your next secret ingredient – Native video on Facebook Pages, Instagram and Twitter for example generates 10 times more reach than other content types.

Video is the most pervasive content type on the social web and if you’re not engaged in video marketing then you will be left behind. By 2020 80% of all content on the Internet will be video.

Facebook Live is amazing for real-time marketing! Instagram allows us record 90-second videos, Twitter upped its videos to 140-seconds, Snapchat Stories are a culmination of our 24-hour, 10-second videos, InstaStories also follows this model and Facebook Messenger has introduced Instant Video.

So there’s absolutely no excuses not to embrace video!

3) My final digital marketing bite is – you have Pay to Play. Did you know at the maximum number of stories we can digest in our newsfeed is 1,500 per day?

Therefore with 1.65 billion people using Facebook it’s impossible to see every status update from our Friends or the Brands we have liked. So it’s vital to pay to get your content in front of fans and prospects.

Facebook is the unrivalled leader – however the other social networks also offer targeted interested.

Twitter Cards, Promoted Pins on Pinterest, Branded Geofilters on Snapchat, YouTube Ads, Instagram Ad and sponsored content on LinkedIn.

When it comes to Facebook – the advertising leader – you need to engage in targeted advertising. This is a science in itself, so much so I wrote a 54-page handbook on it.

Watch my presentation at the recent Food & Retail Expo in Dublin which covers my 12 digital marketing tactics for the food, retail and hospitality industry so have a look at that at digitaltraining.ie and let me know what you think.

Tweet me @tweetsbyJSB

[VIDEO] Digital marketing tips for the food and retail industry

[SLIDESHARE] Digital marketing tips for the food and retail industry