Social Media Content Strategy For Small Chocolate Stores

Every morning at 7 am you will find me in my room in Brooklyn with a huge banana smoothie on the desk preparing my Social Media Content for the day. It is my favorite part of the day. Not only I can take my time to read the latest news in the Chocolate Industry and share them with you HERE, but I can also have a look at how big and small chocolate brands and companies manage their Social Media platforms. Since I have been doing this consistently for the past 4 months, I thought of sharing with you what I think is the best Social Media Content Strategy that a small sized chocolate company can implement to rise from the mass, beat the competition and start building a community of loyal customers online.

 My biggest advice is - Keep it professionally personal

What big chocolate brands are currently missing in their Social Media Content Strategy is the human side. Trust me, you never ever see faces on big companies' social media pages. They seem too busy taking shiny pictures of their latest products to realize that customers actually don't relate to products, but to people.In fact, nowadays products are probably the last thing customers look at. All they want is a positive message that they can relate to in order to trust the brand and go confidently towards the purchase. Happy faces, pleasant environments, trustworthy statements, positive associations. This is all customers are looking for.ON THE OTHER HAND, small chocolate store owners often make the mistake to turn their company accounts into personal accounts, without taking seriously the huge potential of Social Media. I saw pictures of the chocolatier's son at the baseball game posted on the company account. This is a big NO! No matter how pretty your son is, he shouldn't be on your Twitter company page with his baseball uniform. You and your company will look like amateurs that have no clue of what they are doing. BUT, if you take a picture of your son sitting at the table inside your store holding one of your best-selling chocolate bars with a caption like:

"We put love in our chocolate and make sure it is good for our kids as it will be for yours"

there you have an absolute winning marketing action! Parents will associate their kids with yours and would want to sustain a brand that cares for the next generations. Keeping it personal and friendly will be a great strategy, as long as the content is always related to your chocolate business. This is how you build brand-loyalty. Let me give you practical examples at the end of this article. 

Here is my second advice - Follow the trends

I recently found an article on Milk Chocolate being the most popular type of chocolate, and I thought that if I were a chocolate store owner I would definitely want to share that info with my online community and highlight the products in my store that contained milk chocolate.Being aware of the trends and learning how to adapt them to your already established brand is fundamental for success. That is why I can never recommend enough to spend time on Social Media every day! THAT is the place where trends born and grow. And who doesn't want to look like an innovative chocolate company that is always surfing the wave of the latest trends? Customers ask for trends, and follow them. Don't miss out the chance. To turn your Social Media accounts from amateur-personal to professionally-personal, here are some ideas:

• pics of happy customers that just made a purchase (everybody wants his/her happy face online)
• pics of the owner and his/her family (if you put your face on it, your credibility skyrockets)
• pics of smiling employees while they are working (hopefully it will be a sincere smile)
• pics/videos of the chocolate production (people love to see how chocolate is made!)
• the story of how the company was created and who are the people involved
• funny anecdotes regarding the everyday life in the store
• links to articles about the latest trends (and how your company relates to them)

 Small chocolate stores should always take advantage of the feelings of familiarity, trust, warmth and goodwill that big companies often cannot provide. Keep that in mind every time you use your Social Media. How do YOU promote your Chocolate store on Social Media? I did NOT get paid and did NOT receive any kind of favor for writing this article. These are my honest opinions at your service.