Content is everywhere, you just need to know where to find it. You don’t need to be physically at a particular destination to acquire unique, original content. The benefits are two-fold: you are engaging with fans across social platforms that took the time to check in or tag your location in some fashion, and you are getting their potentially high-quality action shots. It’s free content!
If you are a bar, restaurant, real estate property, medical center, or any type of business at a fixed location, you NEED to take advantage of these tips to find some original content and optimize your social presence!
- Facebook “pictures/photos/videos taken at (business/location)”
On Facebook, you can do a search for “pictures/photos/videos taken at your business” and what comes up is the following. Below is an example for one of our restaurant clients, Pure Pita.
Some of these images may be from your own page already, but if you click ‘see more’ you can go through more images. Below is a sampling of some pictures of people’s food and a person eating at Pure Pita, all uploaded by users and tagged on Facebook.
Here is a similar example except searching for videos this time.
As you can see below these are three videos from two different users, all of them training at JAG Physical Therapy.
- Instagram Check-Ins/Tags/Mentions
Did you know you can now search for location tags on Instagram? This is crucial to take advantage of. Go into the search section and select places, and enter in your location.
What comes up in a search is a section for top posts and new posts. Depending on how popular your venue is, there can be a few pictures to a few hundred. Below is an example for a client of ours, Paramount Country Club.
People upload their own wedding pictures, golf pictures, pictures of food, everything you could imagine that goes on at Paramount. If you aren’t actually physically at Paramount, this is a great resource to take advantage of for acquiring new content.
It’s also good idea to keep an eye out for pictures you are tagged in and also comments you are mentioned in. Some people are more social media adept than others and do all 3; location check in, tag, and mention, while some only do one. Some do none and will maybe use a hashtag of yours, so it’s important to always be scouring the back ends of Instagram if you want to get the best stuff.
- Take Advantage of Review Sites Such as Foursquare/Yelp
Simply go to Foursquare or Yelp and search your business name. Below I search for Tiff’s Burger in Rockaway, NJ on Foursquare and 18 unique photos came up, all from people who took the time to log into Foursquare, upload a picture and write a review. You can even use the positive reviews for further content.
Same concept with Yelp. People love to share their opinions on things like food in particular. And people love it even more when you post their content on your page (just make sure you credit them, because there will always be some haters!)
- When All Else Fails, Do a Google Search.
Sounds cliché, and it is, but it can actually be beneficial. Google is a conglomerate of anything, and I always suggest just searching the name of your business in the web, news, and images section, just to see what comes up. Here are a few examples:
I did a search for Paramount Country Club again, this time in Google, and already on the first page you can see links to Wikipedia, Yelp, Wedding Wire, and Patch. These ALL include useful information, images, and further content.
For our client, Marc Megna, I will at times just do a quick Google news or images search for him and see what comes up. He is always being featured in articles or speaking publicly, and even if he doesn’t tell us he is doing these things we have the ability to be on top of them.
This list is by no means all-inclusive. There is a litany of other sites, social platforms, resources, tips and tricks that you can use to acquire the unique content that you or your business desires, but these are 4 things that I do on a weekly basis for my clients. Hopefully this can help you kick-start your social campaign.
Got any other content discovery suggestions for me? Tweet me @harris_baker or email me at hbaker@tbsmo.com. Thanks for reading, folks. Until next time, #BakersDozen, signing off.