Forbes reports that up to 66 percent of consumers use social media to shop. Two florists who have embraced social shopping share their strategies to boost engagement and revenue.
If your social media strategy isn’t generating engagement and, ultimately, sales, then you have yet to tap into its potential — and a growing trend. Social media shopping is on the rise, with nearly 66 percent of consumers turning to Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube and Pinterest to shop, according to a study by Forbes.
In this first of two articles, Jackie Levine of Central Square Florist in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Mercedes Castro of In Bloom Florist in Orlando, Florida, share their best practices for boosting engagement, beating the algorithms and generating revenue on social media.
1. Embrace Instagram shopping
This relatively new feature makes your products easy to discover, shop and buy — all within Meta’s infrastructure (Meta owns Instagram and Facebook). Levine says Central Square Florist is linking its products in posts, reels and stories.
“The products are imported from the shop’s website into the , and that’s where the catalog gets imported,” she says. “Once I link a product and you click it, you can purchase it.”
Even those who don’t buy will continue to see more from your shop because Instagram’s algorithm remarkets to those who engaged with the shop.
2. Make more reels
Instagram reels increase audience engagement on your social feeds, which could translate to more sales.
“ get your information out there quicker, and can directly watch your reels, click on your products and buy that product,” Castro says.
That’s of growing importance because Instagram and TikTok, which boasts over 1 billion active monthly users, dominate the Gen Z market — your future customers.
3. Sell through education
Castro says educational content is important because not everyone has a natural green thumb. In Bloom’s myth-busting videos, such as how long a flower will last using flower food versus aspirin or a penny, have gotten the highest engagement on reels.
“Changing out the water every two days seems obvious to us but not to people who are getting flowers as great gifts,” she says. “Once they’re educated on the care for flowers and plants, the more they’re going to purchase them for themselves and everyone else.”
4. Capture everything
Social media demands constant content creation. Therefore, Castro says, everything you do is content. Often, what’s relevant now will be relevant a couple days from now, and even next year.
“Don’t show peonies if you don’t have peonies, though,” Castro says. “Make sure it’s during the season that you have the flowers or the information that you’re showing.”
Levine adds: “You don’t need to cram and freak out that ‘I need to get content to make this video right now.’ Take the videos, take the pictures and save them. It’s OK as long as it’s still in season and it makes sense.”
5. Delve into insights
Social media platforms offer insights, or analytics, into how well your content performs and additional information on who follows and engages with your page or content. Use those tools to try and identify trends.
Look into what time of day, day of the week or time of year yields the best performance in addition to the type of content itself. Castro says In Bloom noticed no one was engaging with their content on the weekends, so they stopped posting. Now, they get more engagement during the weekdays.
Check back next week for part two with more tips to boost engagement and generate revenue on social media.
Nicole Stempak is a contributing writer for the Society of American Florists.
