Alpaca trekking or walking with alpacas has become a popular family day out activity and goes down a treat with the younger members of the family. As we’ve seen the industry grow, there are more Alpaca Farms in Ireland, requiring those farms to market their services in a more meaningful way. Connecting with your target audience can be hard, but as interest grows, so does following and the increasing opportunity to connect – and here enters social media marketing.
Do you have a Facebook or Instagram page for your farm or farm store? If you don’t, you could be missing out on new avenues to sell your products! Perhaps you already have one but you aren’t getting the traffic you were hoping for. It may seem daunting to manage multiple social media pages on top of the work you do as a farmer on a daily basis, so we’ve put together some tips to help you be more successful!
Start with a Goal or Plan in Mind
As you begin exploring social media marketing, take a moment to decide what you want to gain out of the experience. Your business pages on Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms can serve you and your customers in a number of capacities, so it is easy to get overwhelmed by the possibilities. You may decide to:
- Use your social media presence to bring more physical traffic to your farm and farm store
- Use social media as an avenue to advertise or sell product directly to your consumers
- Advertise your own public events and find other relevant ones in which you can sell your products
- Curate a library of media (video and photography) that establishes an identity for your brand
- Connect with your existing client base to establish an ongoing relationship
- Discover new and untapped avenues to market your alpaca products beyond your local community
Understand your Audience
There are many active social media platforms, but which one will get you the response you’re looking for? Take into account factors like the intended age, gender of your prospective customers and what platforms their using. Facebook is consistently popular with both younger and older adults, while others like Instagram and Snapchat attract young adults almost exclusively. On the other hand, Pinterest users are more than 3 times more likely to be women.
Tip: On Instagram, #AlpacasofInstagram currently has a social following of 223k however #alpacasofireland has only 560 posts associated with it’s hashtag. This could be considered an under-used and underrated hashtag with a wide and relevant audience capacity for Alpaca Farms in Ireland.
Take into consideration the intended purpose of each platform. Instagram and Pinterest tend to focus on the visual while X (formerly Twitter) is textual. Knowing the difference between each platform can help you cater your content to your intended audiences.
Be sure to utilise the various analytics pages available to monitor your page performance. Facebook and Instagram analytics provide useful information, including when people visiting your page or posts, what is most popular, and who your audience is based on their age and location. Use this information to hone your social media marketing skills!
Be Responsive
Think of social media as another avenue for conversation. Customers will use it to chat with you, ask questions, and review your products and services. Become an active participant by “liking” comments, responding to questions in a timely fashion, and regularly posting updates about your business. You may receive negative comments or critiques regarding your services, products, or animals. If this happens, always keep a level head to prevent escalating the issue. It may be helpful to think of possible responses ahead of time. For example, if a social media follower accuses you of cruelty for shearing your animals, have a thoughtful response ready to explain why alpacas need to be sheared on an annual basis.
Rely on Visuals
Social media marketers find that they rely heavily on visual media when reaching out to their customers. Data on visual content marketing from the past few years illustrates that captivating visual media is necessary for high levels of customer engagement with your pages.
There are a number of ways to incorporate video and images into your social media marketing. Original content in the form of videos, shared content like related graphics and memes, as well as product, animal, and lifestyle photography are all great ways to go visual. Videos should be short enough to keep the attention of your viewers and photographs and images should be at a high enough resolution to be viewable!
Don’t think that visuals are that important? They certainly are if you’re hoping to create a paid ad for Facebook. If you plan to promote your business through a paid Facebook News Feed ad, only 20% of the image can have text on it, or it will not pass through Facebook’s filters!
Stay on Schedule
Timing is important when it comes to social media for many reasons. Regularly posting keeps your followers interested and engaged. Platforms like Facebook and Instagram make this easier as they have a number of built in features like post scheduling and event hosting that can help you reach your intended audiences.
As Alpaca Farms in Ireland increase their online presence, it’s more important than ever to promote your services. Here are a few ways to stay organised:
1. Create a social media calendar to keep track of when and how often you should post to social media.
Monday: Post a candid barn photo or video of an alpaca
Wednesdays: Post a photo of one of your products and a link to where it can be purchased.
Friday: Remind your followers where you’ll be selling products that weekend (ex: “Stop by the farm tomorrow from 10am-2pm!”)
Saturday: Share a reel or video showcasing your services and products. Do you offer alpaca walks or host events on the farm? Then share the experience with your followers!
Tip: Social media isn’t Mon-Fri 9am – 5pm and neither is your business marketing process! Make sure you’re posting during the weekend to maximise your opportunity for audience reach and engagement.
2. Schedule Posts in Advance during Peak Viewing Times
Did you know that people tend to check social media at certain times, and it differs between platforms? Different businesses have greater success depending on the time of day as evidenced by this chart on prime Instagram posting times.
Hootsuite found in their research that the best time to post to Facebook for business to consumer brands is 12 p.m. EST on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. Take advantage of Facebook and Instagram’s ability to schedule posts in advance through Publishing Tools. That way, you can make sure your content gets out there and better yet – you don’t forget to post it on your busiest days!
3. Schedule and Share Events
If you’re planning a farm event, be sure to create a Facebook Event or Instagram Highlight to organise all the pertinent information that an event-goer, potential farm visitor, or shopper may need. This includes a clear event title, thorough description, exact start and end times, and location. (You can even link your location to Maps to make it easier for your followers). The event can then be shared easily by both you and your followers.
Tip: When setting up your event, use tags for relevant keywords. Interested parties may decide to stop by when searching for things to do in their local area — use this information to target your audience e.g. #thingstodo[location]
Social media is constantly evolving, and while it can be hard to keep up, understanding the ways that these platforms can work for you can make your business more successful in the long run!
Struggling to keep up or simply don’t know where to start? Our social media team are on-hand to help. From monthly social media strategies to content filming or poster and graphic design – we have all the alpackages you’ll ever need!
Rokir has experience supporting Alpaca Farms in Ireland and other agriculture businesses, so you’ll never be behind.
Hi I’m Jade, Project Manager of the ROKIR team