Yesterday I suggested that you spread the work of posting on social media to all employees, creating shared responsibility and recognizing booksellers for their niche knowledge.

Now it’s time to use a wider network to help spread your word.

I recently read a case study in Marketing News titled “Pie for Posts.” The case study focused on the social media efforts of Chicago’s Bang Bang Pie & Biscuit. The company began in a food truck, promoting their location and changing menu through Facebook and Twitter.

Now that they’re in a bricks-and-mortar location, they still rely on social media for a large part of their marketing efforts. Only now they’ve teamed with Popular Pays, a Chicago-based social media marketing firm that created a service which partners businesses with Instagram users. Basically, businesses partner with Popular Pays members to help promote their product. For example, if a Popular Pays member takes an Instagram photo and shares it with 500 followers or more, Bang Bang will give them a biscuit with jam. If the member has more than 1,000 followers, that biscuit and jam just turned into a piece of pie. Popular Pays calls it social currency.

This type of social media campaign is helpful if you offer something photogenic, like pie. Or if you’re based in Chicago and can utilize the Popular Pays app/software.

Helpful. But not required. Nonetheless, you can adapt the same strategy to spread the word about your store.

Do you have branded items for sale, like shirts or mugs or bags? Offer a “seen in the wild” exchange. If someone posts and tags you with your product in social media, offer a one-item discount (10% for 1 to 250 followers; 20% for 250 to 500 followers; 30% for 500 – 1000 followers; 40% for 1000+ followers). Or maybe you have drip coffee to offer as a reward. And this can work with event promotions as well… posts promoting upcoming events can be rewarded with a discounted ticket to that event.

This social currency does not have to be limited to Instagram, and posts can be monitored through hashtags.  The onus for reward redemption can be placed on the redeemer through an online form using Drupal webforms, Google forms, or Formstack.