Why Social Media is a Must for Your Comic Store

by | Jul 11, 2019 | Comic Business, How To

A shop sign with social media

Social media gives customers the opportunity to feel connected to your business in a more personal way. It can help you meet them where they are and ultimately is a necessity for taking your business to the next level, especially if that business is comics.

The comics industry has the opportunity to thrive on platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, in part because comics as a visual medium helps to tell the story of your store.

Here are some suggestions for why and how you should be using social media to help boost your comic store.

You can be where your customers are.

Brick and mortar retail shops face a lot of pressure to compete with online stores, but being top of mind is increasingly important for your shop. Reminding customers that you are there week in and week out with the latest releases is vital.

With print runs shrinking closer to initial orders, getting the latest hot comics in front of customers to encourage them to come into your store is even more important.

According to Jacqueline Zote on SproutSocial engagement on a number of social media platforms continues to grow each year. She says that with over two billion active users, Facebook continues to be the number one platform. Instagram has also seen tremendous growth.

Since 2014, Instagram has grown by at least 100 million users each year. Teen usage has decreased on Facebook and increased on Instagram in the last few years, making the Facebook audience a little older.

Vaneta Rogers with Newsarama wrote that today, the average age of comic book buyers is actually in their mid-to-late 30s.

Instagram lets you tell your story in a visual way, and can take very little time to post stories, keeping your brand “top of mind”. (Related: How to use Instagram for Your Comic Book Store)

Twitter has some impressive numbers as well. Zote writes that over 500 million tweets are sent out each day!

All of this chatter in the Twittersphere continues to make it a popular place for advertisers. It doesn’t require a lot of words to showcase comics and comic creators.

For instance DC Comics published a tweet with a photo of the cover for “Superman Smashes the Klan!” They will be releasing this comic for purchase in two weeks. With this tweet they linked to a chat with the creator in The Hollywood Reporter.

Followers appreciate this type of information and it almost feels like a personal “tap on the shoulder” with some cool information that is just for them.

Boost business with social media.

Using multiple platforms is really the best way to go when trying to get the most out of your social media engagement. You should be putting a lot of time and effort into the following platforms (in order of importance.)

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twiter
  • Others (LinkedIn, Snapchat, etc.)

Facebook is still the best for getting the word out and engaging with the right audience. Create a Facebook page for your comic store. This allows you, friends and customers to share it and recommend more people to like and follow the page.

You can connect your Instagram and Facebook accounts together, sharing content on one and cross posting it to the other automatically.

Building this audience of followers will allow you to share information quickly and efficiently. Imagine hundreds and thousands of comic book enthusiasts hearing a “ding” on their phones when you share information about new inventory or an event at the store!

Posting videos is easy and highly engaging.

Posting videos to your social media pages is quick, easy, highly engaging and the best part is that it’s free!

The quality of video on today’s smart phones is really amazing, so there’s no need to invest in expensive video equipment.

Some video ideas:

  • New Releases video every Tuesday / Wednesday – Here’s what’s new this week, here’s what we think will be the comic everyone is talking about.
  • What’s hot in the shop – Get in here and get your Walking Dead’s right now, we’ve got 12 copies, wait, make that 11 copies! MOVE FAST!
  • Weekend event preview – Hey we’ve got lots of great things here to do at the shop, don’tcha dare miss them!!!
  • Two minute movie review – Do a quick review of a recent movie in theatres, make it positive, and tell people about what you liked. Let your passion show!
  • Movie Tie-In preview – Talk about a recent movie and some of the comics that share the same feel. Did you like John Wick 3? Check out Skybourne!
  • Monthly Diamond Previews catalogue update – What looks awesome from Previews?

Shorter “talking head” style videos are very successful. Thursday and Friday are more active days on social media, so use those days to upload short review videos and go from there.

Event Promotion

Facebook in particular is great about event promotion. It allows you to create an event, push the date and time out to your followers and poll them to determine if they are coming. Those that respond that they would like to come will get reminders automatically about the event.

You don’t have to do a thing, though it’s not a bad idea to post your own reminders as well. Many people live their lives by their event reminders on social media, so tap into that and make sure you’re using them.

The Takeaways

Using social media to benefit your brick and mortar location requires a small amount of effort but can yield some very big rewards.

It can help your customers and their circle of influence to identify more personally with your brand.

Given that social media platforms are free to use for everyone and they include hundreds of millions and even billions of users, using them as a marketing tool is a must.

How we can help:

We’ve created some awesome resources for you to get started with Social Media.