Hunting season is finally here: The most wonderful time of the year! Time to head out to the tree stand and enjoy the fruits of your labor? Well, yes and no. Sure, it’s time to embrace the whole reason why you live and breathe the outdoors lifestyle — even in your day job — but it’s also time to laser-focus on the task at hand, and that is growing your business.

 

Hunting season comes with all sorts of distractions, especially on social media. Now is the time to show your current and future customers that your brand and/or business is super serious about being a serious source of (insert your mission statement here) reliability.

 

Here are five ways to separate yourself from the pack this hunting season.

 

1. Post Relevant Content

 

No, that doesn’t read “post daily selfies of bad-ass you with face paint or the tips of your new Muck® boots dangling over the edge of your treestand.” A bit is OK, but remember, this isn’t about you. It’s about your brand.

 

Dig deeper than the obvious, “Hey, I’m hunting today!” type of content. Photos are great, but always go a step farther. Provide a useful tip, tactic or perhaps product insight with every piece of content you post. Give your fans and followers some meat with every post. This strategy will make them look forward to every new post you create throughout the season.

 

2. Post Consumer-Direct Content

 

We mentioned photos. That’s the easy route to provide direct content for your followers to anticipate. Expand that idea and incorporate unique blog posts, textual articles and videos. Direct video uploads are not only the best traffic drivers, they allow you to garner all of the attention.

 

The point? Get away from sharing links to your own or other folks’ content — at least for these few weeks during hunting season. There are millions of other voices out there and they’re all going to be pretty much screaming throughout October, November and December. The more social media posts you make that engage users immediately, the greater your chances of attracting hundreds if not thousands of new fans (customers). Sure, there are some exceptions — like posting YouTube links on your Twitter feed (they will auto play the videos if you do this), but you get the idea. Providing a preponderance of direct content will increase the perceived value of all of your posts.

 

3. Be Visual

Always strive for visual content. Photos and videos rule the day, and they should take center stage in everything you do. This doesn’t mean that a well-written blog post or DTC feature story won’t resonate. The key, however, to getting folks to cross that threshold and consume your content will be something that catches their eye.

 

For photos, keep them relevant and don’t be afraid to delete posts after the fact if they aren’t performing or if they get tons of negative feedback. There is such a thing as bad publicity when it comes to promoting your business on social media. You’ll find that out the first time you post a hastily composed photo of a hunter holding up a deer with its bloody tongue sticking out. Spare the “well that’s real life” justifications. Social media platforms are successful because people gather and engage in unfiltered conversations. That doesn’t mean you should post that kind of content. Again, as a business or brand, your goal is to convey professionalism.

 

Lastly, video is the king of visual content. Study how others are using it and learn from their wins and losses. Study not only the content but also the presentation. For example, the best social media videos will be edited to provide a stunner introduction. This is done on purpose, because most video metrics tools don’t start counting engagements until after a specific time-lapse of consumption is achieved.

 

4. Go Live

Prediction: Live video streaming will be the #1 utilized social media feature this hunting season. If you’re going to jump into the pool, do it wisely, and do it with a well-thought-out plan. Don’t go live for the sake of being live. This can backfire on any business, especially if you’ve given your social media keys to the wrong people. Plan your events, promote them, and at least loosely compose a few scripted talking points.

 

Live video’s value is that it provides that precious one-on-one your fans and customers want from you. Don’t make it about you. Make it about them. Go live from the duck blind to show them some products in action. Go live at lunch hour to answer their questions on anything that might be on their mind. Go live at 8 p.m. on Friday to see how their week was and to offer trouble-shooting help on anything they might need to work on over the weekend.

 

There’s one big do-not:  Don’t go live to hear yourself talk. Not too many people are going to tune in.

 

5. Extend Your Hours of Operation

We touched on this in the previous tip, but hunting season is the perfect time to extend your hours, so to speak. No, that doesn’t mean keeping the light in the office on after 5 p.m. It means that social media allows you to truly connect with your customers. Tear down the brick-and-mortar attitude when it comes to your business. There should never really be a “closed” sign. You should always at least offer some kind of check-in mechanism for your customers even if you’re not in the retail game.

 

Create a protocol on at least one of your social pages (I’d recommend Facebook or Twitter) where your fans know they can at least get you to reply to an urgent request. Your replies needn’t be immediate. At the bare minimum, you can let someone know that you’ve received their inquiry and they can expect an answer at XYZ time or day. The interpersonal communication improves customer service and also adds to the overall integrity of your brand.