5 Social Media Tips for Small Businesses

If you are a small business in 2020, you have to be on social media, especially since the number of social media users this year is 3.80 billion! 

Some of the key benefits of marketing your business on social media are:

• It raises awareness of your brand and increases the visibility of your business.
• It allows you to connect with existing and potential customers and build lasting relationships.
• It offers an opportunity to portray your credibility and expertise.
• It’s a (not free) but highly cost-effective way to market your business.
• It provides an efficient way of monitoring the activity of your competitors.
• It has a positive impact on your organic search results and SEO.
• It boosts website traffic.
• It generates leads and results in higher conversion rates.
• It helps you gain valuable customer insight and vital data about your customers.
• It increases your following and customer base.
• It gives you a competitive edge.
• It can help to generate more revenue.
• You can personalise your communication at scale.
• Unlike traditional marketing, the analytics tools for social media platforms enable you to gauge how well your campaigns are performing.

Savvy small business owners understand that social media marketing is vital to the success of their business, however it’s not always easy to know how to get started. Here are a few practical tips you can start applying today to get started on social media:

1. Know your target audience

Start by defining your target audience. Where do they live, what industries do they work in, how old are they, what are their interests and hobbies, how do they spend their free time, what challenges do they face, what is their level of education, what could potentially be their motivations to purchase, how much do they earn. Having a clearer focus will enable you to prioritise social media channels as well as making it easier for you to customise your messaging. You need to identify what type of person is likely to purchase your products or services.

Don’t attempt to reach everyone, because you’ll only end up reaching no one. You can carry out surveys to help determine the needs of your target demographic. In turn this will help you to tailor a marketing strategy designed to appeal to your ideal customers.

2. Choose the right platforms for your business

There are multiple platforms available, rest assured you do not need a presence on all of them. It’s useful to spend some time on each platform to get a feel for the overall vibe, who’s on there, what people are sharing, the conversation topics and so on. The goal is to determine which platforms are going to give you the best chance of reaching your target audience, so start by conducting some research.

3. Create a publishing schedule

Prior to jumping straight in, get organised, take some time to create a publishing schedule. Look at the big picture and give thought to the overall brand story you wish to tell through your posts. Set up an account with a scheduling tool such as Hootsuite or Buffer to help you schedule your posts in advance to save time. If you are investing in more than one platform, give thought to the different types of content you’ll share on each. Here are a few tips for content sharing on some of the biggest players:

Facebook

What to post:
• Visuals, images
• Links
• Videos

When to post:
1 -2 times a day

Twitter

What to post:
• Visuals, images
• Videos
• Questions
• Comments/feedback
• Links

When to post:
Up to 6 times a day

LinkedIn

What to post:
• Content related to your business or industry
• Tips and how-tos
• Your opinions
• Presentations
• Testimonials

When to post:
Up to once a day

Instagram

What to post:
• Photos of your products
• Behind the scenes images of your business
• Quote images
• Tip images
• Facts and stats

When to post:
Up to once a day

Include promotional posts in your plan but remember the primary objective on social media is to build relationships with your audience, you cannot turn everyone into paying customers. Stick to the 80/20 rule, so 80% of your posts are designed to educate, entertain, inform and engage your audience, the remaining 20% is promotional content.

You could try developing themes for your plan, for example sharing quotes on Monday’s, tips on Tuesdays and questions on Wednesdays. Ensure you develop some evergreen content, content that will always be of value to your audience and can be regurgitated. Don’t be overwhelmed thinking that you need to create all the content yourself, you can share curated content from an array of credible sources that are relevant to your audience. This also helps to position you as a thought leader in your industry.

The next step would be to create an editorial calendar. You can use a word, google or excel spreadsheet for this and use colour coding to distinguish between the different platforms. Take note of important dates and events taking place throughout the month or year relevant to your industry and tailor content around these.

Remember that social media is about experimentation and it will take time to determine which types of content work best. You can tweak your strategy as you begin to see results.

4. Make sure your content is seen

Post content others will want to share, images and videos for example. Encourage your friends, family and colleagues to share and like your posts. Engage with people online, like and share other people’s content so they’ll want to reciprocate by liking and sharing yours. Produce and share valuable posts that will capture the attention of your audience, it’s about quality not quantity. Finally, pay to play! Social media isn’t free, invest some of your funds in paid advertising and sponsored posts to ensure your content reaches a larger audience.

5. Outsource

The management of social media activity is a 24/7/365 job. If you are dedicated to other areas of your business such as serving your existing clients and the operational side of growing your business, chances are you won’t be able to handle it alone. Outsourcing some or all your social media marketing activity can help free up vital hours in your day and week. The key to seeing results on social media is consistency. If you take a break it then takes time to re-build that momentum and you fall off people’s radar. Outsourcing this area ensures you avoid dips in activity and results.

Success on social media doesn’t happen overnight, but if you’re serious about growing your business it should be a top priority. An online presence is crucial if you wish to increase your business exposure and seek new customers.

If you’d like to discuss how I could assist you with your social media marketing feel free to contact me here.