If you’re not already using social media for your company, you are missing an effective tool to engage with customers and attract new ones.
Social media success is directly linked to how well you engage with and listen to your brand’s target audience.
Don’t misuse your social media accounts to collect followers while ignoring the data and customer feedback.
Beginner’s Social Media Strategy for Small Business Owners
Social media offers a unique opportunity to connect directly with current and potential customers. People are using social media every day, so making it a part of your online business strategy is critical to your success. You can reach new markets, build brand awareness, and drive sales with the right tactics.
The Value of Engaging With Customers Through Social Networks
Maintaining and building relationships with your current customer base is even more important than finding new customers. People are more likely to buy from companies they are already following on their favorite social media channel. News of your missed opportunities or poor customer experiences can spread like wildfire. Being active on social media and engaging positively with your client base is crucial to putting out these fires immediately or avoiding them.
Start with a Social Media Plan
Having a social media plan or a strategy when you start working on your social media game will help you achieve your goals. Set goals that are specific but measurable and attainable such as attracting new customers. Check out what the competition is doing on their social accounts. Please don’t copy them, but seeing what is working for other companies will help reduce your learning curve. Also, creating a social media calendar will help you plan the right mix of content.
Creating Social Media Content For Business Pages
Write Engaging and Informative Posts
Content post types should vary; an 80/20 rule is a good starting place. The 80% is used to inform, educate or entertain your followers, while the 20% can be for product or brand promotion. You can also look for inspiration from other companies in various industries with great social media campaigns.
Writing compelling social media posts means keeping them short, easy-to-read and appealing to your audience. The goal is to get individuals to stop scrolling, read your post and click to shop or get more information. Always include a great, relevant image that is eye-catching.
Know Your Target Marketing Audience
Whether you are posting on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat or Twitter, it’s important to know your audience. Social media remains a highly effective business tool because you can micro-target your audience. Look at the data about our current customers. You can run a social media audit or use analytics if you want to dig deeper. Either way, you need a good idea about who is buying from you, what they are buying and when they shop so you can post at the right time.
Social Media Campaigns – Quality over Quantity
Posting to social media doesn’t mean just dumping a ton of posts on one or all the platforms. Creating quality content a few times a week is essential rather than flooding your followers with many posts with little value. To achieve this balance, you can use schedulers such as Hootsuite, SEMrush, and SproutSocial. Facebook has its built-in scheduling tool. These tools will cut down how long it takes to post while allowing you time to run your business and create effective social media content.
Why Brand Image Matters When Creating Social Media Posts
As you create content to promote your small business, remember that what you post reflects directly on your brand. No matter how simple your post is, it needs to provide value for your business and your followers. You don’t want to promote your products as tempting as it is. Let customers get to know you, your company, and behind the scenes, giving them a way to connect with you more personally. Your sales will reflect how effective your social media campaign is and you’ll know you’re headed in the right direction.
Social Media Success is Important for Small Businesses
Often, small business owners falsely believe that social media marketing is only effective for big companies and corporations. That type of thinking is a mistake. A current and relevant social media account works like a barometer for your brand. People check to see reviews, customer posts and what your business is regularly doing before they commit to an online purchase or plan to visit your physical business location. Existing and potential customers are likely to check your Facebook, Instagram or Twitter accounts to see how recently you’ve posted. If you don’t have the time to publish fresh content weekly or respond to customers’ posts, you must find a marketing company that you align with to handle your social media campaign to grow your presence.