If you have a small business – or really any business for that matter – how to use social media to grow your small business needs to be a part of your marketing efforts if you are to be successful.
If you think social media isn’t for you…guess again. It has to be. Pretty much everyone is on social media now and it has become one of the top ways of advertising. Marketing gurus at GWI state that 26% of social media users tend to buy the brands they see advertised on social media. Utilizing social media can increase your company’s revenue substantially.
If you’re a go-getter like us, then the growth of your business is constantly on your mind. Let’s talk about how to make social media a part of these efforts.
Know your audience
First, it is important that you determine who your target audience is on social media. Are they young or old? Are they high income or low income? What are their interests? What type of content is useful for them?
Answering these questions helps to define what your campaigns will be centered around and what type of brand voice they should take.
Have a plan and set specific objectives
What are you trying to accomplish with your posts? Are you driving the user to purchase a product? improve their opinion of your brand? To increase their engagement with your brand? To educate them on the uses of your product/service? Be sure you have a specific purpose for each post.
In addition, establish a structured plan for your social media campaigns. Ensure that you have a content calendar and that you know what and when you’ll be posting. Make your timing deliberate. Posting during the hours of 12:00 pm – 2:30 pm or in the evening around 7:00-9:00 pm are typically effective times.
Don’t “sell” to your audience on social media
People are not on social media looking for products to buy. They are there for one of three reasons:
- Entertainment
- Information/education
- Inspiration
If your post is not doing one of these three things, then it will likely not gain any traction. If it is explicitly selling your product, then it may be seen as spam by a user and will be passed over. On the other hand, if your post is promoting your product in a creative way, while building a community and interacting with your audience socially – without directly saying “Buy Now!” – then chances are greater that a user will stop to see what you posted.
One exception to this rule is a product launch or new release. People enjoy seeing these posts as they are novel, and they will be interested especially if they know your brand already.
See what your competition is up to
Study competitors who have a large following with high engagement on social media. See what they are doing and brainstorm on how you can mimic their campaigns or concepts with your own spin.
Focus on specific platforms
While you can focus on running social media campaigns on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok, and a million other platforms at the same time, this may not necessarily be the best use of your time. If your audience spends most of their time on one or two of them, why be on ten? In addition, time spent on too many social media platforms could result in lost time you could be spending mounting a substantial following and engagement on just one or two platforms.
Be strategic in your approach and consider what platform(s) would be best for your company given your particular audience and situation.
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