The benefits of social media are more for small businesses than they are for big brands. That’s because smaller businesses and startups don’t have a ton of marketing budget the way big brands do.
From tracking user engagement, connecting with audiences to sharing relevant content; small businesses can use social media in myriad ways.
In this post, we look at ways in which a small business can utilize platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
Choose the Right Networks
Not all social media platforms may be right for you. Picking the right platforms will depend on the goals you share, your audience type, etc.
Below is a small guide to help you with that:
LinkedIn – This platform is good for both B2C and B2B businesses for finding leads, engaging with audiences, and building trust.
Facebook – With over 2 billion active user base, Facebook is good for lead generation.
Twitter – This is a good platform for audiences under 50 who want constant updates, announcements, news, and time-sensitive information.
Pinterest – Any business such as fashion, restaurant, photography would benefit from the visual appeal of Pinterest.
Set a Goal
You can do a ton of things with a social media presence, such as:
- Improve customer engagement
- Generate leads
- Better customer service
- Drive sales
- Improve web traffic
- Gain customer feedback
But, for you to achieve any of these, you must have a clear direction and a sense of goal. When you have a clear goal, you can create a strategy for it. For instance, the approach for improving sales would be different from improving customer engagement.
Come up with a Strategy
Once you have a goal, you must create a plan to get there. Ideally, you should divide the responsibility among team members so everyone knows what they’re supposed to do.
After that, it’s good to contemplate on a few important things regarding your content marketing strategy, such as:
- Finding who your audience is
- Deciding on subjects and topics your the readers might like
- Collecting the content you have created and the ones still in need of creation
- The frequency at which to publish the content
- Platforms on which to publish the content
Know Your Audience While Setting Goals and Creating Content
The key to driving engagement on social media is to understand your audience. What are their interests and needs? What kind of content could they benefit from? When you know these things, you can create the type of content that engages them.
For example, a coffee shop would ideally churn-out content around types of coffee drinks, brewing techniques, picking the right type of bean, etc.
To best understand your audience, it’s good to know their:
- Age
- Gender
- Location
- Behaviors
- Challenges
- Pain points
- Incomes
- Needs
- Preferences
Also, no matter the type of audience you’re writing for, make sure to always create high-quality and relevant content. Also, do supply relevant videos, images, and other visual content whenever possible to aid better understanding.
Pick the Right Tools To Automate/Automate Posts
Using social media requires a lot of time, effort, and perseverance. That’s why it’s important to have all the right tools so you can automate the majority chunk of your work. You could use those tools to schedule and automatically publish posts throughout the month.
To that end, you should use tools like:
Not only can you schedule batches of your posts, but you can also monitor your performance, track metrics, and reply to messages.
Actively Engage Your Audience in Relevant Ways
Just posting quality content on social media is not enough. You must also figure out ways to establish a sense of connection and ensure engagement. To gain your audience’s trust, you must engage with them. Here’s how you can go about it:
- Share relevant posts and blogs
- Leave questions and answers
- Reply to comments
- initiate conversations and partake in them actively
- Always show appreciation for your followers and customers
- Repost user-generated content
- Always address criticism and complaints
Maintain a Constant Presence
Many brands wonder how frequently they should publish on social media. Truth be told, there is no magic number to that. It all boils down to what works best for your brand/company.
But, as a thumb rule, it’s good to post once a day (ideally) on Facebook and LinkedIn. For Twitter, you can post as quickly as possible.
If you talk about Pinterest, sharing as many as 11 pins/day is considered ideal.
But, again – you need to think realistically about the frequency to stick with. What’s important is that once you have figured out that frequency, you must stick with it.
Watch the Right Metrics to Track Progress
When you monitor and track your progress on social media by keeping a close eye on the metrics, you can figure out what’s working for you and what’s not.
For example, if certain types of posts are performing better in terms of engagement, number of likes, and share, you might want to focus on that particular tone or pool of topics.
If visual content is getting the conversation going, then you may want to include more visual content in your posts.
By defining the right metrics, you can measure your success against them. You can also spot all the shortcomings and work on improving them.
Bottom Line
Hopefully, you can implement these tips for your next social media campaign and drive amazing results.
