Developing robust social media strategies for small businesses eliminates a lot of the guesswork from your marketing strategy. Regarding social media success, a little planning goes a long way.
In the last ten years, social media usage has risen from 7% to 65% in the United States.
Businesses can no longer ignore social media due to the increased consumer usage of sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. You have a lot of opportunities to get in front of potential clients. On average, people spend 145 minutes every day on social media! That’s a big window of opportunity for you to get potential clients’ attention.
Because you don’t have a marketing team ready to tackle every platform, you must be strategic with your time and ad dollars. Don’t be concerned! Small business owners don’t have to be complicated regarding social media; they must follow the advice in this article.
Rather than avoiding social media, let’s look at how to establish social media plans for small businesses to help you meet your growth objectives.
Make Smart Goals Many small business owners know that they “should” be utilizing social media to build their company, but have you considered why? What do you hope to achieve with your social media strategies? Creating a plan to reach your goals is much easier if you’re clear.
Particular, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) is an abbreviation for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. Aids goal-setting because you know what you’re trying to do and when you’ll be able to do it.
It’s also relevant to your company if you primarily utilize email marketing to nurture leads and acquire new customers. Make sure your objectives are attainable. It’s unlikely that your social media approach would immediately raise your sales by 10%, but increasing email sign-ups is considerably more achievable; instead of only racking up likes, set goals based on metrics that will matter to your business, such as acquiring customers or increasing your conversion rate.
1. Identify Your Audience
Most marketers will tell you that getting to know your audience is the first step in designing a successful campaign, and the same is true for social media.
Even if you know who your target audience is, you may use social data to double-check your assumptions. Using data from social networks or a third-party social media tool, better understand who your social audience is.
It’s all about getting to know your customers and publishing what they care about when using social media for small businesses. Posting helpful material that helps your clients is the best way to increase social media popularity. Investigate whose accounts they follow and the posts they enjoy and share. It will give you a better picture of what they value.
What’s the best way for you to join in on the conversation they’re already having? Businesses make the mistake of solely talking about their business on social media. They talk about their products, services, and employees but fail to talk about how they can help their clients.
Imagine why you follow certain brands. There’s more to their story than their product, isn’t there? You can apply that same thinking to your business and identify your ideal client’s needs.
2. Work with people in your domain.
Connecting with others in your industry is a terrific method to reach a new audience. Collaborate with micro-influencers and other people in your industry who you respect. Share their material to help you join your industry’s larger community. This does not imply that you must share posts from direct competitors. Make connections with other industry thought leaders.
You can participate in a larger conversation on social media and share information with customers. For example, if your product is healthy snacks, why not team up with a food blogger to provide some healthy recipes?
3. Initiate Conversations and Bring Engagement
Join the conversation once you’ve figured out what your audience enjoys discussing.
Your posts should be informational, inspirational, and promotional, with a call to action included in each. Encourage your fans to engage with your brand.
Ask them questions, solicit their opinions, and discuss topics that elicit strong feelings. Whatever business you’re in, there’s a feature of your product or service linked to a sensation or experience your ideal client desires.
What you’re offering as a business coach is confidence, peace of mind, and success. All of these themes elicit strong feelings. It’s a terrific approach to connect with your audience by posting about your idea of success and encouraging them to share theirs.
It would help if you continued the conversation whenever someone responded to your question; after all, they took the time to say “yes” to your brand.
Did you know that just 10% of messages and comments on a company’s social media pages get responded to? Time should be set out in every small business’s social media strategy to reply to client comments and direct communications.
Social media serves as a sales funnel for your company because of this contact. People will become interested in your content if you post great stuff, but they will buy from you if you interact with them. Interact with your customers and build a two-way dialogue with Instagram polls, Twitter threads, and Facebook live streams.
4. Create A Posting Schedule
You’re running a company; therefore, every second counts! Consistent posting shows potential clients that you take your business seriously and that they should as well. Study your insights. Figure out the answers to questions like, how often should I post? At what time should I post?
But how do you maintain consistency when your to-do list is as extensive as an octopus arm? (Octopuses don’t have tentacles or arms!)
Make technology your best friend by planning out your posts ahead of time. Keeps you constant while also saving you time. You won’t get distracted looking through your feed instead of posting and returning to work if everything is scheduled.
Your small business’s social media marketing plan should include a day or a few hours each week to sit down and schedule your social media posts. Then you can relax, knowing that you haven’t forgotten anything!
Conclusion
Providing high-quality material is at the heart of effective social media marketing for small businesses. Consistent does not always imply “a lot.” It would be best to discover a rhythm that works for both your audience and you so that you can continue to provide value in an engaging, amusing manner. Make eye contact with them and strike up a discussion with them. Use trial and error; it’s acceptable to make mistakes!
For small business owners, robust social media marketing strategies are critical to long-term success. You won’t waste hours of your valuable time figuring out what to do with your social media channels if you have a solid plan.
Are you planning on beginning social media strategies for your small business? Which platforms do you think your audience primarily uses? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
