How to Use Social Media for Small Business

Today, social media is a commonly used marketing channel. Not just because it is free to use, but also because practically everyone who has access to the internet today utilizes social media, making it the ideal medium for increasing brand exposure. Social media increases brand awareness and can expand your client base dramatically. In fact, social media can localise on these key areas and add value to your business over time by increasing customer engagement. In time, this can optimise your business’s value via revenue and its adaptability within its industry.

Many other businesses, on the other hand, are competing to establish an online presence in order to boost the visibility of their brand and products. So, how can you remain ahead of the game and effectively use social media to promote your brand and products?

Here are six strategies for you and your small business to efficiently handle social media and build consumer loyalty:

Create a Social Media Strategy

Setting up your social media accounts, like launching a business, needs careful consideration. Do you want to generate leads or raise brand awareness? Remember that before you can make your first sale on social media, you must first cast a wide net to attract additional leads. Meaning, if this is your first-ever internet presence, it’s best to focus on building brand awareness, earning trust, and gaining recognition from potential buyers before attempting a hard-sell to generate leads. An effective social media strategy will enable you to see further and, more crucially, quantify the success and failure of your efforts.

Decide on Your Objectives

Set goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely, as defined by the SMART framework. It’s critical that you base your social media goals on data that will have an impact on your business. Otherwise, you’ll quickly become disoriented when attempting to measure the desired outcome. Getting hundreds of likes on your post is pointless if no one buys your stuff. As a result, always strive to improve customer acquisitions and conversion rates, or the percentage of individuals who visit your website to sign up for your newsletter, download your ebook, or, better still, purchase your product.

Define Your Target Audience

It will be easier to target your audience on social media if you already have a marketing plan and know which demographic you want to target, especially if you are planning paid marketing initiatives. Create one if you haven’t already.

In your social media plan, answer these questions and be specific about your target audience. Learn about who they are, what they know, what they don’t like, where they spend the most time, how much money they make, who their influences are, and so on. The more you know about your target audience, the easier it will be to discover them on social media, engage with them, and create a relationship with them.

Choose the Right Platform and Start Practicing!

Perhaps you’ve considered establishing your brand’s online presence across ALL “hottest” and “trending” channels. Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, Tik Tok, Snapchat, Pinterest, and Medium are all places where you want your business to be seen. After all, isn’t it true that the more you have, the better? Well, not quite. It is not recommended that you do everything at once unless you have the time, personnel, and money to devote to enhancing your social media presence. The goal is to make the most of social media by selecting the appropriate platform(s) for your business strategy.

This is why it’s crucial to complete tips #1 and #2 first since you’ll already know who you want to target, where they are, and what types of content/influencers they follow and connect with frequently in this phase. Once you’ve amassed a sufficient number of followers and engagement on your first social media network, you’ll be ready to move on to the next social platform.

Build Relationship with Your Followings by Sharing Quality Content

Regardless of the specific algorithm that governs each social media network, the essential keywords for building a strong following on social media are the same. Quality over quantity, relevant, informative, helpful, motivating, engaging, educating, amusing, and trendy. These are the keywords to keep in mind whenever you want to hit that post button.

Imagine yourself as a social media user, which we’re sure you are, and you’re scrolling through the platform’s feed, looking for things that tickle your interest. Videos or images about your interest, favorite cause, favorite fashion design, somewhere lovely and dreamlike, possibly some adventurous activities, or important infographic and data about your business field, etc. It’s the same with your target audience. They, too, will peruse the feed, engaging in the posts that most pique their interest.

Quality content might include sharing fun facts, a tutorial based video, or even a relevant and witty post about something unrelated to your product. Additionally, you can post stories with product updates, news and any other information relevant to inform your audience about. The content you post has the singular goal of keeping your audience engaged with you and your brand. It’s okay to mix it up every now and again.

So, with those golden keywords in mind, create a complete plan for the content you’ll post. When creating your content plan, take a methodical approach to ensure that it is organized and consistent when shared across numerous social media networks. Create a content editorial calendar, and figure out how often and when is the best time to post, how you’ll track the posts’ success, and how you’ll maximize your reach with your content strategy.

Utilize Social Media Tools

There are a plethora of social tools available to assist you with automating, scheduling, measuring, listening to your customers, spying on your competitors, creating beautiful content, and curating your posts.

These tools will be your most valuable allies in the social media battlefield, but you must choose wisely because not all of them are free to use. Set some time to explore these tools and try out the free trials to evaluate which ones you need the most and which work best for your business. Utilising social media for your small business can open up a whole new way of running your business. Social media can keep your audience engaged while you showcase your product and work towards optimising your business value. Using social media can make a positive impact on your business direction, success and value. If you’re a business owner and are thinking about what strategies you can put in place to keep up with your industry, seeking out an  expert business valuation from a specialised valuer can help you understand where your business’s current market value.

This article was contributed by Tyla Wood.