Social media for small business is a must – it is important for all kinds of companies, but it is vital for when you are just starting in the market and need to gain audience and grow a business. It may seem a little overwhelming to take care of everything on your business – budget, incomes, meetings, employees, etc – and still manage social media channels and bring followers. But it does not have to be a hard task - and it is not necessary to focus on having thousands of followers on your network, neither.
So if you would like to start investing on social media for your small business, we have some tips that will definitely help you with this project:
Start with a plan
Just like you had a plan when you started your business, you will need a plan for your social media marketing strategies. Your plan should answer questions like:
- What are your objectives on social media marketing for your small business?
- Who are my competitors?
- What are my competitors doing on social media?
Then put this information on paper: you will use next to build your content and analyze your results.
Identify your target audience
Now that you already have a plan and know what your goals are, it is time to figure out who is your target audience. Think about who your ideal customer is: his or her age, gender, location, life style, habits, hobbies, etc. Remember that you will have to focus on these people to create your content.
Decide which platforms are right for your small business
Having a social media strategy for your small business doesn’t mean that your brand should be in all platforms. That’s why you need to figure out who is your target audience – so you will know where they socialize on the internet.
Post quality content
When we think about social media for small business, it is important to focus on quality over quantity. If you don’t have a lot of time to invest on creating social media content, the best idea is to create high quality and visually appealing content instead of posting every day. You might also want to schedule your posts in advance, so you can create all your content at once and save time on your daily activities. Another good idea is to hire an online agency or marketing professional to take care of your content if you don’t have much time to invest or if you are not comfortable with writing on social media.
Build relationships
Since you will schedule your posts to save time, you can use some of this time to engage with you audience and build relationships. Always answer your audience – if they are contacting you on your social media channel, they are expecting you to reply them. Also, you can comment back when they leave comments on your posts.
Expand your audience
After posting quality and useful content and also build relationships with your followers, you might want to expand your audience – so you can grow your business by letting more people know about your company. You can get creative here and create content that your followers can share or even encourage them to tag friends. You can invest on social media ads or boost some of your posts, too.
Analyze your results – and repeat
After some time managing your social media channels, you will have a very good idea of what works best and what does not work for your audience. Analyze your results and do more of what your followers seem to respond and engage.
As we can see, managing your social media channels will need some work and focus, but it is not impossible even if you have a tight schedule. A good social media strategy for small business will surely help you to grow your company - and you may have fun engaging with your customers.
