8 Effective Ways to Use Social Media Marketing For Small Businesses
In the modern world, social media marketing is crucial if you want your brand to make an impression. Creating an effective social media strategy can help you to reach new customers, keep current customers engaged, and build your brand.
Follow our top tips on how to effectively use social media marketing so that you can give your business the boost it deserves.
1. Do Your Research Into The Different Platforms
Different customer demographics use different platforms, for instance, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and so on.
If you want the widest possible reach, don’t just have a Twitter or a Facebook page, but make sure you have a presence on several of the different platforms that your potential customers or clients might be using.
Think about who your customers are and prioritise your platforms based on the demographics of your customers. For example, if you primarily provide services for older people, Facebook should be your priority, whereas Twitter users tend to be younger people.
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2. Commit to Your Social Media Strategy
You need to make sure that your social media campaign is a priority. Take the time to create goals and a strategy for your social media marketing campaign. What are you using social media for? Think about what you want to get out of your social media marketing and tailor your plan accordingly.
Make sure you take time to keep your accounts up-to-date. This will help you retain your current followers and to attract new followers. After you have started to put your strategy in place it can also be helpful to check the analytics on your posts. By analysing what's working and what's not you'll be able to ensure your strategy is most effective.
2. Post Great Content
You want to give your customers a reason to follow you! It has been proven that consumers are much more likely to buy from a brand that they follow on social media.
Share who you are as a brand or a company. Make sure your content is top quality. Speak to your customers with useful, relevant, engaging and authentic content. Post content that is entertaining, informative, and suited to your target audience. If you post great content every day, your followers will keep coming back for more, and this will help you build a relationship with your potential customers.
3. Post Regularly
And by regularly, try to post every day! The average Twitter post, for example, has its highest impressions in the first 18 minutes, and with people being bombarded with so much content all the time you need to post regularly to continue connecting with your followers.
It can be difficult to post regularly when you are trying to balance other priorities but making time for social media is a top way to the success of your brand, so for help with this, check out tip #6!
4. Connect With Influencers
People are much more likely to buy products if they are promoted by influencers that they like. Connecting with influencers can be instrumental in your company’s promotion.
Repost great content from influential people in your industry. Comment on their posts and interact with them. Influencers that you have a relationship with and that recognise your company are much more likely to engage in promoting your brand.
5. Check Out The Competition
Find out what your competitors are doing. How do they use social media marketing to promote their brands? What is working for them? What isn’t working for them? Make sure that you reflect on and learn from the successes and failures in your industry.
6. Use Automation Tools
There is a range of tools out there which you can use to help automate your social media campaign. Rather than spending lots of time writing out individual posts for each platform, some of these pieces of software will automatically post to every platform at a pre-arranged time.
This can help you manage your time when it comes to social media marketing, but also make sure that you post great content regularly to maintain and increase your following. Do your research into the tool that is most appropriate for your company.
7. Encourage User-Generated Content
Get your followers to post content for you. You could run competitions for users who post Instagram pictures with your product, for example. Their followers, as well as your followers, will then see this content, thus widening your reach even further.
8. Listen to Your Customers
Social media, is, well, social! Social media marketing is more like a conversation. And the best conversations need both sides to listen to each other! Don’t just use it as a tool to promote your company. Interact with your current and potential customers as much as you can. Invite feedback, and make sure you respond!
Also, use your customers’ posts and content to help you generate ideas for content. What are they talking about? What are their thoughts and concerns?
Summary
Social media marketing is not only important, but it can also be intensive and time-consuming. Hiring a social media marketing professional means that you can get on with doing the work that you do best, and leave the social media marketing to the expert, thereby making the most efficient use of your time!
