Running a small business can be quite difficult, especially if you’ve just started and it’s your first time doing it. And believe it or not, one of the most overwhelming parts of this is working on your social media marketing plan and strategies.
Why is social media marketing important? Because these platforms are the easiest way to connect with your audience, which means they’re a gold mine for marketing opportunities.
And although SMM might seem like something easy to tackle, if you don’t use the right tools, you might end up spending time and money on something that’s clearly not working.
So, to learn more about the best social media marketing tips for small businesses, keep on reading!
1. Come up with a social media marketing plan
As we already know, everything about marketing starts with creating a strategy and making the right plan, and social media marketing is no different. An SMM plan gives you the opportunity to understand which goals you want to achieve by using social media platforms, how to measure them, and how you can achieve them. Here’s a rundown of what you need to do:
- Set your goals
- Learn more about your competition’s social media marketing strategy
- Start with a social media audit to see where your weaknesses are
- Look for inspiration from similar brands
- Make your social media calendar and stick to it
2. Use the right platforms for your business
Some businesses fare better on LinkedIn than on Facebook or Pinterest, for example. It all depends on who you’re trying to market to. Most B2B companies use LinkedIn because this is the platform where they can find their targets, but what about all the other B2C companies that have a plethora of other social media platforms to choose from?
Well, studies show that you shouldn’t just wing it and start posting on just one platform, instead, conduct market research to find out where your audience is. Once you’ve done that, you’ll be able to market to them through social media. And remember, you can always communicate with different groups of your audience on different social media platforms.
3. Understand your audience
Knowing whom you’re marketing to is a big part of using social media as a small business. After all, once you’ve sent the wrong message, you might have already lost most of your audience. This is why it’s important to know whom you’re talking to so you can use the right language, tone, images and engagement style. For example, if you have a boutique, you will be able to identify how to use your fashion logo for visual branding, what colors to entice the audience, and what type of content to feed them on Instagram.
Use social media analytics to dig deeper and get a better understanding of who you’re catering to. For example, if you find out that most of your fans and/or followers are millennials, you can start using “younger” language and tone of voice, which will make them feel closer to you. On the other hand, if most of your audience is middle-aged moms, then you’ll know you’ll need to communicate with them differently.
4. Create compelling content
Compelling content is key to keeping your audience interested in what you have to say, so make sure to post quality content, not just when it comes to your visuals (images, photos, videos, gifs, Instagram stories, etc.) but also your written content.
After all, more than paid promotions or anything else, this will be the heart of your social media marketing strategy, and it needs to be interesting enough for your fans to be excited about seeing it on their newsfeed and sharing it on social media.
Want an example of compelling content? Take Aerie’s Instagram! Their videos pictures are good enough for people to stop scrolling and actually pay attention to what they have to say. This is the kind of engagement you need to aim for.
5. Track your performance
Finally, don’t forget to track your performance. If you don’t know how well (or how badly) your social media marketing strategy is doing, then you won’t be able to tweak it and make it better. Tools such as Hootsuite or Brandwatch can help you track your engagement and all your other analytics, so don’t hesitate to use them.
Conclusion
Startup owners and entrepreneurs, social media marketing can seem like a difficult task to tackle, but with hard work, creativity, the right content, and the right tools, you’ll be able to make a killing on these online platforms!
About Our Guest Poster
Anne Sherman works as a freelance content writer, by providing quality and SEO optimized write-ups to help boost their ranking as well as appeal to their customers. She likes to spend her time at the library reading or playing crossword puzzles.
