According to Hootsuite, social media platforms will have 490 million users in 2020, doubling the growth rate compared to 2019. That’s 15.5 people active on social media every second! In short, social media marketing should play a significant role in your brand strategy and success. Below are a couple of methods you can make use of social media marketing to grow your small business.
1. Choose The Right Platforms
If you want to use social media marketing to grow your business, you should know that not all platforms are the same. Each offers its purpose, and each has its strengths and weaknesses; which social media sites you choose to use should depend on your industry and audience.
Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn are the best networks to invest in for many small businesses.
Facebook is an amazing method to connect with local groups and your network. Get involved with them by commenting on posts about housing or local events.
You can also announce your home tours and other in-person and digital events. Consider sharing information from key neighborhoods to establish yourself as a thought leader.
Instagram is the right place to share your most exciting photos and videos as a purely visual medium. This makes the platform a great way to add authenticity to your brand.
Target specific groups of buyers by highlighting high-value landmarks near or around your listings. Usage Instagram Live to tour properties and answer questions in real-time.
While you can also share photos and videos here, LinkedIn is best for networking and building your industry reputation.
Be sure to join and participate in groups relevant to your industry and connect with VIPs. You can also post-professional tips, introduce exciting thought leaders, and post any information that interests your target audience.
If you’re not sure which platforms are right for your business, take a look at your rivals. If they all appear to be using Pinterest, Twitter, or even TikTok, you should include them in your plan of attack.
2. Learn Best Practices
Making use of social media marketing to grow your small business won’t happen overnight. The key to learning best practices for different platforms is time. Each platform has its own rules (both written and unwritten) and ways to engage with your target market. The most effective way to learn these rules is by observing what your rivals are doing and what brands’ names in similar industries are doing. Provide yourself time to figure them out.
Remember that what works for another audience may not work for yours. Develop a plan, evaluate your results, and adjust over time.
Remember that the world of social media marketing is constantly changing, so it might take some trial and mistake before you discover the right path.
3. Set Realistic Goals.
This can be tricky. Sure, you intend to have 100,000 followers on your Instagram account within the next six months. But is that even possible? And do those fans equate to real success?
When you are just beginning to use social media marketing to grow your business, it’s hard to gauge what’s feasible and what will remain a pipe dream for followers. It may be that you struggle to create a valuable piece of content that only gets shared once or twice. It may be that you spend hardly any time on a tweet or a Facebook post and still see tons of engagement.
Don’t invest too much time and energy stressing over how many followers you have. One hundred engaged and enthusiastic followers are worth more than 10,000 random followers and bots. This is especially real if your business is highly local, such as a real estate agent or retail store. Focus on gaining appropriate followers who live in your community, not just anyone on the platform.
Mentioning bots or “fake followers,” buying followers to increase your follower numbers is a quick fix to see a more significant number but not a long-term solution. It’s a poor way to represent your brand and often results in social platforms penalizing brand pages and businesses.
Grow your brand organically and gain the right kind of followers.
4. Track And Procedure Progress
How exactly you measure your progress depends on your goal. As we’ve already found out, using social media marketing to grow your small business is very individual.
And as we’ve already discussed, the number of followers isn’t the only metric that matters. It would be best if you also kept the following in mind:
- Likes
- Mentions
- Impressions
- Clicks
- Shares/Retweets
- Comments
- Direct Messages
You can select one of these metrics and set a growth goal, or you can watch them all and see if you’re moving in the appropriate direction. Whatever your goal is, make sure you inspect back periodically.
5. Create Content
This is one of the most critical and time-consuming tasks if you want to use social media sites to grow your small business. You need to understand what is your target market wants. Then it would help if you spent time researching, composing, sharing, and promoting that web content.
MarTech Advisor discovered that 56% of consumers would reward relevant content with a purchase from a brand. They also found that 74% of consumers are bothered by irrelevant content. Irrelevant often means too much self-promotion, which is why we recommend following the 80/20 rule when deciding what to post. No problem how you slice it, the content you write and share has significantly impacted your business.
Infographic courtesy of MarTech Advisor
If creating exciting posts regularly seems too time-consuming, OutboundEngine can streamline the content creation process for you. We’ll create the content for you and publish it where it matters. This gives you more time to attract new leads or sell new items.
6. Share and Involve
You can deal with social media marketing software like OutboundEngine or take the DIY approach. When you post your content, you also need to take the time to involve.
Most people think that replying to remarks is enough. In truth, the focus of any social account should be on building a community. This community should allow people to interact with your brand and each other.
How you go about this is up to you, but the first step is to create a space where they can find each other. Your audience could be car enthusiasts looking to share upgrade tips with industry experts or first-time buyers looking for mortgage advice.
No matter who it is, take the time to know them as individuals. Find new ways to help them, and then create the content they are searching for.
Every one of you does all of this; over time, you will develop a regular team of fans who love your effort and be able to utilize social media marketing to expand your local business.
Final Thoughts: Social Media Advertising For Small Businesses
It can seem overwhelming at first, but if you break down the process step by step, you’ll see how social media marketing can help your small business grow. Don’t forget that the marketing experts at OutboundEngine are here to help and advise you when you need it.
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