Having a small business is not easy. As a small business owner, you consistently need to look for opportunities to remind your potential customers of yourself. Whether you’re a local restaurant or a shoe retailer, this article is a “must-read” for you. Yes, social media helps your small business and you’re even in advantage compared to big companies out there.
Social Media Marketing is a great way to engage with current customers as well as attract new ones. So if you still don’t have any social media accounts, I’d suggest you create it just right now.
In this article, I’ll show you how does social media help your small business significantly and I’ll provide 5 suggestions on how to make the best use of it.
Which social media channel I should go for?
Understanding the social media platforms and their demographics is essential to answer that question. But also, you need to identify the target audience of your business. Each platform has its dynamics and content type you should consider. You wouldn’t want to waste your time at a platform where your audience doesn’t have a presence. Would you?
To build brand awareness or connect with your customers, you need to take a closer look at those platforms.
Facebook is inescapable. You can find every kind of audience there. So, for sure you can find yours too. The platform is usually used to chat with friends and family, share life events, and check current affairs. The platforms age range is 13-65 both men and women.
People on Facebook enjoy videos a lot. So you can share GIFs, animated photos or videos to catch their attention while spreading your message.
Twitter is eventful. You can set up your country (or even a specific city) to see trending topics in a specific location. With the related trending topics, you can update your company status sharing the relation between the topic and your company. You can spread a word out!
However, as I said it is loaded over there, adding a visual to your post would make you stand out of the crowd.
The majority of Twitter’s users are on their 20’s. Platform’s statistics show that the age range is among 13-29. So if you have a young target audience, you can consider being up to date on twitter.
Pro tip: Think twice before you tweet something, because there is no way back after making a mistake. Twitter doesn’t let edits so far.
Instagram is imaginary. If you have a visually attractive product, your job is a lot easier than many others. With its simple, photo-centred interface and ease of use, Instagram is drawn by teens and young adults. With an Instagram account, you’ll have more than just a social media account. You’ll highlight your company goals and mission, showcase your products and offer and you can even open a store with inspiring visuals that attract engagements and sales!
YouTube is educating. If you have a product that needs explanations or tutorials to use, YouTube is a great opportunity to make your voice heard. Apart from that, if you are simply selling books that need no tutorials, YouTube is the option again and again. Hold a reportage with a writer or with a critic that would build reputation and trust for your brand.
Or if you are selling goods for mother&baby, no problem, you can create informative videos about common problems mothers have and how to solve those problems with one of your products. And you know what? You’re not just smashing your product to the face of your prospect when they Google just a common problem. You help them solve their problem and become that hero brand with credible products. So they make your page more visible and trusted by Google in return.
More than it is being funned, it is also highly affecting your SEO!
LinkedIn is networking. On this platform, you can find mostly educated, both men and women professionals. The majority of its audience age range is among 30-49. The LinkedIn audience is primarily visiting the platform to do networking with professionals from a variety of industries. Another way to use LinkedIn is Company Pages. Brands considered this feature as HR landing pages for themselves however, the platform is the perfect location for driving business outcomes, creating brand awareness, and educating potential customers about your products and services.
In LinkedIn, there are trending hashtag topics related to your industry and groups. Participating in a group discussion or writing your perspectives on a trending topic will also attract views to your Company Page.
Pinterest is visual. If you have more like a female audience, Pinterest is the must-have social media channel for your business. The platform’s majority of the audience is women and aged between 18-49 years old. The application is mostly based on visual ideas and pinning them. So if your product is furniture, you can create interior design ideas for your potential customers. Don’t limit yourself. If you have kitchen equipment or if you have brand-new soymilk as your product, you can create recipes and even videos for your followers!
After finding social media channels that suit your business the best, here are my suggestions to carry your business a step further.
Have a Website
Well, there you have it. You have beautiful social media accounts now. But when people are attracted to your social accounts or even to your products or services, they’d need more information. They’d Google it. Therefore you need to have a mobile-friendly and a user-friendly website. What I’m talking about here is, customers you’re maybe giving away to your competitors. If you want to know about this topic in detail, check out Why Do You Need a Website For Your Small Business? In that article, I explained why it is important to have a website as well as how to have a website for free!
Consistency
Once you have your social media accounts and your website, you need to update your pages consistently. It’s not the best strategy to share an update once in a blue moon and then disappear. To engage your customers and prospects, your accounts must be up to date and fed with a considered plan.
Creating Beautiful Content
On social media, visuals have a great impact on engagement rates. So while you feed your accounts repeatedly, it’s important to create beautiful content pictures or graphics. When it comes to pictures, you need to be careful with licensing issues. If your business has a spared budget to purchase licensed images, I’d suggest Shutterstock. They have offers for the full package as well as 2,90 € per image. If you have a tight budget on this, Unsplash is a great platform for free and licensed pictures. Well, after finding your stunning picture, you might want to edit it for the social media world. Remember, we said visuals are important in these platforms. There are simple and free online tools where you can edit or create eye-catching visuals. Whether you only want to add your company logo or you want to create an animated social media post, I can undoubtedly suggest Canva tool. They offer all social media post and header sizes and free templates so that you don’t need any pro knowledge to edit your pictures.
Watch language
Sarcasm fires back for businesses. So, it is always best to keep your sentences clear and concise. Some of the readers can be very sensitive about punctuality and spelling. A minor mistake can drive them away and can cost you credibility. You should also avoid using long and complex sentences. Best is to make your point straight and simple.
If you are one of those who make simple spelling errors, you can check your spelling and punctuation best with Grammarly.
Social Media Advertisement
In one of our previous posts, I’ve already mentioned in detail. Check Digital Advertising: How Effective Could It Be For Your Business? It’ll be useful for your research on this.
If you want to take a step further with your business, you can higher your chances to spread your word by advertising on social media channels. Your target audience spends a lot of time on social media regarding their demographic backgrounds, which provides a great opportunity to advertise your brand on social platforms. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok and so on to promote your brand and products.
Social media ads can help you build a community, create leads, increase event attendees, expand website conversions, app installations, and grow your outlets to grow stores.
There you have it. Social media is a platform to engage with our family and friends, do networking, have a free time of our work to have some fun watching a cat video and sharing it. But it has a complete another side as well. I know it sounds easy when we say social media however, management of social media can be very challenging. Planning all those posts for different platforms, following current affairs, editing creative visuals and adding advertisement onto all can be overwhelming and cause you to give up in the end.
So, plan, stick to it and don’t hesitate to get some help from a specialist.
In 42PLUS we work with a variety of sectors, help our clients grow their businesses and brand awareness on the digital world. Social media marketing is one of our strengths and we’d be happy to meet you. Send us an e-mail now.