Social Media For Small Businesses

• bey0ndM@gz!ne
• April 16, 2021
• Default, Social Media
• 0 Comments

ANYONE RUNNING A SMALL BUSINESS KNOWS WHAT IT’S LIKE TO WEAR MULTIPLE HATS. WITH COUNTLESS DELIVERABLES TO KEEP TRACK OF, SOCIAL MEDIA CAN SEEM LIKE A NON-ESSENTIAL ASPECT, ESPECIALLY WHEN THINGS GET HECTIC.

– By Adete Dahiya

8 TIPS to help you get started

What does this mean for businesses in general and small businesses in particular?

This means, that you have almost 2.5 hours per day per person to build awareness about your brand, increase loyalty, build long-lasting relationships and make direct sales. And all of this can actually be achieved without spending a single penny.

Despite this staggering statistic, a large number of small businesses look at social media as the last resort. A lot of it also has to do with lack of information around the use of social media for business. This article is a step towards changing that.

Let’s look at a few of the crucial steps you need to take in order to make your brand/business visible and grow using social media.

TAKE THE TIME TO CREATE A PLAN BEFORE YOU START SO THAT YOU ARE WORKING TOWARDS SPECIFIC GOALS.

THIS IS THE FOUR STEP FRAMEWORK TO CREATING A PLAN:

• Setting attainable goals
• Researching and knowing the competition
• Conducting a social media audit before beginning
• Creating a calendar to schedule posts

BEGIN WITH A SOLID PLAN
Creating content for a business page is not the same as doing so for a personal or hobby page. A good content strategy starts with a good plan. It’s true that social media is free to use, but remember you are making an investment of time and effort. If you don’t have a plan, you don’t have any way of knowing what’s your return on this investment.

CHOOSE YOUR PLATFORMS:
This is a step not everyone talks about. Usually, when it comes to creating a social media strategy, most brands and businesses decide to go all out on all platforms. This is a BIG mistake because it dissipates your energy and time and doesn’t give results as strong as you could get if you focused all your time on one or just a few platforms.

This is why it’s important to know which platform is best for you. The way to go about it is to first understand where your target audience spends the most time. Demographics are an important factor. The second important factor is to figure out the strengths and weaknesses of each platform to see how it’s best suited for your needs. Are you a brand with great visual appeal and aesthetic? Then Instagram could be your primary channel. If you’re more verbal in your approach,
Twitter is a better option.

THOROUGHLY KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE:
You cannot market and create content as a brand unless you know who you’re creating it for. Knowing your audience is the most crucial step to social media success. Start by compiling data of your current customers and then corroborate with social media analytics. Once you define your audience, you can then create a persona of what your online audience looks like and start to create content catering to them.

BUILD RELATIONSHIPS:
A good businessman knows that building his brand is synonymous with building long-lasting relationships. And that’s true for social media as well. There’s a  reason it’s called “social” media. While getting ongoing sales is a great thing, nurturing relationships can help you build a loyal community that will lead to ongoing sales over time.

CONNECT WITH OTHER BUSINESSES AND INFLUENCERS IN YOUR NICHE:
Know what people in your sphere are up to, support them and help them grow. You will have the favour returned manifold. Connecting and being visible on others’ platforms will also help build trust for your brand in the long run.

PAY ATTENTION TO TRENDS:
While it’s very important to have a longterm strategy and focus on real growth as opposed to vanity metrics on social media, it is equally important to hop on trends that fit in with your brand voice. This helps you give a sudden boost in visibility and it helps you understand what people are looking for when they sign into their accounts. You can then create appropriate content that has a higher chance of resonating with them.

QUALITY OVER QUANTITY:
The sheer number of social networks present today can make it overwhelming for a small business. But remember, you don’t need to do it all! Instead, focus on just 2-3 key channels and scale from there. Focus on creating content that provides value independent of what your product or service is. Remember, people don’t primarily come to social media looking for things to buy/sell. So give value first.

SCHEDULE AND AUTOMATE POSTS TO SAVE TIME:
Content creation is important but it’s not the only thing you need to be doing as a small business owner. A good idea is to use scheduling and automation tools to batch create and schedule content for a week or a month so that you can have your time freed up to do other important stuff. No matter what the size of your business is, social media tools can help you grow and reach potential customers and connect better with existing ones. The biggest advantage of using these  tools is that you can use them in whichever way makes the most sense for your business and budget at any given time.