Social media marketing is no longer optional for small businesses in 2018. Create profiles on multiple platforms “We’re on Facebook.” I hear this all the time when I’m talking with small business owners about their social media strategies. Here’s a look at the social media channels that small businesses use the most: As you can see, Facebook leads the way for small businesses. These are some of the top goals that small businesses are trying to accomplish with their social media strategies: While lead generation, brand awareness, and customer engagement are all good reasons to use social media, it doesn’t mean these should be yours. Let’s take a look at how frequently small businesses are posting on social media: As you can see from this graph, just over half of small businesses post on a daily basis. Give consumers a reason to follow you In order to have a successful social media marketing strategy for your small business, you need to have lots of followers. Otherwise, nobody is going to see your content. People don’t just want to see posts from your brand. If you want to post content multiple times per day, consider sharing ephemeral content, which we’ll discuss in greater detail shortly. UGC is a great way for you to get more followers and ultimately turn those new followers into buyers.
Social media marketing is no longer optional for small businesses in 2018.
I see this problem all too often when I’m consulting small business owners. They have this mentality that social media won’t benefit their companies.
“Our customers know who we are, and they know where to find us.”
Does this sound familiar to you? Don’t get me wrong: it’s great that you have established a steady customer base. But using social media to market your small business will help you get more money from your existing customers in addition to acquiring new ones.
Failure to have an effective social media strategy can be detrimental to your small business.
While you may not think your lack of a social media presence is having an impact on you today, it will eventually catch up with you down the road. So don’t wait until it’s too late to get started.
You’ve got to keep up with the latest social media trends and apply them to your small business.
If you’re a small business owner not quite convinced you need to use social media to improve your business, you’ll benefit tremendously from reading this guide.
If you are currently using social media to market your small business but not seeing the results you hoped for, I’ll steer you toward the path to success.
Follow the marketing tips and strategies I’ve outlined in this guide, and you’ll set yourself up for sustainable growth today and in the future.
Create profiles on multiple platforms
“We’re on Facebook.”
I hear this all the time when I’m talking with small business owners about their social media strategies.
If you have a Facebook page for your business, that’s great. You’re headed in the right direction.
But Facebook alone won’t be enough to maximize your reach. You need to establish a presence on as many social platforms as possible.
Here’s a look at the social media channels that small businesses use the most:
As you can see, Facebook leads the way for small businesses.
Less than half of small businesses use Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter to market their brands. Furthermore, less than one-third of owners are taking advantage of LinkedIn and Snapchat.
Before you rush to create a profile on all the channels listed above, it’s important you understand your target market.
For example, LinkedIn is more beneficial to B2B companies. That’s because 80% of leads generated by B2B brands come from LinkedIn.
Let’s say your small business is targeting Generation Z as your primary audience. Well, 71% of Gen Z uses Snapchat at least six times each day. More than half of this generation uses Snapchat over 11 times daily.
But if your small business is trying to generate leads from Baby Boomers, it wouldn’t make sense to prioritize Snapchat.
For the most part, starting with a Facebook profile is a safe bet. With nearly 1.5 billion daily active users, you can assume your target audience has a presence there.
Believe it or not, after all these years, Facebook is still the fastest growing social network. So it’s not going anywhere in the near future.
After you create a Facebook page, you need to determine which other channels are suitable for your brand and marketing strategy. I’d recommend creating a YouTube channel.
The video content you upload to YouTube will be easy to repurpose for your other marketing channels. These videos will give you an excuse to post content on other platforms when you’re running low on ideas, but we’ll talk about that in greater detail shortly.
Define your marketing goals
You can’t just blindly start posting content on social media without some sort of rhyme or reason. Before you do anything else, you need to identify your marketing goals.
These are some of the top goals that small businesses are trying to accomplish with their social media strategies:
While lead generation, brand awareness, and customer engagement are all good reasons to use social media, it doesn’t mean these should be yours.
You may be using social media to provide better customer service or directly drive sales.
Whatever your reasons, make sure they are clearly defined. Think of it as you would of any other marketing strategy for your company.
You wouldn’t run an ad on the radio or a print advertisement without establishing a goal first, so you need to treat your social media strategy the same way.
Once you decide the purpose of your social media campaigns, it will be much easier for you to come up with content to post. As we’ll discuss soon, it can be tough to think of ideas for new posts.
But if you can establish what you want to accomplish with your content, you’ll know what to post to achieve those goals.
Post content on a daily basis
Now that you have a social media profile on multiple platforms, you’ve got to make sure those accounts are active.
If someone stumbles upon one of your pages and the most recent post was from three weeks ago, they aren’t going to follow you. What’s the point of following a brand that doesn’t post content?
Furthermore, think about all the people already following your business page.
These people won’t just navigate to that page on their own to see what you’re up to. You need to post new content that will appear on their homepages and timelines.
Let’s take a look at how frequently small businesses are posting on social media:
As you can see from this graph, just over half of small businesses post on a daily basis.
This is your opportunity to stand out from your competitors. If your competition is only posting once a week or just a handful of times per month, it will be easier for you to make a lasting impression on your followers by posting daily.
Each time you post new content, you remind your followers that your brand exists.
When they need or want whatever you’re offering, they’ll think of your company as opposed to another small business in the area.
One of the reasons why small businesses aren’t posting…
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