A Comprehensive Guide On Social Media For Small Businesses

Every brand needs to be available and seen on social media platforms.

That’s the number 1 rule of marketing, amongst other rules and ideas that follow.

For a small scale business to mark its position amongst people and establish itself in the market, it needs to be visible to a maximum number of people. And the best way to do this is by indulging into social media marketing.
There are millions of people using apps like Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn as I say this. And the number is rising steadily.

Now, running headfirst into marketing because it is extremely important, is a stupid idea.

You want to have a clear idea of what your strategy is to achieve the goal of the future.

In this article, you will find a comprehensive guide to running your social media handles for boosting your business.

Let’s start with the basic question: How do you form a Social Media Strategy and how is it that you can implement it?

The answer is simple. Establish where you want to go and how you will get there.

This is where it starts getting a little trickier. Now you want to ask yourself the following questions related to your business strategy.

  • What should be your business on a social media platform?
  • What is the theme that you are going to display?
  • Who are the people that you want to attract?
  • What platform are you going to be sharing it on?
  • What time will be perfect to share the content?

Phew!

That’s a lot to take in, right?

Well, there’s more where that came from.

But before we go any further, why don’t we try answering these questions individually?

  1. What should be your business goals on Social Media?

This basically means the goals that you want to set, things that you want out of social media marketing.
Here are a few options, just to give you an idea:

  • Publicize the Brand Name
  • Boost Brand Engagement
  • Establish a Community of People Around your Business
  • Increase Earnings

Well, of course, all these and more could be the goals you set for yourself. Just make sure you’re not taking up more things than you can handle.

Form a team of experienced people who would be able to guide you through this journey as well.

Within a minute, a viewer should get an idea about your company. Who you are, what you do, and how well you do it. There’s no need to play around and try to be so intriguing that you end up sounding vague. Since the bio is the first thing that your customers will read, it needs to be clean and precise.

If we talk about the scope of social media for small businesses, then writing a bang on bio could be the gateway to gaining more customers.

Being able to get the message across to people that the services you provide would be beneficial to them as well as to your business. Creating confusion in the minds of potential consumers tend to make space for doubts to creep in about the integrity and authenticity of your business.

You certainly don’t want that, do you?

  1. What is the theme that you are going to display?

There are several ways you can share information related to your business on your social media handles. While most businesses prefer sticking to one theme, having various lines of ideas may work too if tackled in a smart way. It gives you a larger playing field.

The theme that you largely follow may be determined by the service you provide in relation to the idea behind the product.

Say for example you are a shoe brand whose main focus is on selling comfortable shoes rather than the fancier kind on your social media platforms. So the campaigns you post should be related to solving your target audiences issues associated with comfy shoes.

Think about it like this, just like you and your business partners have your own personalities, your business should have its own. Having an identity of its own will help your company stand out in the market. This is because it gives a chance to people to remember you, specifically, in accordance with the unique brand that you run.
Here’s what you want to remember when you start to put thought into what kind of a personality you want your business to show.

Consider the Language you use- Is it simple or complex? Is it knowledge-based and serious? Is it a casual and funny type of language?

  • The Character- Professional or not, your content has to hold a character through its lifespan. Is your content warm, friendly, and inspiring or is it authoritative and professional?
  • The Purpose- What do you want for your users? Do you want to inform them about something? Maybe you want to sell them a product. Or maybe you just want to engage them into a series of entertaining content. Whichever it is, without a purpose your content may render useless.
  • The Tone- Your content can be written in a direct and honest language, or it could be personal and humble. You could also be the kind that gives scientific information.

In the end, the consistent format of content will be appreciated since most people tend to recognize pages and posts by the theme that is followed.

  1. Who are the people that you want to attract?

Depending on what your brand stands for and what are the services you provide, you can easily make out as to who your target audience is.

You want to be targetting people who would really be interested in your services, so you could divide them by age group, whether or not they have a large online presence, or what is the kind of content that attracts them.

Social media for small business may sound tough, and it might not be easy to answer these questions, but the end result is worth it by marketing your business on various platforms.

If in spite of planning and strategizing you are not able to gain the followers and customers you want, then the possibility that you are targetting the wrong kind of people is higher.

There are a few questions you might want to ask yourself before approaching them:

  • What are the interests except for your services that can be served to your viewers?
  • Why is it that this particular group of people will be interested in the content you produce?
  • Who are the people who are willing to or in need of your services?
  • What source do they use to access the content you are posting?

Answering these questions will give you a clearer idea of who your target audience really is.

  1. What platform are you going to be sharing it on?

Everybody knows the four influential players in the media industry, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. So, the most sensible thing to do would be to post and stay active on all these platforms.

Well, let’s take a second to reconsider that, shall we?

If you’re creating strategies related to social media for small business and still learning about the marketing or don’t have the staff that can carry tons of responsibility, you might want to start slow. Maybe take up just one platform and post quality content.

Ultimately, it’s not about how many places you are available on, rather what kind of content you’re giving your audience to look at. The better the content, the more engagement it will receive, and the more it might be shared.
Once you’ve figured out strategies for a singular platform, you can expand your reach and post ads to other platforms.

Each one has its own set of ideas that should be followed to get the best results.

Considering the fact that LinkedIn is used for and by businesses, it could be a good platform to share product information, job openings, posting testimonials, etc. On the other hand, Facebook houses everybody. For a platform that attends to a large demographic, you could share links, photos, videos, or text posts.

With a failure to recognize the importance of posting on the correct portal, your business could suffer losses, in terms of followers, sales, and even financial investments.

  1. What time will be perfect to share the content?

By now you must have figured out who your target audience is, correct? If you haven’t, then please, get this task over with so we can move to more pressing issues.

Okay, now! There are specific points during the day when a particular group of people is active the most. Research and find out when your audience is active the most.

There are teenagers, who are almost always active on at least one social media platform at all times, then there are athletes who might browse through these apps post workouts or game sessions, early morning or in the evening. Think about the working class, they would be active on a social media platform while traveling to and from work, and during their lunch break.

To establish a solid connection between your business and your viewers, it becomes imperative that you post content on a regular basis. With a steady flow of quality content, it will be easy to keep your customers satisfied and increase the engagement rate.

In order to keep track of the content you’re posting, and the data that is being delivered to your audience, you want to create a calendar. Plan your month out, in detail, with information related to the content, platforms it will be posted on, etc.

Would you like to know about how many times you should post on each platform?

Well, you’re in luck!

  • Once or twice a day on Instagram.
  • Witty tweets, 3 or more times a day on Twitter.
  • Less than twice on Facebook.
  • LinkedIn is more lenient so once a day would work.

So, you will post your content depending on who you’re trying to win over.

While these may sound like they are tough tasks to follow through, they’re not. This is your social media for small business marketing strategy, and it will have to be implemented with planning and dedication.

Social media has changed drastically in the many years that it has been around. Our aim has shifted from being seen to creating leads, sales, and traffic for the business. And since the competition on social media has increased by leaps and bounds, it has become extremely challenging for companies to stand out and make their presence felt.

But that’s okay. This article should have given you an idea of how to present your brand to the world. As long as you understand the steps you’re supposed to keep in mind, you’ll stay on the path to success.

There’s a plan of action that you will need to follow to achieve the goals you’ve set, for which one of the main things that you want to do is find the voice that you want your target audience to hear.

It really doesn’t matter what kind of a business it is that you run or what services you provide. The most fundamental thing to remember is to become memorable in the minds of those who visit your website or your page on a social media platform. Of course, a major part of your business will be related to the quality of your product and how beneficial it is to the customer, but that doesn’t diminish the value of online marketing.

That being said you want to start by individually focusing on each aspect that will boost your business online. There is no point of taking over a ton of responsibility without a proper plan of action. If you like the competition is getting too close to beating you, you may want to hire an experienced group of people who can enhance your social media marketing strategies.

I certainly hope implementing details mentioned in this article will be able to achieve the goals you’ve set for your business.