With over 80% of consumers researching companies online before making a big purchase, it’s necessary to have a presence on social media sites to build trust with the customer. It’s also a great avenue to show off your personality and relax with your customers, instead of just advertising and giving product information.
While social media is very common, it’s still difficult to use properly. Many small businesses struggle with engaging an audience, building followers, and growing their brand. But with a little bit of practice, building and engaging your audience through social media will feel more natural.
Know your Goals and Make a Plan
The most important of the social media strategies for small businesses is knowing your goals and having a plan. Without this direction, it’s very easy to get overwhelmed and lose focus.
To determine your goals, you need to consider a few questions. What do you want out of social media? Who do you want to communicate with? Do you want to build your brand? To gain new customers? Support sales? Engage with fans? Once you decide what you want to build, then it’s easier to create a schedule and work towards your objective.
It can be helpful to create a daily plan detailing what you will do each day and for how long. It can start at just 30 minutes per day – this is enough time to respond to messages, post new content, and discuss topical news. A daily plan will help you stay on track and continue working towards your goal.
Interact with Everyone
Social media is all about user engagement and interaction. This is why it’s essential to interact as much as possible with as many users as you can.
Follow and Like other people and businesses – these can be potential customers, businesses in related fields, or even direct competition. By doing this, you increase your own visibility and are more likely to show up as a recommendation for other users. You can also keep up with what your competitors are doing and what your potential customers are talking about.
If you receive a comment or message from someone, reply to it. Whether it’s a question, a comment, or a criticism, responding will show that your business is accessible, responsive and knowledgeable.
Another great way to encourage interaction with users is to include ‘share’ buttons on your blog posts and web pages. By encouraging your users to share your articles and information, you’re increasing the visibility of your site and clicks to your website.
Social Media Marketing for Small Businesses
Another aspect of social media for small businesses to keep in mind is the marketing. Social media marketing can get very expensive very quickly, and without the right methods, this can be money down the drain.
Firstly, knowing your audience is key. You need to know who your target audience is for a specific product or service, find out which social media channels they use the most, and advertise to that specific demographic.
Secondly, quality is always over quantity. It can be tempting to pay for followers as a quick way to beef up your numbers and make your social media channels look good. However, once you post and no one is Liking, Sharing, or Retweeting your content, users will be suspicious of your reliability.
Lastly, always measure and analyze the results of your campaigns. This goes for social media posts that aren’t paid for as well. You need to know what works, what doesn’t, when it works, and who it works for. This way, you can tailor future campaigns to the right audience at the right time to get the highest click through rate or conversion without wasting money.
Social Media Management for Small Businesses
These are just a few of the simple social media strategies for small businesses to develop their social media presence. It can seem like a daunting task, and if done incorrectly, can be costly for the business. To avoid these problems and simplify the process, many businesses choose to outsource their social media management.
VivosWeb offers social media management services to help both small and large businesses handle their social media channels. We can create content, interact with users, discuss current topics, manage posts, and create campaigns on various social media channels.
If you need social media management, VivosWeb has you covered. Contact us today to learn more about how we can take care of your social media channels and build your online presence, gain you more followers, and increase clicks to your website.
Phone: 1 (905) 574-1010
Email: [email protected]
