Top Ten Questions Small Business Owners Ask
#4. How can Small Businesses Use Social Media More Effectively?
For most small business owners, social media is well “social”. It can act as a relaxing relief from the stresses of a busy day.
It can be a place to wander when you want to take a break, or you can’t focus on a critical task you need to accomplish. Unfortunately, for most small business owners, it’s nothing more than a distraction. Using social media in this way makes it a hobby at best and at worst, a waste of time. This use does not make it the serious marketing tool that it can be for your company.
How to use social media as part of your marketing strategy
First, decide the expertise your company is going to consistently share. This is typically about the pain that your small business’ solution solves. Remember it’s called “social” media for a reason. This marketing tool is not to be used to directly sell your product or service (ie, “Today we have a special at $99- Call now!”). Instead, it’s about educating prospects on how you can help them when they have a problem you can solve. It’s a subtle, but important difference. Like marketing, it’s about playing a longer game to attract customers consistently.
Next, decide on which social media tools you will use. Don’t get started on all of them since that will be overwhelming and unsustainable. Pick where most of your prospects are already having conversations where you can help the most.
For example, start on Facebook or LinkedIn and show up every day. Join discussion groups (based on hashtags and general topics) and participate consistently. Just like any other marketing, you must be present frequently to be effective.
Then, calendar out what you will educate prospects on every single week. For example, if you are a plumber, week 1 maybe the dangers of water in your home. Week 2, the message can be about reducing your water usage. Week 3, the message can be about when to repair or replace your hot water heater. Week 4, the message can be about how to winterize your vacation home.
Scheduling posts will help this consistency. There are a lot of automation tools like Thryv, vcita, Zoho, and Sprout Social that make this easy and they can be done on a monthly basis. This “set and forget” strategy will help not interrupt other work every day to use social media. It is important using these tools to periodically review which posts were most effective and where the engagement was. This should influence future content decisions.
Paid marketing on social media is done by selecting an audience and not a keyword. This can be effective, but also expensive. I always suggest seeking a professional digital marketer if you want to use search engine marketing because learning it yourself can be expensive.
In the end, when you do go on social media, have a plan. What are you trying to accomplish with this time? What will you post or who will you interact with? Limit it to a set period each day. Treat social media like you would any other part of your marketing plan.
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