As a small business owner, a lot of your time is probably spent on online research related to social media marketing. You might also be searching for ways to make your business’s online presence stand out on social media sites.
If you’re doing these things, you’re very much on the right track.
A decade ago, social media sites were a little more than a casual way to pass the time and keep in touch with old acquaintances. However, as their reach and influence have grown, these social media platforms have become an essential part of our lives.
Smart business owners know how to use the power of social media to their advantage. Here’s how you can, too:
As with all business-related activities, you need to start with a plan.
Creating and maintaining a strong social media presence will require your time and energy. These are important resources, and should be spent wisely.
By creating a plan, you’ll know what you want to achieve from your social media activities, and be able to link those activities to your specific business goals.
Your business can’t succeed on social media if you aren’t clear about this one.
Start by doing your homework on your customers. Are your products or services aimed at a specific age group or category? Analyze your key demographic in detail, as it is crucial in choosing the right platform.
Next, compare it with the demographic information for major social networking sites. This comparison will help you get a better idea of where your target audience likes to spend its time online.
Lastly, remember that you can still use various social media channels – even the ones that aren’t heavily used by your target demographic – to reach out to new audiences and potential customers, or to help you achieve your business goals.
Using social media analytics, try to understand your audience and what they’re talking about.
Understanding how your target audience expresses itself online means you’ll be better prepared to communicate with them. This will help establish the tone, or the voice, for your social media platforms.
A vital part of focusing on your audience is relationship building. Acquiring new customers is wonderful, but turning one-time sales into a loyal customer base should be the goal for every business on social media.
Encourage your followers to interact with your pages through contests, giveaways, and branded hashtags. When they tag you in their content, return the favor by sharing these posts on your own feed and tagging them.
A lot of brands – even household names – make the mistake of jumping on every single viral meme, thinking it’ll resonate with their followers.
However, there’s a difference between focusing on trends and the current trending topics.
Trends help you recognize what your audience wants to see more, whereas trending topics would have you recreating a new viral meme or responding to some new topic, which might not even be relevant in a few days’ time.
Keep your content interesting and mix it up every now and then to figure out which formats and which types of content work best for you. Prioritize quality over quantity and use scheduling to set up posts a few days in advance.
At Nitrotext, we provide you with online advertising platforms, an instant messaging application, and a social media app so you can make the most of social media marketing for small business.
Contact us today to get started!
