Presently, social media is one of the best mediums for marketing in the business industry. Not paying moderate attention to your social media marketing tactics can limit your business reach to both new and existing customers.
With social media, there is no limit to the number of customers you can reach and convert. According to Statista, about 2.95 billion people used social media in 2019, and by 2023, this figure is expected to be at 3.43 billion.
With such a large number of potential customers, you can take your business from small to large in no time – well, that’s only with proper management. Getting the most out of social media for your business requires effective strategies that can be cumbersome to come up with.
Nevertheless, let’s show you five social media hacks for your small business that you can apply:
It is no mystery that there are different social media platforms out there with vast differences. Take, for instance, Facebook is way different from Instagram in everything. Also, Twitter is way different from Pinterest, and so on. Scaling the platforms will help you understand the ideal one to capitalize on.
It doesn’t always have to do with popularity, as most businesses think. Facebook being the most popular social media platform, does not make it the best social media platform for your small business. Your business goals, audience, content, will determine the social media platform to capitalize on.
Take, for instance, your business is into tutoring and offering online classes; you would fare better on YouTube. If your target audience is young people, then Facebook is your best option. The majority of online stores do well on visual-sharing social media platforms like Instagram and Pinterest, where they can directly display products on their pages by uploading their images – some even skip using a website entirely.
You need to post daily on your business social media pages. It doesn’t have to be too much to avoid going over. A post or two daily is good enough. If customers know that there’s new content awaiting them every day, they’ll visit your social media handles every day.
You shouldn’t just post anything you feel like, take your time to come up with quality and unique posts that your existing followers will fancy. Also, ensure the posts are exciting to attract new followers when they come across it.
Now – coming up with quality and unique posts daily - this might not be so easy. The best way to go around it is to hire someone – an experienced social media manager. A social media manager acts as a representative of your business on social media platforms, and a well-experienced one should be able to produce unique posts daily. It might cost some cash, but it is worth it. Social media managers will also help with interactions, responding to messages, comments, queries, etc.
One of the strategies involved in marketing is ‘Competitors Monitoring’. This has a high level of importance for your business; it keeps you updated on what your competitors are up to, and you cannot be taken unawares. When it comes to social media, many businesses shy away from following the handles and accounts of their competitors, but you should.
By following your competitor’s handles, you get to find out what type of social media posts entice your target audience and what kind doesn’t. If the competitor is way bigger than you, their social media engagement might serve as a source of inspiration to you. It is only natural that your competition pushes you to become better – it happens in every business niche.
While you should follow the social media handles of your competitors, its best to avoid dropping comments on their posts. If you wish to interact, you can do so by private messaging. Dropping comments on their posts may be seen as a bid to steal their customers; you’ll be crossing a boundary.
Stories on social media are becoming the next big trend. These short user-generated content are featured on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube, and Pinterest. Thankfully, Twitter is set to roll out theirs. On Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, about a billion people make use of stories to show how popular it has become. Just a year after stories were launched on Instagram, reports indicated that one in five organic stories from businesses gets a direct message (DM). It’s been almost four years, and the advantage has far increased.
Stories are the right way of gaining your audience’s attention. The fact that it automatically disappears after every 24 hours makes it more beneficial as people will rush to view them.
Likewise, stories can be used to attract customers’ attention by delivering a sneak-peek of offers or new content. Not wanting to miss out on the story information, customers get to make quick decisions on the offers. You can post any media on stories, and since they are featured at the top of their screen, it’ll be hard for them to be missed.
Due to the vast numbers of users on social media, it’ll not be possible for you to monitor all interactions by yourself. Well, the analytics are there for you, and you should capitalize on the insights you get. Almost every top social media platform out there features a built-in analytics tool – Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, etc.
It is interesting to note that most businesses do not adequately utilize analytics, and this is why you should capitalize on it as an advantage. By monitoring your audience and interaction across your social media platforms, you’ll be able to find out which platform is the most converting. You’ll also find out the demographic data of your audience, what time of the day drives more engagement, and more. All of these, when properly analyzed, can help you make better informed business decisions both within and outside the social media platforms.
Social media platforms are a necessity for small businesses that wish to stay top of their game in this digitalized world. They increase exposure as your audience reach is not limited; you can connect with customers anywhere across the globe.
Aside from reaching customers, social media platforms are ideal for building brand awareness. With the analytics they provide, you get insights and a better understanding of your customer’s behavior – this can help you serve them better. The benefits of utilizing social media platforms will not be enjoyed if the right things are not done.
As a small business owner, you can try out the social media hacks earlier mentioned and make the most of the platforms.