PRACTICAL SOCIAL MEDIA TIPS FOR SMALL BUSINESS

Fact: Social media can give your business the unique opportunity to talk directly to potential customers. Without too much fuss you can share news, broadcast a sale or answer a customer enquiry. For free. That said, with big brands, celebrities and other influencers claiming millions of followers  — it can feel like a following of a few hundred isn’t worth it. That’s not true.

Whether you choose Facebook, Instagram, Youtube or LinkedIn to collect followers — you can nurture your little tribe into customers that’ll be meaningful for your business. Here’s how.

1. Be social

This isn’t tongue-in-cheek. This can be gold. Yes, it’s simple but it’s often overlooked. At the end of the day, your social following can be your customer base and forming relationships with your fans equates to brand loyalty, recommendation and purchase. That’s right — consumers put their dollars with the brands they know and trust. 

So, be social. Ensure you like, comment and answer your followers when they respond to your posts. It’s a small everyday action you can make that could convert to big things little by little.

2. Quality trumps quantity

Yes, reach is rewarded by engagement to accounts who post regularly. That said, there’s a danger in posting for the sake of it — you could bore or disengage the unique individual behind that very ‘impression’. 

Instead of churning out posts without much thought to keep up with the treadmill of your social media calendar, take a step back. The truth is that pushing out content of little value to your followers (read: customers) just means you’re wasting their time. Use the time you have to connect with purpose. Make every interaction a customer has with your business valuable — and that includes your social media content. 

3. Keep your goal in view

Digital marketing is data-ful. Yes, we can gain so much insight from our account analytics; but when is it too much? A fine eye on your daily results can be disheartening. A post you thought would boom, falls flat. A video you invested time in to create misses eyeballs thanks to an unfavourable algorithm. 

My advice? Don’t sweat the day-to-day stuff. Keep your overall strategic goal for social media in mind. There are so many factors at play — many out of your control — that it’s important to zoom out and watch your social results from afar. Take stock from your weekly or monthly trends and go from there.  

4. Try new things

Social media is constantly evolving. Because, as consumers, we are constantly evolving too. So, keep note of new trends and post types (the algorithm rewards these too). Research them. Review them. Do they fit your brand? Do they suit your tone of voice? If they do — have a crack and create. Remember to monitor closely after you post.

5. Run your own race

Do be aware of your competitors but do not pit yourselves against them. At the end of the day, focus your energy on creating engaging moments with your customers — using social media as the vehicle — and it’ll build to the conversion you’re seeking. Be patient. Social media momentum is a marathon, not a sprint.

Keen to rejig your social channels?

Social media marketing can be a full time job. If you find you’re too busy to focus on engaging with your followers regularly, I take care of this for businesses by supporting them with social media tasks like post writing, post optimisation, content calendars, advertising, monitoring and management, or reporting on key platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter.