Social Media is an ever-growing platform that more and more businesses are integrating into their marketing strategies. But, as a small business how can you utilise platforms such as Facebook and Instagram to your advantage? The first step is to create a well-developed plan which includes these rules:
You Need To Set Your Goals
When searching for social media success, you need to start by setting your goals. The same as any other marketing avenue, you need to know what you and your business want to achieve. For many companies, leads and enquiries are the main priority. However, if you’re looking for brand awareness and becoming a household name, you need to factor that into your plan. For social media, it’s great to have one or two specific goals, but you must make them realistic. Again, similarly to all other business plans that you create, setting realistic and achievable goals are a must. However, once you’ve come up with these goals, what’s next?
Pick Your Platforms
As discussed in our previous blog, choosing which social media networks to use can make or break your strategy. Before you even start to think about what type of content you want to promote, you NEED to know which platforms you’re going to use. Luckily for you, here’s a quick overview of the main four social media platforms:
Facebook – The largest social network in terms of active accounts. With billions of active daily users (and still growing), Facebook is a great platform to generate an audience. Facebook is great for businesses of all sizes and all industries. From an agencies perspective, Facebook should be your first platform to advertise on.
Twitter – Twitter has amassed an active user base from public figures, businesses and personal users. The upside of having more users means that you can potentially reach more people. From a business’s perspective, Twitter is a great way to promote your brand and products. However, although your character limit has increased, keep your posts simple and to the point.
Instagram – Instagram is one of the fastest growing networks for individual users and business. Its image-focused nature allows businesses to showcase their personality and brand through high-quality, attractive visuals. As Instagram’s nature is visual, e-commerce brands thrive on this platform.
LinkedIn – Predominantly known for its professional nature, 380 million tech-savvy business owners and employees regularly spend their time on LinkedIn. If you’re a business that provides a B2B service, then LinkedIn is the platform for you!
Promote your reviews
As a business, you’ll most likely receive plenty of reviews talking about your products or service. It’s great when your business gains a 5-star review talking about your great customer service. It’s even better when you have an avenue where you can showcase your customer’s amazing comments and use them to your advantage. It’s great for your business to show off their brand through your images and content, but nothing reflects your business as highly as positive praise from your customers. Therefore, utilising your feedback and promoting it on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram is a great way to show your audience what you’re all about and to gain an interest around your company.
Run Competitions
Competitions, one of the best ways to receive engagement on social media. Everyone loves winning contests and free gifts. It’s even better when you have the chance to win something by simply liking and sharing a post or page online. One of the best things about competitions is that they don’t have to be over the top and you don’t have to offer a prize worth a fortune, you can make them as simple as you like. Done correctly, a competition can generate a large level of engagement and can potentially aid future conversions. Another advantage of competitions is that any type of business can take part, not just e-commerce. Online, a business doesn’t have to give away a physical prize. You can give away a free months membership to your gym, a discount code for your hair salon or a free accountancy audit. Each business and industry can benefit from running a competition. However, with this being said, it is imperative that your competition is done correctly. Social Media networks such as Facebook and Instagram have very strict regulations and guidelines when it comes to a business promotion and running online contests. Therefore, before posting any competitions, you should always do your research online and get in touch with the professionals.
What’s Next?
Now that you know about how social media can help your small business, you might be wondering, how can I implement social media into my businesses marketing strategy? The next step is to contact the professionals. The best way to know if something is going to work is to try it first hand. To find out more about how social media can aid your business and achieve your goals by visiting our Social Media Management page and giving us a call today!
