While social media is a great place to consider for promoting and marketing your small or local business, there are some key things business owners should know before trying to tackle it all. Our HG contributor and social media strategist {and savant!}, Hannah Redmond, shares her fantastic tips:
1. You Don’t Have to be on EVERY Social Media Site
The initial thought by most of my clients is that they need to have their brand/business everywhere on social media. False. If you’re a small business, you have limited resources, am I right? Then you should prioritize key platforms that make the most sense for your business, and invest time and energy into those. How do you decide which ones? That’s a bigger conversation based on your business goals, but in general think about your target audience, the behaviors they already have on social media, and your business goals. The platform should make sense on all three of those accounts.
2. Optimize Your Google Presence
If you’re a small or local business, chances are people are Googling for products or services you offer, even if they don’t know about you. Google is a huge driving force in online discoverability, and as a small business, this is one of the biggest drivers to you. Here are a couple of things you should make sure you have covered when it comes to Google:
• Make sure your Google Business listing is filled out and updated
• Make sure your site is Mobile-optimized, since Google will soon push sites that aren’t optimized DOWN in search results
3. Boost Facebook Posts with Paid
People often ask me, “isn’t social media marketing on Facebook free?” Unfortunately, the answer is “Nope.” The thing is, it used to be much easier to reach people for free on the platform, but things have changed in the last few years. So, the percentage of people who actually see your content is very minimal unless you put some paid support behind it. Basically, Facebook has become more of an advertising platform for businesses than a social network. I recommend boosting posts to get more reach and visibility for your brand. While there are many more interesting – and expensive – ways to get your message out there on Facebook, this is the simplest and more effective way to start.
4. Be Relevant
Social media is all about relevancy. The trick is being relevant and timely while inserting your brand or products into an existing conversation. Are you a café that delivers in Hoboken and is it snowing outside? Take pictures of your irresistible hot cocoa with your delivery info. Think about holidays, weather, news, events, and tie your small business social media content into it. My advice to clients is create an “editorial calendar” mapping out all things that are happening that could be relevant to your business or brand. Then, create content for those moments.
5. Use Social Media as a Promotions Vehicle
Reward fans for following you by giving them exclusive deals. Do social media sales/discounts that only your followers know about, and in-store put up signage saying “follow us on Instagram for exclusive limited time sales.” This will encourage more people to follow your brand on social media, meaning you get a bigger built in audience every time you post.
While this is only scraping the surface when it comes to social media marketing for your small business, I hope it helps. Do you have social media questions for your business? Let me know in the comments below.
