Want to conquer social media marketing for small business?

If you run a small business, we presume that you must spend a lot of time trying to grasp the latest social media marketing techniques and determine how they can help uplift your growth. And the good news is – you’re doing that for all the right reasons.

Why Is Social Media Marketing Significant for Small Businesses?

Social Channels

An estimated 4.2 billion people from around the globe are surfing through social media platforms actively, which is twice the number of active users from the data gathered five years back.

Another insight shows that each of these 4.2 billion people spends an average of 2.5 hours of their day on social media, which is such a massive opportunity for small businesses to reach the potential audience and maximize brand presence with perfection. 

The great things you can do as a small business in those 2.5 hours may include the following 

  • Maximize brand awareness amongst your potential audience

  • Build in-depth and reliable customer relationships 

  • Drive leads and even make conversions via social media channels 

We all know that people are spending the maximum of their days’ time on phones, and social media platforms are on top of the apps most used on their phones. If you’re a small business aiming to target the regular audience, be it people interested in clothing, travel, fashion, and so on – your audience is definitely using social media, and that is exactly the place you can reach them out through. 

This makes social media the perfect platform to build awareness around your brand and make customer relationships that can lead to brand loyalty and recognition. While traditional marketing methods, such as TV ads, print ads, billboards, etc., are very effective and revenue-generating, it is difficult for a small business to invest in such expensive marketing tactics. 

Additionally, these tactics do not guarantee extensive reach, and even you cannot measure the outcomes effectively. In contrast, major social media platforms are free to access and require very little investment to advertise your brands with a way better reach than traditional mediums and that too with effective means of measuring the outcomes. 

Not just that, social media networks have become a major part of people’s lives, and most of your target audience has access to them, no matter what niche you’re dealing with.

Thus, it is very easy to reach out to your potential audience via social media or digital marketing than using traditional methods. However, you cannot just build your social profiles and start posting stuff. 

Like any marketing medium, social platforms also need a proper strategy and execution. You cannot treat your social platforms as individuals and post random stuff, but you need to build a proper brand voice and value through the content you share, and that requires planning and proper social media marketing strategies. 

Not sure why small businesses need an effective social media strategy? Here’s a detailed explanation to clear your doubts!

Why Do Small Businesses Need An Effective Social Media Strategy? 

Small businesses

While in the earlier days, when there were very few social media options available and no defined algorithms, businesses had the flexibility to just pop up on their choice of social platforms and post whatever they liked whenever they had time.

Though social media platforms existed, social media marketing for small business wasn’t a thing, and nobody thought of them as a means of connecting to the target audience and building brands out there.

Times have majorly transformed. Social media marketing for small business has become one of the most significant inbound marketing strategies.

And with platforms evolving themselves as marketing tools for businesses, there’s some massive competition on social media, and it has become a challenge for any business to reach potential audiences and mark their name as a top-notch brand.

The most important transformation social media has brought into the business landscape is making marketing a two-way communication and pushing brands to be highly customer-oriented.

Traditional marketing was all about how a brand wanted to communicate with its customers and target audience. Social media marketing, on the contrary, is about how your customers and target audience want you to communicate with them.

The more relevant and relatable content you’ll share across social media platforms, the better you’d be able to build a connection with your audience.

And to share such content, you’ll need proper strategy and execution. Strategizing your content would definitely involve research around your market, consumers, and competition. The truth is – these three are the most significant areas to dive into if you really want to ace your small businesses up at some incredible height.

Not sure how to create and execute the most effective social media strategy for your small business? This guide to making social media easy for small businesses is all about teaching your tactics of creating an exceptional social media strategy that can make your small business the customers’ first choice.

Creating an Effective Social Media Strategy for Small Businesses – The Big Five Platforms

Digital Marketing

Want your small business to outperform with extensive brand awareness and a lasting connection with your target audience? Take a look at this incredible guide to making social media easy for small businesses, and get inspired!

There are multiple social media platforms with different followings and usage across the globe. You don’t have to build an active presence across all those platforms. The tip of the day is – only activate your business on social platforms that are integral to your target audience.

There are several ways you can determine which platforms your target audience is active on the most, with competition analysis and customer survey being on top of the list.

However, if you’re running a small business – we can even give you a list of the top five social platforms that are most important. They include:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
  • YouTube

Now that you know what social media platforms to tap into as a small business, let’s dig deep into how you can best create a social media marketing strategy for these social channels and take your brand to the next level!

Of course, we would like to give a special mention to TikTok. It is fast becoming a popular platform for all businesses. 

Check out our blog dedicated to TikTok.

Facebook Marketing for Small Businesses

Social Channels

Facebook is one of the most popular social platforms, with an estimated 1 billion active users every day and 2 billion every month from across the globe. No matter what niche you’re coming from, your target audience is much more likely to be on Facebook with such a massive user base.

The best part is – Facebook is one of the very first social platforms that have made specialised features for businesses and work tirelessly to make it a useful medium for brands to connect with audiences and maximize their brand awareness.

If you’re planning to enter the world of social media and build your brand here, Facebook should definitely be your very first platform.

What to Post on Facebook? 

While Facebook is truly a conversational platform, when your consumers are looking up to your Facebook account – they are much more likely to receive the latest updates about your business.

From the latest products and services you’re offering to the sales, promotions or any events you’ve recently conducted – each of these things can become your social media content and be a source of engaging and building connections with your audience. 

However, a Facebook account that only shares information about sales and promotions is not what the customers like most. Today’s customers expect a lot more from the brands than just direct selling, so you must always ensure to publish a mixture of content.

The best combination you can post is brand awareness, information, and engagement content. 

While informational content can raise awareness about the problem your brand caters to and provide solutions for, brand awareness content can push up your funnel by showcasing your products and services as a solution to the discussed problem.

The engagement content, however, needs to be highly customer-related and have the element of entertainment and trigger so the audience really engages with that.

For instance, posting relatable memes, conducting giveaways, and sharing interactive visuals can really be a means of triggering customer engagement on your Facebook profile.

When To Share Content on Your Facebook? 

While there are no limitations to when and how much you should post on Facebook as a small business, bombarding your audience with constant posting or ghosting those for days aren’t the best option. Create a social media calendar beforehand to avoid these mistakes.

It is important to determine the right frequency of posting and set your times in alignment with when your target audience is most active on the platform. It can help you reach the audience in the exact moments they’re active, and boom – what else could be the best moment to connect and engage with them?

share on facebook

Numbers suggest that engagement rates of the posts have dropped for businesses that publish content more than twice a day in comparison to those that post once every day. While positing too much can result in annoying your target audience, positing very less can also impact your engagement metrics negatively.

Thus, the best approach is to find a balanced posting frequency in compliance with your customer research.

feedalpha helps you understand the best times to post and the type of content your followers love.

Our analytics tool gets right to the heart of what matters for your small business.

feedalpha analytics

Social Media Tips to Boost Your Engagement on Facebook

While a lot of businesses work on making their content too professional, the tip here is to stay very casual with your content. Your social media platform isn’t your website; it is just a social presence of your business that people are going to see in between their friends and family posting random stuff from their lives.

Thus, the more casual and resonating content you’ll post, the better your audience is likely to engage. Your content should not seem so professional that the audience fails to resonate, but it shall come up in their feeds along with the flow.

However, keeping it casual doesn’t mean you can share whatever you want, no matter whether it relates to your brand or not.

The key to boosting engagement on Facebook is to publish content that’s casual but highly relatable to the audience and adds value to them in relation to the solutions that your products or services may offer.

Twitter Marketing for Small Businesses

Social Channels

One of the top conversational platforms, Twitter is an incredible social media network that allows businesses to communicate with an extensive audience. An estimated 500 million tweets are sent out daily, with around three-hundred and twenty million active users every month.

With extensive usage across the globe, Twitter has often been termed the most authentic platform for news and information. Thus, it is important for small businesses to build an active presence on Twitter since it has the most potential audience.

What to Post on Twitter?

In November 2017, Twitter officially raised the maximum number of characters in a tweet from 140 to 280, giving users more room to express themselves but still limiting the total amount of text they may use in a single message.

Most social media accounts tweet about a wide range of topics, including product promotions, online contests, discounts, hilarious industry-related opinions, data insights, new releases, and more.

As with Facebook, feedalpha’s analytics can suggest the best time to post on your Twitter account.

When is the right time to post on Twitter? 

When 5,787 tweets are being sent every second, it’s easy to get lost in the noise. To maximize the exposure of your tweets and the number of interactions you have with your followers, you should post many times every day.

Strategies for Boosted Engagement 

Keep providing value for your followers and their audiences, but have a little more fun on Twitter than on LinkedIn. Keep everything positive and upbeat.

LinkedIn Marketing for Small Businesses

Social Media Platforms

LinkedIn, the oldest of the social networking platforms we’ll be discussing, was launched in 2002. What else occurred in 2002 besides these events? Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was released.

With over 250 million monthly active users, LinkedIn is the most popular social media site for B2B marketers to distribute content (94%).

What to Post on LinkedIn and How?

LinkedIn is a social networking service for professionals in the business sector. If someone is following your company on LinkedIn, they are certainly interested in hearing about business news and ideas from you.

LinkedIn is also an excellent video channel. Make a video that focuses on your product or gives some useful information, and watch your engagement rates skyrocket.

How often to Post on LinkedIn?

At least once a week, post something on LinkedIn. In general, publishing at least once a week increases the amount of engagement a firm gets on LinkedIn.

You may also urge your employees to become brand ambassadors by encouraging them to join LinkedIn and begin blogging about your firm. Use them and their followers to help disseminate your content; this is an excellent method for raising the exposure of your content on the platform without coming off as spammy.

Tips to Boost Engagement

LinkedIn is a professional network where users may connect with one another, so make sure your postings are acceptable for the site. Make certain that the information you present is really beneficial to your readers.

Posts should act as a central location for readers to discover more about you as an expert and your items. The most successful aspects of your organisation that others may follow, as well as the unique insights you have learned, should be publicized.

Instagram Marketing for Small Businesses

Social Media Platforms

Instagram, the most visually-oriented social networking site, was created most recently, but it already has the third-largest total (1 billion!) and active members (500 million!). There are two types of content that may be posted here: short stories and posts.

By customizing your Instagram profile in this manner, you can better cater to the interests of your audience while still fulfilling your business goals.

Because of Instagram’s tight relationship with Facebook, sponsored advertisements uploaded from a business account do not need the establishment of a separate platform.

What to Post on Instagram?

The content you publish will differ depending on whether you utilise normal posts or Instagram Stories. All of your Instagram posts should be images or short videos that convey the spirit of your business.

Include things like your brand’s ideals and personality, the history of your company, the services you provide, and even promotional materials. 

Instagram captions are fantastic for this, but if you want the focus to be on the actual advice or insight, a picture with the words you’re attempting to convey may be a better option.

Stories, as opposed to more formal modes of content delivery, such as blog posts or tweets, take on a more conversational tone.

There is no editing or redrafting necessary within the 24-hour period, and a wide range of forms are allowed. Asking your followers a question or organizing a poll is a terrific way to engage them in your Stories or gather data for a future campaign or product.

You may compose long textual announcements, snap impromptu photographs and videos, attach a countdown, and identify certain persons or locations, in addition to adding music to convey a specific atmosphere.

You may also use tails to show your audience what goes on behind the scenes at your organisation. If you run an e-commerce site, you may gain from them as well, since viewers of your Instagram Stories may buy the things you promote by simply tagging them from your Facebook page.

How Often to Share Content on Instagram

Maintaining a good level of posting on Instagram is critical. You risk losing their attention if you establish a following by posting often and then stopping. How often your brand should be updated may be determined by how visually-oriented your industry is.

Determine what is most advantageous to your business and stick to it. If you have content and experiences to offer to your followers, you may post to Instagram Stories on a more regular basis—even every day.

Social Media Posts

Tips for Increased Engagement 

Keep in mind that Instagram is a visual medium. Instagram has grown in popularity as a platform for customers to have a visual grasp of a company’s brand. Include some high-quality product images, some that demonstrate the value you provide to the customer, and/or some behind-the-scenes activity, as seen in the example below. You can also use social media management tools to monitor activity and change your strategy accordingly.

YouTube Marketing for Small Businesses

Social Media Tools

Up until this point in the course, we’ve covered the most popular social media platform, the business and networking platform, the text-based social media platform, and the image-based site. YouTube will be examined at this time.

YouTube is the largest social network in the world, with 1.9 billion active users per month and over a billion hours of video content seen each day. It receives more traffic than any other website in the world, and its search engine is second only to Google.

Making YouTube videos may provide your company exposure and encourage engagement. It is crucial to search engine optimization that your videos show up when people are looking for them.

Additionally, as Google owns the platform, sponsored advertising may be created directly in the Google Ads interface, making use of the extensive targeting options provided by the largest search network in the world.

What to Upload Videos in the “How to” category, one of YouTube’s four most popular types of videos, tend to do well. You should focus on providing examples and explanations to your target audience.

To add, consumers are three times more likely to watch a YouTube video than read instructions when it comes to learning how to use a product. It’s a great way to generate high-performing content by reusing existing material from your website in a video format. To get the most out of it, aim for no less than two minutes.

When is the right time to Share Content on YouTube?

In order to maximize YouTube’s potential, your team should upload as much content as possible regularly. Don’t skimp on quality, however. Start by seeing whether YouTube is a source of traffic worth investing in more heavily by looking at referral data. If so, invest more in your video content because it works.

Tips to Increase Engagement

Make your videos more discoverable by optimizing them for search engines by giving them descriptive names, including relevant keywords, and correctly categorizing them. Visitors to your YouTube channel might be encouraged to check out your website by including links and calls to action in cards or remarks.

Wrapping Up

Social Media Marketing Plan

Now that you know all the right ways to create an effective social media marketing strategy for your small businesses across the different popular platforms, marketing your business on social media must have become easier for you. Using a scheduling tool will help you save time with your overall strategy. feedalpha offers social media scheduling with added value. Take your social media to the next level today.

However, it is an ever-growing industry with a new social media platform popping up every other day and new algorithms and policies introduced over time. Decide what kind of social media presence fits your brand values and follow that strategy. For example, you can build hype for upcoming events, product releases, sales, and more through influencer marketing.

Therefore, if you really want to make social media marketing for your small business an easier and more effective task – you should always stay updated with the latest trends.

The more you’ll know about how the different brands are making use of social media platforms, the better you’d be able to uplift your businesses with the help of social media marketing.

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Team feedalpha

Team feedalpha

Social Media news, insights and strategies to help you grow from the Team at Feedalpha.