Boasting 2.8 billion active users, it’s safe to say that your customers are on social media. Many consumers leverage these networks to discover new brands and engage with their favourite ones. As a small business, maintaining an active presence is crucial to connecting with today’s consumers and building brand awareness. Here are 5 small business social media best practices every small business should know.
The good news is that you can implement tactical action steps in your social media marketing to improve results such as better follower engagement, increased website traffic, and more quality leads. With 92% of marketers saying that social media is essential to their business, you can utilise techniques that give you a slight edge above the competition.
5 Small Business Social Media Best Practices You Should Know
Here are 5 small business social media best practices every small business should know and leverage in their digital marketing.
1. Post with Purpose and Intention
Every social media post published must have an intention. What is the why behind your content? Whether the goal is to boost brand exposure, drive followers to your landing page, or encourage engagement, each post must align with your ultimate business objectives to move forward in that direction. Fickle and sporadic postings will yield similar results. Clarifying your goals ensures that you publish content that supports this aim.
Plan, organise and schedule your content using a social media management tool. Apps like Buffer, Hootsuite, and CoSchedule are excellent options to ensure your social media is strategic and consistent.
2. Engaging Content Wins
At the heart of inbound marketing lies sharing great content that educates, informs and inspires your intended audience. It positions you as an authority and reliable source in the industry. By offering your expertise on a given topic, you’ll attract more qualified visitors and leads.
Social media marketing provides a platform to reach and influence your audience through your content. Since social media is becoming a competitive space with many brands and other influences seeking to capture attention, your content must “stand out” and be on target to resonate with your customers.
Here are a few proven ways of publishing engaging content on social media:
- Add visuals that complement your text. Photos, infographics, GIFs, and quote images perform better in boosting engagement. Use Canva to create images that exude your brand.
- Share interactive content. Quizzes, videos, surveys, and polls provide a more fabulous follower experience with your posts. By interacting with your content, users tend to remember more of what they saw, helping to keep your brand top of mind
- Ask your followers and email list what they want to see more of. Staying in tune with your audience’s wants and needs positions you to create content for the people
- Curate content to keep your followers abreast of industry-related news. This is an intelligent way to keep your calendar full and share relevant content your audience can use
- Share your follower’s and influencers’ content as well that relates to your industry
3. Go Live
Facebook Live, Instagram Stories and Periscope drive massive engagement on social media. Social Media Today reports that people are spending 3 times more watching live social video than ones previously recorded. Something special about watching a video in real-time that compels followers to stop, look, and watch. It’s a top strategy to building your small business fast on social.
Use live-streaming to create authentic and transparent experiences with your followers. Host live Q&A, giving people an opportunity to ask questions and receive responses promptly. Take your viewers behind-the-scenes to a live business event or a day at the office. Or simply go on the air to report breaking news or highlight a recent blog post.
The options are endless with using live video on social media.
4. Share Short Video Snippets
How-to’s, product demonstrations, and explainer videos are highly embraced on social media. They’re instrumental since you’re helping people achieve a specific goal. Viewers grasp concepts and instruction quicker on video than on other types of content. Videos also move users to act fast. According to Forbes, 64% of viewers are more likely to buy a product online after watching a video about it.
With that said, share instructional videos addressing common industry problems. Because shorter videos perform better on social media, keep them concise at about 30 seconds. Include only the basic steps in your video then speed it up in production, so it meets this timeframe.
5. Tailor Your Content for the Network’s Audience
This is important. Each social media network has its own culture and what’s appropriate for its audience. Tailoring your content to appeal to that network is crucial to engaging followers. For example, how you publish content on Facebook, which is a more casual environment, will be totally different from how you post on LinkedIn, which caters to business professionals.
Therefore, refrain from using a cookie-cutter approach by copying the same message across each network. Doing so may disengage some of your followers. Instead, keep the audience in mind when crafting your social post for that platform. Use tools such as CoSchedule’s Social Media Message Optimizer. Not only does this help you write overall better social media posts, it will also let you know how it will perform on each major network, improving your results.
Conclusion
Social media marketing is a big component of your inbound marketing. When done right, your social strategy will yield amazing returns that will accelerate your overall business goals.
Use these best social media practices to give your marketing the competitive edge that attracts ideal customers, fosters engagement, and increases brand awareness. Continue to test and measure your outcomes to generate even better results over time.
Are you ready to amplify your social media marketing to get in front of new followers, increase website traffic and generate leads? Reach out to us here, and let’s chat! We’re equipped to help take you to the next level in your social strategy.
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