Social Media For Small Businesses: Your Introductory Guide

It's not easy running a small business in the 21st century. Not only do you have to focus on hiring the right people, pricing your product/service correctly. and marketing, but you also have to keep up-to-date with important 21st-century business practices. 

Social media for small businesses is the business tactic of the 21st century. With over half of the world's population making use of social media, any business that doesn't have social media sites in its marketing strategy is missing out on a ton of customers. 

This article will alk you through a brief introduction to the world of social media marketing. 

 

Choose the Best Social Media For Your Business 

Crucial to developing your social media marketing strategy is choosing the right social media for you. All of the advertising, effort, and specialists in the world won't help you succeed if you're mining in the wrong place.

 

Instagram

Instagram, with around 1.4 billion users, is a safe bet for any business. Facebook has more users, but the attention on Facebook is generally a bit more scattered. 

Instagram is great for businesses because you can choose the type of content you want to put out. You can make high-quality image posts on your timeline, quick one-offs on your "story", and even get out written information in your description and comment section. 

 

TikTok

TikTok has truly taken off since the COVID - 19 pandemic. As far as cultural relevance goes, it's probably number one. Trends take off on TikTok that quickly spread to other social media platforms. 

However, due to the fast-paced nature of the app, and the age of the users, we'd only recommend using TikTok if you're marketing to teens. 

 

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the most professional social media out there. Because of this, we only recommend using it if you're advertising to more serious professionals.

LinkedIn is only a social media by name. People don't generally use it to "socialize", but treat it as an opportunity to network, share skills, learn about business, and look for jobs. 

Because of this, we can only recommend LinkedIn to people who have business advice that they can share. 

 

Post Consistently 

The best way to build up a great reputation on social media is to make consistent posts. This will allow people to grow from passive observers into fans of the content that you put out. 

When you post, make sure you focus on providing value, rather than advertising. Give your customers something to remember, and they'll return the favor. 

You should also vary up the type of posts that you're making. On a site like Instagram, you should only make timeline posts 2-3 times a week. However, you can make "stories" several times a day to stay in contact with your customers. 

 

Respond to Comments

When you run a social media account for a business, you're going to get questions. Make sure you respond to these in a timely manner. This will turn fans of your content into customers. 

Social media is, after all not so much a form of advertising, as a way to build a  persona for your business. In the 2020s, people are going to prefer dealing with businesses that seem like people. 

Even if someone does not ask a question, respond to their comments to make them feel like they're having a conversation with you. This might not lead to a direct sale, but could keep your brand in your customer's head, or show future viewers of your social media page that you care. 

When you embrace the social side of social media, you effectively turn your page into a branding machine. 

 

Put the Link to Your Website In Your Bio

Social media is all about funneling people into your business. If you put a link to your website in your bio, you're starting customers on the journey to making use of your products/services.

This is especially important for multi-step businesses. If you don't sell products, but offer a service where you'll work closely with customers, such as real estate, healthcare, insurance, website design, or business consulting,  it's important to keep your customers moving. The longer you have them spend on one page, the more likely you are to lose them. 

You can look at social media as your fishhook/enticing bate for you to catch your leads. However, you have to make sure that hook is tied to a line — your website. 

 

Make Sharable Content 

We recommend creating a strong personal and visual aesthetic. This will likely make your posts more visually pleasing and more fun to share. 

Whatever you can do to get clients to share your posts on their social media — do it! It can be a raffle, a deal, an online contest, even just a unique piece of artwork. The point is that when you make content that other people like to share, you get other people to do your advertising for you. 

Word of mouth is still the best way to advertise a business. When people hear from people they trust about a great business, they're more likely to try it out. Social media is the best way to get your word-of-mouth marketing out into the world. 

 

Use Social Media For Small Businesses

As you can see, it's not hard to use social media for small businesses. If you choose the right platform, post consistently, respond to comments and make sharable content, you can turn your social media into a branding machine, a lead generation machine, and a word-of-mouth machine. 

For more information, contact us today.