If you’re new to social media marketing or want a few tips, here’s some things to consider for marketing your small business on social media.
What do you want from your social media campaign
Generally, social media campaigns are built to:
- Help customers discover your brand
- Build your reputation as an expert or influencer in your field
- Promote or advertise upcoming events
- Help with lead building
- Get reviews and provide “social cred”
Don’t Forget: If you’re starting a new social media campaign, you’ll want to set goals and monitor your metrics regularly. Most social media websites come with basic analytics.
Think about what marketing channels you’ll use
Social media audiences are constantly changing.
What’s hot one moment is cold the next. And with new social media channels still entering the marketplace, businesses need to be deliberate, yet flexible with their social media planning.
With that in mind, here are a few things to consider about the most popular social media platforms:
Facebook is still the biggest platform with almost 3 billion active users, making it a must for ad campaigns.
Its largest age group is 25–34-year-olds. Users are 44% female, 56% male.
It is also popular with Boomers. Though some may consider this a negative, for many the demographic is a gold mine.
Instagram has 1 billion monthly active users. Its largest demographic age group is 25-34 years old users, 57% female, 43% male.
Instagram is also popular with advertisers, not only for its female demographic, but for its ability to show products through photos (Instagram) and short videos (Instagram Stories).
Twitter is perfect for the brand who wants to have conversations with their audience.
A tweet is only 280 characters. But with the right hashtag and topic, smaller businesses can connect with followers in a way they can’t with the other social media websites.
It has 187 million users and is mostly male (68%). Its largest age group is 30-49.
Research the competition
One of the best (and easiest) first moves is to see what channels your competitors focus their social media marketing on.
- What social media keywords or hashtags are they using?
- Then after you’ve done the research, consider whether you agree with their methods. Perhaps you can you do something similar –but better.
Your social media campaign doesn’t need to re-invent the wheel; you just need to make it better than the last one.
Other social media channels
Don’t forget there’s also TikTok, Pinterest, Snapchat, and others.
Which ones you’ll want to use or experiment with will depend on your product and the audience you’re you want to capture.
What about Yelp
Yelp is a mix of social media and lead finder—and is even used as a secondary website for many businesses, particularly restaurants/other hospitality.
A good review can reap rewards for local storefronts, while a bad one…
Because of this, some avoid Yelp altogether. But staying off Yelp can still hurt your business. If you’re the kind of business or service that Yelp handles, people’s search may lead them there.
If you’re not on it, they may find someone else.
Social media is a long-term game
There’s no quick fix answer for your social media efforts if you’re a small business.
Your best bet is to try a few social media channels, not a lot at first, maybe 1 or 2, adjust and tweak as needed. You’ll soon find what works for you.
