In the modern digital landscape, competition is fierce, and attention is hard to come by. By leveraging a strong social media strategy, small business owners can close the gap against larger organisations.
We’ve put together this article to help small businesses make the most of social media and understand the core elements of a strong digital presence. With a solid plan and a few tips and tricks, your business will gain a competitive edge and have a greater chance of achieving business goals.
Why should small businesses use social media?
The many benefits of social media have resulted in the platforms becoming immensely popular among businesses. With so many people actively using social media platforms, it’s clear that they are an excellent way to reach potential customers.
Using Social media for small businesses doesn’t require any investment, as most platforms are free. This means that smaller businesses have more of a level playing field where they can compete with larger organisations.
Here are just some of the reasons why small businesses should use social media:
- Expand reach to a greater number of potential customers
- Increase brand awareness
- Understand customers and their behaviour better
- Build long term relationships with customers
- Understand competitors better and gain visibility of other marketing strategies
- Create a strong brand image
In addition to this, social media platforms allow for communication and engagement with your audience. No matter the size of your business, showing good customer service goes a long way in helping to improve your brand image.
What social platforms are available?
There are a huge number of social platforms that are readily available for businesses to utilise. Depending on your industry and target market, certain platforms will be far more beneficial than others. However, it’s important to keep an open mind and understand that many users have access to multiple platforms, so it might make sense to be active on more than one.
Here are some of the most popular platforms where you can reach your customers:
- TikTok
- YouTube
- Snapchat
Each of these platforms has its own unique advantages and huge potential to reach potential customers. Choosing the right social media platform involves understanding your target audience’s demographics, preferences, and behaviours.
For example, TikTok is centred around short-form videos, trends, and challenges. This type of creative and entertaining social media content is extremely popular with younger demographics and would work well with businesses targeting this audience.
In contrast, LinkedIn is a professional networking platform that’s geared more towards B2B businesses and thought leadership. Clearly this would not be suitable for businesses that target younger audiences, so it’s essential to choose platforms carefully and ensure that they align with your business objectives.
Creating your social media plan
Whether it’s a seasonal campaign or one based on a particular service you offer, having a clear plan for your social media will help you to stay organised and focused on a specific topic.
Another social media tip is to stick to a schedule and post consistently. If your audience knows that you’ll be sharing content, news, and insights on set days every week, they’ll become accustomed to regularly seeing your brand on their feeds.
There might be times when you need to post reactively to an event or interesting piece of news, but you should always have a plan that you stick to. Some social media channels even allow you to schedule posts in advance so your social media account will remain active even if you’re out of office or engaged in other tasks.
Post engaging content
Regardless of the type of content you share, you should always make your posts as engaging as possible. There is so much competition on social media platforms that you’ll need to think outside the box to gain a competitive advantage and stand out from the crowd.
You can also give your posts a boost by including:
- Videos
- Images
- Infographics
- Graphics
- Any other interactive content
Another thing to consider is thinking of ways that you can give extra value to your viewers. Place yourself in their shoes and ask what kind of things you’d like to see? This will help you to go the extra mile and encourage social media users to stop scrolling and engage with your content.
Track your progress
Finally, you should be tracking your progress to understand how your social media marketing strategy is performing. Most platforms will have some kind of analytics tools that allow you to measure the success of your posts. This will help you to figure out what content is working and what isn’t, so you can adjust your strategy as needed.
Are you ready to leverage social media for your small business?
For small businesses, social media is an excellent tool to engage with customers and grow your business. Whether it’s growing brand recognition, boosting traffic, or increasing sales, there’s a whole host of advantages to be gained through utilising these platforms.
It may seem daunting, but with an understanding of your target audience and a clear plan in place, your business can gain a competitive edge in today’s fast-paced environment. With the right approach, social media marketing for small businesses can have a huge positive impact.
