Running a small business is a challenging endeavor. There doesn’t seem to be enough time in the day to manage everything plus grow your customer base. Because of this, social media often takes a back seat or is neglected altogether. Social media can be a powerful way to connect with your customers and drive sales. Here are 5 small business social media tips that are easy to implement and manage.
1. Find out where your customers “live” online
Not all social media channels are going to work the same for your business. You may get more potential customers from Facebook rather than Instagram or Twitter. Take a few weeks to try out different channels to see where you get good responses and then maximize that channel to your advantage. If you aren’t getting good responses and interaction on Instagram but are seeing lots of activity on Facebook, focus the majority of effort on that channel.
2. Make sure your posts are relevant to your business
First and foremost, you are on social media to grow your business and connect with your customers. It may be tempting to post things that you find personally interesting, but if the content doesn’t relate in some way to your business, don’t post it. Save it for your personal account.
3. Target your ideal customers
One of the first steps to your social media should be finding potential customers that are likely to interact, engage and ultimately become customers. The best way to do this is to create a “persona” of your ideal customer and then research their likes, where they shop etc. You can use this data to target customers that fit your profile. Here is a great post on targeting customers across various social media channels.
4. Interact often but don’t be annoying
This is a common mistake of businesses who are just starting our on social media. it’s great to be gung-ho and attack social media with a gusto, but there is a fine line between posting too much and not enough. You don’t want to be perceived as spam and unfollowed by posting too much so find that line between just right and way too much.
5. Measure your results
Most social media channels have analytics features built in to let you see how well your posts resonated with your audience. Social media can be trial and error so don’t get discouraged if a post didn’t result in much interaction. Try different types of posts and see what sticks. Then after you’ve looked at the analytics, you can tell what worked and what didn’t.
As with SEO, social media is a marathon and not a sprint. Let us know what you’ve found helpful about these small business social media tips by connecting with us on Facebook and Twitter.
