Here are 3 Social Media Strategies to Grow Your Small Business
Social media posts can be seen by anyone, anywhere and and at anytime. Today, there are over 2.56 billion global social media users liking, commenting and sharing content. From individual users posting about their birthdays to influencers promoting brands, and even corporations connecting with users at a more intimate level, there’s a social space for everyone.
Even small business owners have taken to social media, with 50 million present on Facebook who are looking to connect with their customers. This ability to bring the world closer together is the reason social media is such a powerful business tool.
Social media can be especially helpful for small businesses who want to increase their reach beyond their local neighborhoods, towns and cities because of how fast information travels. It’s the internet’s ability to carry information that helps small business owners gain recognition for their products and services and, in turn, increase revenue. These next tips will help you grow your small business through social media marketing by showing you how to be local and sell global.
1: Consistency is Key
Actively using social media as a way to grow your business means investing a lot of time and effort. Most businesses have a person or a digital marketing agency responsible for maintaining the brand’s social media presence. Why? Because social media never turns off. Users are logged on and scrolling through feeds for hours on end, and at all times. If you’re choosing to participate in this kind of culture, the first thing to acknowledge is that you need to actively participate, which means consistently posting and producing content. Your activity also shows users that you’re a regular on this platform and, if they haven’t already started to engage with your content, users will start to feel more comfortable doing so after recognizing your brand’s consistency.
Different social media platforms have different post volumes. This means there’s a certain number of posts expected on these platforms per day. For example, Twitter is a highly active social platform where a post’s lifetime only lasts around 18 minutes. So in order to gain a lot of traction on Twitter, users post more often. Other social media sites like Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn allow for a lesser volume of posts. For those platforms, a post a day is enough to keep users engaged! If you find that one social platform suits your business better than the others, it’s perfectly fine to start with one and then branch out once you have a grasp on it. The most important thing to remember is that consistency is key when building your brand on social media.
2: Build Links to Drive Sales
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Social media is a great stage for showcasing your products and services. You get to show off your hard work while simultaneously building a community that appreciates what you do. But as a business owner, social media isn’t just about taking pretty pictures — it’s about building a consumer base to drive conversions. To start your backlinking process, one best practice to follow is to include your website link in all your business profiles. This will give users the ability to take action on your social media pages aside from liking, commenting or sharing your posts.
If you have a specific page on your website that drives conversions, use that link on your social pages. Furthermore, you can also reference the link when you post. Your captions can include, “click the link in our bio to order your own bouquet,” or “visit our website by clicking the link in our bio.” Using these kinds of CTAs will help users go beyond social media and into the sales funnel.
Neil Patel, Founder of Crazy Egg and Hello Bar, notes that backlinking on social media doesn’t just increase your brand awareness, you’re also helping improve your SEO. He says, “[n]ot only do they help you rank, but they can also make a difference between the first and second position in search results.” This is an important aspect of social media marketing because you want your website to be authoritative in your industry. If you’re interested in learning more about SEO and social media, reach out to small business digital marketing experts to see what the next steps would be for your business.
3: Find Influencers in Your Niche
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Social media influencers are a great way to gain a lot of exposure… fast. They are champions of social media and have built large followerships who are loyal to them. For small businesses, collaborating with an influencer is a great way to increase brand awareness and drive conversions. In fact, nearly 40% of Twitter users and 81% of Instagram users report making a purchase a direct result of a post from an influencer. So, how can you use this tactic to build your business? By finding an influencer who is popular in your niche.
Steve Olenski, Forbes Contributor, writes “[t]he influencer relationship is concerned primarily with growing and guiding the relationship with personalities who are perceived as having an impact, an influence, with a business’ purchasing client base.” For your social media marketing posts to work with an influencer, you need to determine who the best person for the job is.
If you own a restaurant, find vloggers on YouTube who frequently post videos about eating out and ask them to visit your restaurant and review your dishes for a free meal. If you have a boutique jewelry store, consider gifting an Instagram influencer one of your designs and ask to be featured on their page. Find an influencer who is not only popular in your industry, but who also suits your unique brand and can be your social champion!
Key Takeaways
Social media can be a defining aspect of a small business’ success, especially when carefully integrated into a full digital marketing strategy. These three tips show you how social media can help build a brand and contribute to important metrics for your business. Here are the key tips one more time:
- Have a consistent volume of posts on your social media platforms to encourage engagement from your audience
- Backlink to your website on social media to drive conversions and supplement your SEO strategy
- Find social influencers in your niche to increase your brand awareness on a larger scale