Small business social media

Social media has become an integral part of our daily life. Businesses of all shapes and sizes have begun to take full advantage of the available means. Today we will try to anatomize tips on social media for small businesses. There are a lot of small businesses looking for social media to promote their business / services. However, most of these small businesses are failing or unable to make optimal use of social media for their business growth. There are many theories and strategies on how to effectively use social media for established brands, but the topic of social media for small businesses is rarely addressed. According to the Digital State of eMarketing India 2017 Octane Research:

60% of small businesses promote their business on social media. 50% focus on SEO and 35% use a multi-channel marketing funnel.

70% of small businesses consider content strategy their main marketing activity.

52% of business owners use social media to efficiently address customer engagement.

More than 20% of business owners said they are making 50% more profit using social media.

The main reasons for low engagement are uncertainty about a social media app, calculating ROI, and persuading employees / stakeholders to take over social media. Hence, it is important to address the elephant in the room and analyze how beneficial social media is for small businesses.

Small business social media is a great way for startups to generate leads and build a reputation. If updated regularly, social media can deliver more results compared to traditional media. Small business social media gives brands a margin of control over the content they want to publish. Furthermore, since social media is a two-way dialogue process, it helps companies instantly identify what benefits them. Small business social media also helps generate word of mouth, which is one of the best tools for startups.

Small Business Social Media | 10 tips to use social media effectively

Define your target audience

The first and most important part that small businesses should focus on is defining their target audience. This helps small businesses design their social media strategy accordingly. The target audience should be defined based on the age group, gender, location, online behaviors of users, their tastes, interests and preferences. For niche products, business owners can even target users based on their birthdays, anniversaries, and important milestones. Audience targeting plays a very important role in the outcome of the results. For example: a local store that sells footwear should not target users interested in entertainment. The store will definitely not get the desired results.

Set achievable goals

Overnight success is a myth. Small businesses need to understand this basic fact. Generally, when a new business starts selling on social media, there is a palpable enthusiasm to achieve more than the specific sales set. Businesses must set goals that go upward and forward. To achieve huge goals, small businesses start to update the social feed with multiple updates in a shorter duration. This leads to user disinterest in the product / service. The goals set should be in sync with the core skills and experience of the brand. For example: if a business is selling shoes, it should not set a goal to repair the maximum number of shoes in its area.

Choose the right medium

By now everyone knows that social networks are free. Even paid campaigns can be run at a relatively low cost compared to traditional media. It is in this scenario, that we often see small businesses jump on the bandwagon and create profiles on all available platforms. Creating a social profile does not hamper brand image, but aggressive promotion of a brand on the wrong platforms can lead to the brand losing its potential customers. Therefore, it is advisable for SMEs to first identify the appropriate platform through which they can maximize their business. For example: if a shoe sales brand tries to aggressively sell on LinkedIn, it won’t get a plausible response compared to promotions on Facebook / Instagram.

Promote your core product / services

Since each and every business is on the wave of social media, it is important for them to promote their core products / services. Today, we see many companies promoting their services and promoting peripheral products / services, which revolve around their core products / services. Most of the time, this SME does not have the ability to meet a requirement, which can lead to bad word of mouth for your business on social media platforms. Let’s go back to our example; If a shoe salesperson is trying to aggressively promote socks over shoes, it won’t benefit the business in the long run.

Create quality content

Now that we’ve covered the topics of identifying the target audience, setting achievable goals, choosing the right medium, and promoting the right product / service, now let’s take a look at the type of content that a business should promote on their social pages. A business should always focus on creating good quality content rather than poor quantity content. Even if the company updates its page once a day, as long as it is relevant to its business, its main product advocates send a clear message that it is considered good quality content. Antagonically, if a company publishes multiple updates that are not even relevant to the company’s products and services, then users consider it fake / spam. Also, startups should try to refrain from promoting other businesses on their social platforms initially.

Create a content calendar

Making a small business successful on social platforms is not an easy task. It takes a lot of effort for businesses to maintain their conversion rate. One of those efforts is creating a content calendar. Small businesses should anticipate important events and create a content calendar accordingly. Ideally, a content calendar should be planned a month in advance, but an even weekly content calendar is highly recommended. This helps companies avoid last minute problems, strategize much more effectively, and also helps build curiosity among their loyal fans / customers.

Test and retest

Social media is very unpredictable. Content that a business publishes today may not work for tomorrow. Therefore, small businesses should always test their content before publishing it on their pages. The trial content also applies to the platform that a small business chooses to promote. Small business owners should always put on the consumer hat before posting on any product features, updates, schematics, or offerings. The consumer perspective is the key when it comes to testing the content that needs to be uploaded.

Seek inspiration

Small businesses should always look to a competitor who is successful in the same category for inspiration. Copying and pasting the idea or content of the competition is not the answer. Small businesses should look for the type of content that their competitors are publishing and then derive their own strategies. Inspirational content / stories always make a business for a living to create your own content that is appreciated by all. It helps increase brand consideration, brand visibility, which increases conversions for the business.

Calculate ROI

Even a small promotional budget is not justified if there is no mechanism to calculate ROI. It is more important in the case of small businesses. It is very important for a small business to keep track of the budgets allocated to any promotion and the subsequent ROI associated with it. If a certain promotion does not work well or the business does not get the desired results, the brand custodian can always look for other platforms to generate quality conversions.

Analyze and rethink strategies

There can be countless cases where a particular campaign / promotion might not work for a business. That does not mean that the promotion is wrong or that the product / service is not good. Doing an analysis of the campaign is as important as setting the objective. This helps the company formulate its next strategies more effectively. At the end of each campaign, brands should write down the learnings from that campaign and identify whether the content / idea was appreciated by their fans or not. This helps companies to skip ineffective future communication updates.

Final thoughts

Small business social media is definitely beneficial and fruitful. If followed correctly, small businesses can greatly benefit from the power of social media promotions.