Negosentro | Social Media Best Practices for Small Businesses| Did you know that more people are likely to recommend a brand if they have experienced a positive interaction with them on their social media?
According to statistics by Lyfe Marketing, 71% of consumers are probably going to suggest a brand to their peers if they have had a good experience on the social media platforms of any brand. This means social media is far more impactful than you might have considered.
Small business owners still do not take into account the power of social media for their enterprises.
With only slight effort and minimal investments, social media can be turned into the most effective marketing tool that small business owners have ever used.
If you are such an entrepreneur, then here are some quick-and-easy best social media practices to start up your digital marketing game.
- Select Your Target Network
The right platform and network mark the difference between making it or breaking it.
You need to have your research on-point and know where your target audience spends most of their time. Is it Facebook? Are they on Instagram? Maybe they are YouTube users? Whichever network it is, that is the place you need to focus your marketing tactics.
Understanding your target audience will help you discover the networks where there is the highest ratio of engagement.
If you have never used social media marketing before, then the world is wide open for you. You can start on the most prominent platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google Plus, and Pinterest. Depending on your market, you can also target Snapchat and TikTok. BTW, It’s also a wise move to buy TikTok likes if you use TikTok.
Be sure to research before climbing on the bandwagon of all social media networks.
- The profile is Where it Begins
Once you have decided on your chosen platform, you will now need to improve your social media profile. This is going to be the face of your brand, which is why you will have to work extra hard to make it attractive.
The most important thing you need to keep in mind is that you simply cannot have an abstract, uninteresting profile. You would be surprised to know that according to stats quoted by Hootsuite, 200m Instagram users visit at least one business profile on a daily basis.
Make your profile engaging and enticing so that people don’t just recognize you for your business, but are compelled to come back to your page for more information about your product or services. Start by creating a visually-appealing presence – keep a uniform color scheme and ensure that the logo and images are connected with your brand.
- No Consistency = No Profit
Inconsistency is the primary reason why social media marketing does not work for many small businesses. You must post every single day and build up an audience who anticipate your new posts.
Be it videos or photos, words, or podcasts; you have to make sure that they are regular. Your audience must know that they can rely on seeing your brand every single day.
This is the only way to keep yourself at the forefront of your consumers’ minds. Data by Fast Company suggests that you need at least two posts a day for Facebook, 3-5 tweets for Twitter, and 1-2 original or shared content for LinkedIn.
Lucky for you, there are quite a few Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn scheduling tools that you can use that will help in publishing the posts that you put together once a day.
- Quality Wins the Game
The debate on quality over quantity is ongoing, but experts suggest that when it comes to social media marketing, quality wins. You cannot make sales through your network; instead you aim to create awareness about your brand and ensure that no matter what, you have their back.
This is something that not many businesspeople take seriously, the time they publish their posts on social media. Depending on when your audience is most active on social media, you should make posts in that time frame; as this way, you are most likely to engage your desired audiences. Create posts that are informative and engaging, not salesy.
Buffer is a service that can help you find out when and how often you should post on your chosen social media network.
- Engage Your Target Audience
Social media is all about making the perfect connections, and this is exactly what you must do to improve your marketing through these networks. You have to stand out by engaging your audience. This can be done through group discussions on Facebook and LinkedIn, live chats on Twitter, and even through the comments section of Instagram and YouTube.
Ask them about their problems, give them solutions, and let them know that with your product and services, their issues can be resolved! Also, don’t forget to use the right hashtags to grab their attention.
Analytics data helps you in finding out whether or not your published posts are even useful. It will take some time to understand, but investing 1 hour each week in finding out about the engagement level of your posts will benefit your marketing a lot.
- Facebook is King!
Facebook is the king in the world of social media. No matter what target audience you are catering to, they are bound to be present on Facebook, which is why you need to have an active business page there.
As per Wordstream, 22% of the world population uses Facebook, out of which 85% is female, and 75% is male. In 2016, Facebook was visited by 76% of the users every single day. In the US alone, Facebook is the most popular among grown-ups, with 68% of adults using it.
This means, if you aren’t using Facebook as a business owner, you are missing out on a considerable number of your potential clientele.
Parting thoughts
And there you have it! These are some of the most potent tried-and-tested ways to improve the social media presence for your business. Let us know which ones you are likely to implement to ensure the success of your venture.
