Social Media for Small Business.

We’re in one of our meetings pitching our Social Media Management service when, out of the blue, our potential client throws this question at us: ‘Is social media really effective?’

Now, let me set the scene for you. This client just launched their business—no physical store, just an Instagram account and a website to display their activewear products. Since none of the owners can handle digital work, they invested serious cash into a digital agency [Read: How to choose the right agency for your business]. But it was all promises and no sustainable results which lead them to think online platforms are useless.

Come to think of it, 4.6 billion active social media users – which is nearly 60 percent of the world’s population, and they’re not selling. You would really think it’s all part of a big scam.

So… going back to the million-dollar question. How effective is social media for businesses?

Before diving into the answer, let’s understand first social media marketing. In this blog, we will discuss the following:

• What is Social Media Strategy?
• What are the benefits of having a solid social media strategy?
• Social media marketing is not social media content strategy.
• What are the steps in building a Social Media Strategy?
• Convert Likes, Pins, and Follows into Sales

What is Social Media Strategy?

 A social media strategy entails mapping out your objectives, the methods employed to reach them, and the parameters monitored to gauge effectiveness.

Your strategy can be simple. Make sure that it is specific and measurable to help you identify which are successful and not.

Ultimately, the aim of your social media strategy is to drive brand awareness and engagement for your target audience/s across your existing social media channels.

What are the benefits of having a social media strategy?

 The most difficult part of social media marketing is consistency. But understanding why and how your content performs can help you replicate them and turn it into a solid strategy.

By doing so, your business will gain many tangible benefits such as:

– Improve brand awareness.

-Enhance targeting across audiences

-Direct and increase website traffic

-Personalize content

-Generate better leads

-Convert sales

-Acquire data you can analyze and measure

Social media marketing is not social media content strategy.

Remember, while these two are closely linked, there’s a difference between them.

A marketing strategy is a place to enhance your social media activities and involves other key elements. While a content strategy focuses on building content formats and outputs.

What are the steps in building a Social Media Strategy?

After learning the basics of social media strategy, let’s dive into the specific steps you need to create one.

Let these 7 steps guide you create successful strategy.

1. Set goals for your business.

When you set goals, make sure to define your Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and narrow them down to what matters most to your business.

2. Research your audience.

Create personalize messaging that your audience want. This can be done through market research, surveys, and social listening tools to capture insights, demographics and pain points.

3. Research your competitors.

This process will help you understand what your competitors are doing in the social space. By doing so, you can either emulate or take another direction to stand out from the competition.

4. Choose your social platforms.

Common mistakes businesses do is to be present in all social media platforms. Know your business and audience well to narrow down your channel options.

Facebook: One of the biggest social media platforms and the oldest. Many content types thrive on this platform. Some features, like Facebook Business offers a way to connect your business to your audience better.

Instagram: This is the most visual platform out there. It continues to be a hit amongst younger audiences and has grown huge over the past few years. It’s probably the best platform to showcase your products and services.

LinkedIn: The place for B2B businesses and provide opportunities for B2C. But this works differently from other platforms as it works better with blogs, whitepapers, eBooks, and industry-related content.

TikTok: A great place for video content, and the fastest growing social media channel. It became popular for its short-form and quirky videos which can be used effectively for marketing. They say, nobody can beat TikTok for user-generated content and influencer collaborations.

YouTube: The platform that provides information but can also offer entertainment. If your brand produces a lot of videos such as tutorials, leverage this platform!

Pinterest: It’s all about social discovery. It’s where people come to get reference and be inspired as it covers a contribution of diverse topics. It’s a great platform for content creation – it’s like your mood board, but it’s online.

Convert Likes, Pins, and Follows into Sales

Let’s say your business is already getting likes, pins, follows online. This social activity means your current audience already like your brand. But what you really want is to leverage these emotions and connections into action [sale].

How to do this? Rather than casting your net to random and huge audience, try targeting a specific audience with a specific messaging intended for them. This way, it increases the impact of your social networking.

Here’s three guidelines you need to consider:

1. Know where your prospects are: Concentrate on a few social media platforms that fit your audience best. Be great at them by regularly posting interesting content that people want to share. Make sure to interact with your followers promptly and in a friendly way.

Note: Trying to be everywhere at once can make it harder to connect well with your audience, so it’s better to focus on doing a few platforms well.

3. Get engaged: Encourage comments on your posts and reply kindly. Also, engage with other blogs, forums, and social posts to build your reputation as a trustworthy source in different online communities.
4. Offer Value, not just pitch: Don’t push sales or promotions. Offer useful info instead. Sales will come naturally when people appreciate what you share.

If you are having a hard time developing social media strategy, or do not have time for it, BxSeen marketing agency can help.