If you’re like most small business owners, you’re always looking for the best way to promote your business. And if you’re not using social networks, you’re missing out on a big opportunity. In this post, we’ll show you how to use social media to promote your business.
We’ll also give you some tips on how to make the most of social media advertising. So read on to learn more!
How can Social Media Help Promote Businesses?
As of July 2022, Kepios reported that there are about 4.7 billion social media users in the world. This is about 59% of the entire global population. However, this does not necessarily mean that the figures pertain to unique individuals, as there are plenty of duplicate accounts, too. This figure also doesn’t represent the entire population, as there are age restrictions for most social media channels.
Still, this number does represent a huge chunk of the global population keeping their eyes glued for at least 2.5 hours daily to social media content found on popular platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
This also means that you have plenty of potential customers who are consistently scanning their feeds for entertainment, knowledge, shopping, and connection, among other different things.
Not surprisingly, most small businesses take advantage of this statistic to reach their target audience through social media campaigns. Of course, most established businesses also have social media networks to showcase their products and services and to engage their customers, thanks to the extensive reach of the digital world. Businesses also use social media to establish brand awareness and retention.
As a result, a great way for businesses to establish their social media presence is by offering valuable content that their audience actually wants to consume. If a business can offer shareable and valuable content, plus incorporate all of these strategies into their marketing efforts, they can find proven results with social media marketing.
Related: Top 10 Social Media Marketing Tips for Beginners
Dos and Don’ts of Social Media for Businesses
It may seem simple enough to just create a Facebook page and start posting, or maybe to start an Instagram to provide visual content. Maybe even TikTok if you’re into video production.
But does your business really need all of these channels? Maybe, or maybe not.
Here are some of the important dos and don’ts of promoting on social media:
Dos
Establish a social media marketing strategy even before taking your business online.
You don’t want to get overwhelmed with too many accounts when you only have so little time. Managing multiple accounts can be very difficult if you’re trying to do this on your own while also running your business. Plus, if you don’t have team members to help put up scheduled blog posts or create videos, you might be in for more than you realize when it comes to creating and publishing content. For help with establishing your social media marketing strategy or to hire someone to create and publish content for you, schedule a free consultation with Shelten, LLC.
Do your research.
There’s no shame in checking your competitors’ sites for ideas. In fact, when you’re aware of your competitors’ strategies, you can see how effective they are in reaching their target markets. It’s also important to know exactly who your ideal potential clients are so you know how to reach the right audience. For example, is your customer base on Instagram? Or do they spend most of their time on Facebook instead? It’s always a great idea to figure out the preferred social platforms for your target demographic before starting your social media marketing.
Plan an effective content strategy.
Audiences are easily turned off by blunt promotion. If you can incorporate providing valuable information while subtly adding in your product or service, you’ll have a better chance at brand retention. Not surprisingly, content creation is one of the most important aspects of marketing, not only with social media but also with your company’s website. That’s why it’s also a good idea to have basic front-end and back-end search engine optimization (SEO) knowledge to rank higher in search engines with your content strategy.
Engage with different audiences.
To improve your brand image, try to be engaging and interactive with your audience. You can do this by responding to comments, creating polls, running contests, offering a free trial of your products or services, and encouraging people to like, comment, and share your posts.
Invest in social media ads or utilize influencer marketing.
Your initial posts may not create the noise you want. This may be disheartening, but rest assured that it’s normal. After all, you have a lot of competitors out there! To get the traction started on your social media accounts, you might want to try running targeted Facebook ads or even hiring an influencer to help promote your products or services to a wider audience. Influencers already have established social media followers, so they can promote your business to followers who may be interested.
Review your metrics.
With a business account, almost every platform will give you access to their social media analytics that will show you different metrics about your page. This data can help with things like knowing which of your posts have the most engagement or whether you gained new followers recently. Plus, these metrics can also help you gauge whether your social media strategy is working or if it needs to be tweaked.
Related: 10 Must-Know Social Media Tips for Real Estate Agents
Don’ts
Abandon your social media accounts.
Consistency is the key to retaining your followers. That’s why it’s important to post regularly so they know you still exist. Also, avoid posting the same information over and over again on your accounts because users find this useless. Plus, this kind of posting shows that you’re too lazy to create original content. To make sure your content stays fresh, keep a content calendar to help you track new posts, or hire a company like Shelten, LLC to manage this for you.
Over-promote.
Over-promotion is annoying for social media users. We simply can’t emphasize this enough. Generally speaking, over promotion usually leads to losing followers in the long run. It’s crucial that you always provide value to your followers, no matter what you’re publishing. In other words, every time you create a post, video, or content, make sure your audience will find it useful.
Leave issues unsolved for too long.
You might encounter negative feedback from time to time. This is nothing new. On social media, don’t let any negative issues escalate and always do your best to resolve them quickly by getting in touch with the person directly. Also, don’t keep silent on comments or threads on social media, even if you’ve directly messaged the person. Commenting publicly lets your followers know that you care about resolving the issue.
Put all your faith in automation
While it’s definitely efficient to automate, remember that you still have to maintain control over what you post. There’s usually an optimal time to post certain things, and you can’t always rely on software to post your content at the perfect time for your audience. That’s why it’s important to be watching your account analytics and to get to know your audience so you can serve them better with the type of content you publish as well as the times that you post.
Buy followers
It’s never a good idea to buy followers because they’re most likely bot accounts that can’t help you accurately measure your metrics. These “followers” will not engage with your social media posts and they’ll only throw off your analytics. Plus, buying followers goes against the terms of every platform so you could even lose your account entirely by engaging in practices like this. It’s much better to engage with monthly active users who can react and comment on your posts and who are actually interested in your brand in real life.
Related: Social Media Tips for Lawyers and Law Firms
How to Improve your Social Media Marketing Campaigns?
If you’re still unsure about your marketing strategies, Shelten, LLC can help you with that. As a social media marketing agency and a brand awareness company, we can help you with content marketing that’s relevant to your industry.
Aside from social media services, we also offer SEO services to improve your online presence. We work with you and manage different platforms for you to improve your customer relation management. In this way, your business can use a holistic approach to retaining your followers while reaching new audiences.
Plus, as a brand awareness company, we can get you the right exposure you need for your business.
Conclusion
As you can see, social media is a powerful tool for businesses of all sizes.
The key to success is to have a strategy and to be consistent with your messaging.
Are you ready to start with a solid social media marketing plan? Shelten, LLC can be your social media specialist!
We offer free consultations so that we can tailor a plan specifically for your business.
Contact us today to get started!
