Many small business owners have this mentality that “Social media marketing is no longer an option for their business.” According to them, social media won’t benefit their companies.

Are you also one of them? But this is not entirely true!

Being a small business owner, you must see social media as a robust tool that can help build strong awareness, enhance the number of sales, and create a real customer base. Once you start using social media from marketing purposes,  you will see that the results that you achieve are far better, plus you will truly understand the potential of social media marketing for small businesses.

Let us have a glance at some stats showing the necessity of social media marketing for small businesses and why every small business owner needs to take it seriously.

• Around 88% of businesses use social media, according to surveys.
• According to studies, 96% of the people who talk about your brand online aren’t following you on social platforms.
• Clients/customers spend 20% to 40% more on services/products by brands who engage with them on social media.

These stats suggest, if you use social media marketing unerringly for your businesses, you can easily reach out to your target audience and develop a long-lasting relationship with them. It is a highly effective way to create a brand that people trust even while making more hits for your buck.

But, then the question arises that what are the effective ways to promote any small business on social media?

Must say there is no one-standard-method to use for social media marketing. As every business has its specific needs, similarly, there are different methods for different industries.

Still, if you are currently using social media but not seeing the results you hoped for, this blog will steer you toward the path to success.

Follow below outlined tips and strategies, and you’ll set yourself up for persistent growth today and in the future.

Let’s dig in!

1. Determine Your Marketing Goals

Make sure you have clearly defined your marketing objectives before you consider developing the social media strategy for your small business.

Most businesses’ marketing objectives are about building brand awareness, generating leads, and engaging their customers. But your goals can range from driving sales to providing online customer service to other assistive services and many more.

So,  before you start developing and sharing content, be sure you know what you’re after.

2. Stay Active on Multiple Platforms

Many people use Facebook, and they think it’s all they need.

If you have a Facebook page, that’s great you’re heading in the right path.

But Facebook alone won’t be enough. You need to build your presence on as many social platforms as possible.

However, before you rush to create a profile on all the channels, it’s vital to understand your target market.

For example, for B2B companies, LinkedIn is more beneficial. The reason is 80% of leads generated by B2B brands come from LinkedIn.

Find this hard to believe, but after all these years, Facebook is still the fastest growing social network. And it’s not going anywhere soon.

Still, after creating a Facebook page, you need to determine which other channels are suitable for your brand and marketing strategy.

You can even ask your social media agency to help to decide which social platforms are good for your industry!

3. Establish a Community

Focus on finding customers who are interested, loyal, and engaged, instead of trying to get as many followers as possible. At the place of the random crowd, these people are more likely to like your posts, repost your content, and become customers.

Once you establish a community around your brand, then people will engage with each other within that community and will help to promote your content. For better outcomes, you could even try reaching out to exceptionally influential social media users and to help you promote by reviewing a product or mentioning you in a post.

4. Post Daily, Daily

After having social media profiles on multiple platforms, do not forget to keep those accounts active.

Look at this way, if someone looks at your page and the most recent post there was from three weeks ago, then will they follow you? Obviously, not! What’s the point in following a brand that is not active?

Besides, think about your existing followers. You need to actively post new content that will appear on your followers’ homepages and timelines.

5. Say No to Over-Promotion

Make sure your content is worth following not just promotional advertisements. Getting more followers will indirectly increase your chances of driving more sales.

You can run a contest, promote flash sales and discounts instead of posting too many promotions. It will ONLY cause people to unfollow you.

According to a study, near about 46% of consumers unfollow brands that post too much promotional content.

Give your users something useful, like handy information or a post that makes them laugh or validates their feelings, lifestyle, or simply entertains them. Whenever you share something with your followers, think about what’s in it for them. If there’s nothing for them, then don’t post it at all.

6. Share Video or Podcasts

At the place of lengthy write-ups, Visual content works well, especially on social media. For getting public attention as well as conveying your personality and passion to your customers, video content is ideal.

As people scroll through their social feeds, visual content stands out, so they’re more likely to view it and engage with it. Posting an interesting, narrative-driven video can bring you the best reactions.

Apart from that, there is a part of the audience for them podcasts works well. So you can also add podcasts in your strategy.

Again your social media management company can help you figure what kind of posts can fulfil your marketing goals!

7. Address Issues Quickly

We hope you receive only positive feedbacks on social media. But there are chances that you may encounter someone who is upset, argumentative, or has something negative to say about your brand.

Make sure to monitor mentions of your brand on social channels, so you can catch issues even before they escalate. And if you notice a problem, engage with the person, apologize publicly, and offer to solve the problem over a direct message exchange. This way, people will know you are responsive but don’t have to see all the details of the issue.

Should you do it yourself, or outsource?

Are you in the dilemma that you should take on the work of marketing your business yourself or hire a social media agency? Marketing experts very well know how to get a brand noticed and can jump right in on implementing top strategies. All you need to do is to show little patience, because it may take a few months to start seeing the results of these strategies, but later, it’s an investment that will pay off and help you start scaling.

Hire an agency or do it yourself, just do it the right way for better outcomes and reach higher, good luck!

Author Bio: Leon Lee is the Social media expert at Lead Social – an social media marketing agency based in the UK. He has great experience in social media management and loves to share his knowledge with all.