Social Media Marketing for Small Business
In 2022, 47% of internet users aged 16 to 64 spent more time on social media than they did in 2019. And those users aren’t just idly scrolling; ecommerce sales are also on the upswing. This just emphasizes the importance of social media for small businesses.
“In a way, social media is our business,” says Laura Moss, creator of Adventure Cats, an adventurous cat-lover company. “It’s where we communicate with our audience, promote items, and even answer a lot of consumer issues.”
Social media will play an increasingly important role in driving sales, delivering customer support, and creating brand awareness in the future years. Here’s how (and why) you should incorporate this precious asset into your 2021 and beyond strategy.
How social media helps small business
You’ve known for a long time that social media is critical for small businesses, but 2020 has made it mandatory. Seventy percent of small-business owners are worried about financial difficulties as a result of the COVID-19 situation. Social networking can be a lifesaver when money is tighter than ever.
While social media can serve numerous purposes, here is a quick look at some of the most significant benefits of social media for small businesses:
Low-cost brand recognition through free social media accounts or low-budget brand-awareness campaigns
Targeted reach with tools like Instagram Ads or Facebook Ads that focus on specific demographics (i.e., age, gender, salary, location, etc.)
People prefer small businesses to large corporations because they value the personalized experience and distinctive character of the organization. While establishing your business, you may utilize social media to showcase your personality and get to know your customers better.
Read also: How to Promote Your Business Online
Determine which metrics are important.
Determine which metrics are important to you and your business before you begin running reports. Don’t get caught up in “vanity metrics,” which make you feel good but don’t help you make decisions, act, or measure value. While it’s tempting to obsess over followers and likes, those numbers aren’t always beneficial to your business. Local businesses, for example, benefit more from a tiny, local following than from a large following that includes people who would never visit the firms’ real stores.
Danni Eickenhorst, co-owner of St. Louis-based business Steve’s Hot Dogs, has amassed a sizable social media following. However, when it comes to generating sales, local love is essential. When Eickenhorst needed to spread the word about a restaurant event, she focused not only on the city but also on the restaurant’s surrounding communities.
“We reached out to neighbouring neighborhood associations and requested them to spread the message to their members,” Eickenhorst recalls. “They all promoted their Facebook Groups and Nextdoor posts, which was quite helpful.”
The Facebook event was attended by 28,100 people, resulting in 150 new Facebook page likes and 75 new Instagram followers. Sales were three times higher than on a usual Saturday as a result of the increased social media effort. Furthermore, social media followers instantly requested similar events, resulting in a second Six Feet ApartY with additional events and local partnerships.
Because social media managers struggle to persuade the company of its importance, it is often among the first things cut for small enterprises. This is why focusing on the correct metrics is so important. The number of likes your post receives may not impress your bosses, but the number of sales it generates will.
“Social media is our second-largest sales engine,” Moss explains. “The majority of our consumers claim they found us on Instagram and didn’t aware we had a content site or a store until we marketed them on social.”
Of course, sales figures aren’t the only important statistic. You might also track the traffic generated by social media to your website, engagement rates for individual articles, or even specific sorts of involvement, such as retweets versus likes. Every metric can provide you with information, and the value is determined by whether or not that information assists you in making business decisions.
Use reports to analyze what’s working (and what isn’t)
Once you’ve decided on your core metrics, make sure to track them on a regular basis by creating custom reports that highlight what’s most important to you. Remember to concentrate on data that informs business decisions, such as measurements that indicate if Instagram Shop Grid or Instagram Shop Post content drives more sales.
Reports allow you to examine metrics like engagement rates, click-through rates, and follower demographics to understand which form of content connects with your audience. For example, HIKI, a company that sells sweat-reducing products, revealed that their following are largely millennials and Gen Zers, so they create material that appeals to that demographic.
HIKI seized on the TikTok “Put a finger down” craze and got real about perspiration problems – a strategy that would certainly go flat with baby boomers but received a lot of reaction from HIKI supporters.
Own your personality
Your fans on social media come for your products and services; they stay because they enjoy your style. Consider your social media presence to be an extension of your brand’s voice, tone, and personality.
Publish without a hitch. Analyze without effort. Participate genuinely.
Buffer is an all-in-one social media toolkit that allows you to focus on what you do best for your business.
Tim Urch, social media manager of Huel, a nutritionally full food delivery company, created a persona that appeals to their clients on numerous levels. “It’s difficult to strike a balance between what we want to communicate and what our audience wants to hear,” Urch explains. “We’ve struck gold when those two things are the same.”
Adventure Cats demonstrates their humorous nature with cat puns and promotes their principles by discussing the charities to which they donate — all while displaying a good dose of adorable kittens.
Make use of social media to give excellent customer service.
Customer service is critical to brand loyalty, and the majority of people aged 18 to 54 believe that social media is an effective avenue for customer service. The basic fact is that most of your consumers expect social media help and are almost equally inclined to applaud or criticize your response, so you might as well make it a terrific encounter.
Our comprehensive guide to leveraging social media for customer service can show you how to properly harness social networks. But here’s the short version: Superior social media customer service boils down to three factors: quickness, tone, and results. People want prompt responses from empathetic persons who are ready to address difficulties.
Establish a regular posting schedule.
The good news is that just because social media is available 24 hours a day, doesn’t mean you have to be. You may plan ahead of time to guarantee that your brand maintains a continuous presence. First, decide how frequently you want to post on each network. Once you’ve established your baseline, you can utilize Buffer’s publishing features to schedule articles for weeks ahead of time, ensuring that your brand never appears to go black on any social media.
Scheduling also allows you to see how your messaging evolves over time. It’s easier to ensure that you’re varying your content when you can see all of your postings across platforms for the following weeks. Furthermore, when you plan ahead of time, you have more time to check in on several platforms for real-time engagement.
Genuine social media for small businesses is critical.
“For us, social media is a completely invaluable avenue,” Eickenhorst explains. “Before I joined the company, Steve neglected the creative aspect of social media.” It wasn’t genuine, and business suffered as a result.”
People want to see a true personality from small businesses on social media. Customers will have little motivation to remain around and engage with you if you’re just going through the motions with generic content and occasional product features. Authenticity is adopting the tone and manner that your followers have grown to expect from you, as well as using social media to listen to and engage with your audience.
“Now, we make a concerted effort to alter our content while being authentic,” Eickenhorst explains. “Our audience [and business] has returned.”