Today social media has become an inseparable part of business marketing for both small businesses and large corporations. If you know how to use social networking websites, blogs, multimedia and online review sites effectively, you can easily engage customers and increase your sells. You will need a clear strategy, determination and a few social media tips as well as social media tools and platforms for small business marketing.
So in this article we will reveal the top five basic social media tips for small business, but a few more will be outlined in addition.
Set up your goals
The first thing to do is to make a clear plan and set up particular goals. Decide what you need to achieve by being online – to promote your brand or a certain product, to attract new customers or to engage existing ones. Do you want to increase the traffic of your website or your sells? Or maybe you could monitor consumer trends and research new product ideas? It is possible to combine them all, but be careful not to use just shout marketing methods and turn into just one of the millions brands on the Internet.
Decide on your target audience
You will have to choose which platforms to use. Big companies can afford to publish on all popular social networks – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, Tumblr and others, but if you are starting or managing a small business, you just won’t have the resources – time, people, finances, and so on. Vimeo will be perfect for videos explaining and showing how different things work, without adding matching advertisements like YOuTube. Pinterest would be the place if you have more visual content. In addition, if you want to start a blog, find the right domain name and hosting services that are fast and cheap, but we have tried and highly recommend.
Forget about empty slogans
Try to be more human in your language and content publishing – social networking sites are basically about people, before all. Forget about shouting marketing slogans or boring statements, because followers will get bored easily. Your language should show that you and your brand are close to customers and their interests. But be careful – jokes and funny pictures won’t be a very attractive content for business users.
Be honest with your customers
When you or your customers face a problem, it’s better to discuss it openly, than being secret and worth of suspicion. Of course, don’t reveal any company or more commercially sensitive information. Just try to provide explicit information for your products as much as you can. Customers will need to see you are trying to fix their problem.
Convince your audience of your expertise
Your posts should show that you are an expert in your field and that you can answer all questions related to your products or the market. This way you will not only improve your relationships with your customers, but also build new ones. Try to explain as much as possible to your audience, so that they feel they can trust your brand and your products. Stick to the tone in the community which is different for LinkedIn and Facebook, for instance, and your message will reach more people.
