3 Actionable Small Business Social Media Tips
Simple Ways You can Optimize Your Social Media Presence Today
Small business social media strategies are often based on lean tactics that can be easily implemented. As you move from market research to startup and full-blown small business, your advertising must be cost-efficient. You’re probably still looking for investors. You likely need as much capital available for expansion. A small business doesn’t typically have a large marketing budget ready for aggressive spending. This is the time when you should focus on high-ROI activities that produce the best value per dollar spent. This is when small business social media marketing can deliver fantastic results.
Hopefully you already have a website filled with content created from in-depth keyword research. With a keyword-rich online presence and decent search engine optimization (SEO), you will have everything you need to begin. If not, your small business social media marketing tactics will likely fall flat. You need a website with the ability to produce fresh content through an engaging blog before implementing an organic social media strategy. This is due to the fact that while you will share high-quality content from related brands in your field, you need to blend in posts from your own website as well. While you are building a small business social media audience, you want them to visit your site for maximum exposure. Once you have this “content machine” up and running, it’s time to get to work.
Choose 1-3 Small Business Social Media Channels
Perhaps the most common small business social media mistake is trying to do too much too early. You need a manageable, actionable social presence. If you try to attack every social media network and build profiles on every channel available, you will burn out very quickly. The world of small business social media marketing is complex and fluid. Furthermore, it requires constant care and implementation of tactics. As such, you must identify the networks that will work best for your brand early on and keep a steady flow of content posting to these channels.
Facebook is obviously the most logical place to begin your small business social media marketing. With 1.8 billion active daily users, this is the largest social network on the planet. Facebook is the undisputed king of social media. With ability to post photos, share live videos, and interact with nearly any other business, this is the perfect place to start. However, the other major social channels all have benefits and drawbacks that you may not realize. Do some research, find out which networks work best for your small business social media strategy. Twitter is perfect for tech-focused brands. Instagram is ideal for businesses with highly visual content. LinkedIn is great for professional networking. Pinterest is creative with a highly female demographic. No matter what tactics you choose for your small business social media plan, stick to 1-3 channels to start.
Optimize Your Social Media Profile Descriptions
Remember all the keyword research you did before building your website? The exact same strategy should be implemented as you build out your social media profiles. Each network has different specifications for profile images, cover photos, and profile descriptions. While your small business social media presence should be defined by these specific keywords to rank higher in organic search, you should tailor each profile depending on the networks you choose.
If your strategy starts with Facebook, use 3-5 main keywords that define your brand in the profile description. If you incorporate Twitter or Instagram into your plans, do research into the most highly-used relevant hashtags and include them in your profile description. It’s a good idea to do research into best practices for character length and image dimensions as well.
Identify “Affinity Brands” to Follow and Engage
This is an insider tactic used by all the best brands on social media, and it can provide a huge boost to your organic marketing tactics early on. While you will want to post as much native content from your website on social media, you will need to share articles from other media sources as well. You need to keep a constant flow of relevant, high-quality content on your social channels to build an engaged audience. Different networks have different levels of content saturation, but posting daily on each channel is a great rule of thumb. Unless you’re posting on your blog every day, you need to share others’ work as well.
This is why it’s a great idea to identify related “affinity brands” that produce great content that you can share with your followers. For example, Emergent Digital is in the business of marketing for nonprofits and social enterprise. We have thus created a list of brands related to these industries and engage them online. We follow their social media accounts, subscribe to their blogs, and engage them in the digital realm. We mention them in social posts when we share their content. We like their posts. We learn from their work and incorporate their tactics into our own strategy. For your small business social media presence to thrive, stand on the shoulders of the giants in your field.
Do you have any questions, comments, or your own tips for small business social media marketing? Please leave a comment below!
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