If you are a small business owner wanting to grow your brand, social media is an incredibly effective tool. Social media platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok, and Facebook share over four billion users who average 145 minutes on social media each day.
Here are three super effective ways to connect your small business to scrolling eyes on your social media platform. Try these strategies over the next month to build client relationships or even make sales.
1. Pay attention to trends
To best take advantage of social media, you need to understand why people log onto various platforms. This data does change over time hence the tip to pay attention to trends.
In January 2021, the top reasons given for social media use were:
- Getting informed about current news
- Finding entertaining and funny content
- Staying in contact with friends
- Sharing videos and photos
Staying up to date with trends on why and how audiences use social media is essential to creating successful content.
If your followers enjoy funny content or like sharing videos or photos, consider making your own shareable funny photos and videos.
Responding to viral memes can also be an excellent way to boost brand awareness. However, use this strategy sparingly as posting about every meme that goes viral can annoy followers.
You could also use trending hashtags to capture new audiences.
Try out niche hashtags that mention your specific city or product rather than broad hashtags such as #love or #food.
Fun fact: Did you know you can even add hashtags to your Instagram biography? It’s an easy way to help potential customers find your page.
2. Emphasize engagement
A high follower count or hundreds of likes on a post might give you a feel-good, but building relationships is how you’ll turn social media followers into customers.
Do you know how well you are connecting and engaging with your followers? All social platforms have free analytics tools that track evidence of engagement, such as conversations and comments underneath various posts.
Understanding your social media post’s success is the best feedback for creating content that attracts the most engagement. Test it, play with it. Make different types of content to see which ones perform the best.
Responding to comments or questions is another way to increase engagement and improve your relationships with your followers. Keep your brand name intact with responses that are respectful and informative. You may even want to tag your followers in your Instagram Stories or Twitter posts to encourage further interaction.
You could also create a Facebook group for fans of your brand. It can be a great way to boost loyalty to your business.
And do not be afraid to partner with nano or micro-influencer specializing in your particular industry. Hiring an influencer with millions of followers can be expensive, but micro-influencers are usually cheaper and a savvy solution for small business growth. They may even accept payment in the form of a free product.
3. Use a scheduling tool
When you post is as important as what you post. Why waste time designing the perfect post no one will see?
Most social media platforms have general posting guidelines stating when traffic is highest. However, these suggestions are broad.
Best practice for scheduling social media posts
- Think about your specific customers and when they are most likely to check their Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram accounts. Account for certain holidays and events that could alter your customers’ schedules and their scrolling times.
- Once you have identified the ideal posting times, use a social media tool that lets you automatically publish posts at certain times, so you do not have to pull out your phone at precisely 1 pm each day.
- Post quality content consistently.
There’s an old rule about how 80% of posts should be for entertainment or informational purposes, leaving 20% for product or brand promotion. It’s not a bad rule of thumb to get you started, as building a brand on social media takes time. But showing up consistently with quality (researched and data-driven) content that your customers love will grow you faster.
Implement the above suggestions over the next month, and you may soon see an increase in customers.
Create content you’re proud to publish
