Social Media Tips for Your Small Business
Consumers have grown accustomed to being drawn into a product through advertising and having that product available with a click. Social media is an excellent way to get customers to notice you and ultimately buy your products. Customers (and future customers) can see your sales, community involvement, trends, and what makes your business special.
The more social media presence a business has, the more involved customers can be in that business or niche market. Therefore, social media is a must-have for supporting your brand and making it accessible to the right people.
Get Comfortable with Social Media
If you are not familiar with social media, now is the time to step out of your comfort zone. One of the most frustrating parts of social media is staying current. The popularity of a platform, the algorithms, and their trends are always changing and can be hard to keep up with.
Social platforms also come and go (remember Vine?), so being versed in more than one is helpful. Luckily, there are tons of resources for starting social media for businesses. Search the internet for beginner videos and sites that give you step-by-step instructions for the platforms you plan to use.
Choose your platform
A platform is the internet medium used to disseminate information. In social media there are innumerable options, but the most ubiquitous are Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, Whatsapp, and Twitter. As of August 2021, the most popular social media platforms were Facebook, YouTube, and WhatsApp. We will dive into these top three, but it’s important to find the ones that work best for your business and customers.
Facebook
If you are not familiar with social media, start small. Facebook has been around for a long time and most people are familiar with it. Facebook has a Business Suite that allows the user to manage all their posts, stories, messages, and notifications, including your personal account. It makes scheduling posts in advance, answering customer inquiries, and advertising promotions easy and in one location. The interface for the Business Suite is quite user friendly and intuitive.
It also has a calendar and provides insights into the page’s progress. Then you can see what types of ads and posts are successful, which can drive future posts for the most views. Ads are easy to create within the Business Suite also. If the business has multiple pages for different divisions, they can all be managed from the Business Suite. Again, the interface is easy to use and it’s easier to prioritize when everything is at-a-glance.
Creating a business page is easy and can be connected to other platforms to make adding content across platforms easier. For an easy step-by-step tutorial visit Hootsuite.com. They will even show you how to connect it to WhatsApp.
WhatsApp is a popular mobile messenger app. It is a messenger, like text messages. There can be separate group messages or individual messages. All business messaging is available in an app, instead of being commingled with your personal text messages. It’s a great way to keep home and work life separate.
Most of the users are in the United Stated (see graph below). This is beneficial since domestic shipping is often easier, but it depends on your market. If you are selling electronic products than the country doesn’t matter so much. If you do have international customers, WhatsApp does not charge roaming fees to out of country messages, which occurs with normal text messaging.
The usefulness of this handy app depends on your business, products, and customer’s needs. WhatsApp is excellent for customer service needs. It allows for concerns, questions, or complaints to be addressed in a timely manner.
WhatsApp also hosts a catalog tool. Customers can view products while in the app. Each product or service can feature a title, photo, price, description, product code, and link.
Another use is for communication between colleagues, employees, and vendors. WhatsApp is especially helpful for your customers, vendors, and employees that are out of the country, since the app is free for out of country contacts. No roaming fees!
You can create a WhatsApp Business account in no time using Hootsuite.com’s easy to use step-by-step guide.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and nowhere is that more true than Instagram. Instagram is a great place to get the attention of your customers with a single photo. Since Instagram is owned by Facebook, you can post to Instagram with the option of also posting to your Facebook page. It’s simple to use and easy to set up.
The downside to Instagram is that it can become time consuming quickly. In order to get, and keep, the public’s attention posts must be frequent. This can be exhausting, unless you use some smart and efficient strategies. The other shortcoming is that the pictures are not clickable and links cannot be added easily into the description.
There is no quick way for a potential customer to click on a link for details, but they can visit your account page for more info about how to get your products or services. Having a facebook presence to correspond with the instagram content is beneficial since links are easier to input with Facebook.
Instagram is just another tool to drive people to the site you want to funnel them too, such as your website or facebook.
Strategies to make Instagram work for your small business
1.) Reuse content
Be creative with your reusing of content. For example, if you had three separate posts highlighting a new boot, create a fourth post that advertises the “best boots of the season”. This way, the customer is repeatedly seeing your products, but in a new way. The more exposure, the better.
2. )Use Canva, or a similar site, to create interesting posts.
Sites like Canva allow for easy collages or backgrounds for a more attention-grabbing post. Many of the options are free, if you just want to try it out or need something simple. There are then subscription options for the serious design user.
3.) Be casual with posts
Don’t overthink it! Part of the joy of using social media is being able to show some personality. It can be something quirky about the crew, community service opportunities that the business supports, or positive changes that are being made behind the scenes. Other examples include a silly photo, customer appreciation, employee holiday event, or anything that gives your business depth.
4.) Use a service that will post for you
This is incredibly helpful if you want to save time. An afternoon of creating a month’s worth of content for social media may be preferable to having to remember to post content between certain times every day. If you want to be consistent, purchasing a subscription to a service will be a life saver. Loomly is a great example, but there are several and most offer trials so you can test them out before committing.
If you need a step-by-step guide to set up your Instagram page for your business, sendible.com is a great resource!
While social media can be overwhelming and time-consuming, it can be a game-changer for your small business. We hope you found these social media tips helpful.
