Maintaining an active social media presence is essential for all businesses today. There are 4.74 billion users active on social media globally and this is a primary way that people consume, post and share information on products, services, ideas and events that are important to them.
As a small business owner it is one of the most cost-effective ways to connect with your existing and prospective customers to build relationships that can lead to greater sales for your organization. Following are 9 tips that will help small business owners to maintain an active presence online:
1. Establish Your Brand Personality
Determine who you are and how you add value to your target audience, figure out how you want to show up (your image) and what you want others to know about you and your business. Stick with a consistent look and feel (eg. images and videos) in all the media that you post and know the tone of your voice in how you want to come across.
2. Define Your Target Audience
Develop your customer persona/s with a clear understanding of who you want to attract. This will be a key component of how you structure your content. Knowing the social media channels they are using and kind of information they consume will give you ideas on what you can post that will appeal to them.
3. Know Your Your Competition
Some of your competitors are active in social media and have figured it out. Get ideas on what’s working for them to tailor your social media strategy accordingly. Never plagiarize though!
4. Create Your Content
Are you a great writer? Do you have the talent to take great photos or speak on video? Perhaps a podcast where you can share information that will be helpful to your target market? Figure out what kind of content you are comfortable putting together and concentrate on doing one type of media well!
5. Analyze Your Data
Apps such as Hootsuite or Later will aggregate and show you how your content is performing so you can fine-tune as you go. Each social media application also has analytics.
6. Schedule Your Social Posts
Aim to post at least once a day (minimum) to keep your online presence active. You can schedule posts a week in advance on using the social media site itself of 3rd party apps like Hootsuite, Later or Hubspot.
7. Engage With Others
It’s not enough to push out messages from your business. It’s important to scan your network’s posts, and do some likes, comments and sharing so your social media is a conversation vs a one-way message.
8. Do Use Social Media Tools
Download and use a social media manager such as www.hootsuite.com or www.later.com. These apps enable you to upload content, post to all your channels at once, monitor your network’s posts and assess your analytics from one application.
9. Stay Focused and Post Daily
It can seem overwhelming at first to post and engage online every day. Focus on one social media channel and get comfortable with it to meet others who share your values and are interested in building a mutually beneficial relationship. To achieve this, you have to put yourself out there and push past your comfort zone. Dip your toe in the water, start with the basics and see what happens.
If you still find this a stretch, the easiest way to go is to hire someone to do it for you who is comfortable using social media for business purposes. We are happy to discuss your social media strategy at any time and have programs to suit various sizes of businesses! Email in**@ac*******.com or call 604-687-2004 and we’d be happy to help.
Happy Hunting!