Are you currently marketing on social media? If not, you should be. Here are the secrets to starting strong in social media marketing in 2019.
Is your small business active on social media? 77% of small businesses use social media for sales, marketing, and customer service, so if you don’t you’re definitely falling behind.
Many small business owners struggle to incorporate social media, however, because of time and staffing constraints. A social media marketing strategy requires consistency, and if you have a small number of employees you might not think you have the bandwidth to do it well.
Fortunately, you can still succeed at social media. You just need the right tools and strategies. Here’s what you can do to maximize your social media presence in 2019 and beyond!
Know Your Audience
Different social media platforms have different demographics, so knowing your audience is the first step to maximizing your marketing strategy. Look at your existing customers, along with your customer avatars, to make sure you’re on track.
Do you tend to cater to women, men, or both? Are you a B2B business or B2C? What age are your customers, and what do they do for a living?
With this information, you can not only choose the right social media platforms, you can also target your audience effectively through paid ads.
Choose Just One
If you’re struggling to fit social media marketing into your small business, start with only one platform. Build up a presence and become consistent with your branding and interaction on that platform before you add more.
It can be tempting to feel like you need to launch marketing on every social media outlet available, but that’s not true. In fact, an inconsistent presence is worse than none at all, so start small and be wise.
If you want to target a variety of demographics, start with Facebook. If you want to sell primarily to women, you need to be on Pinterest. If you have highly visual content that appeals to a younger audience, try Instagram or Snapchat.
If you’re already successful online or have significant resources for social media marketing, consider starting on two or three at once.
Use the Right Tools
Once you’ve chosen your platforms, you’ll need the right tools to manage your presence. You can use tools like Buffer to post to multiple platforms at once, as well as planning and scheduling your posts ahead of time.
If you’re focused on Pinterest or Instagram, you might enjoy using Tailwind. This app allows you to post at the right times for top engagement, as well as allowing you to see what’s working and maximize your marketing efforts.
Determining what to share and when to share it is an important part of your marketing strategy. By using these tools in conjunction with a social content calendar, you can post consistently without spending hours online.
Know Your Goals
You can spend an enormous amount of time and money on social media with no return on investment (ROI) for your business. Unfortunately, it’s easy to confuse likes and followers with success, when those don’t bring you any income directly.
Instead, know what you want to achieve. Do you want to drive sales? Focus your social media strategy on connecting with ideal buyers and showcasing the products that are most popular with them. Do you want to bring in referrals or boost your online advocates? Focus on connecting with influencers or encourage your existing employees and customers to share your content on their own social media accounts.
Many times, small businesses give up on social media marketing because they feel it’s not bringing in any money. Remember that your strategy needs to be specific to your goals – you can’t just show up online and post funny memes and expect to boost your bottom line.
Having trouble setting your marketing goals? You might find it helpful to work with a digital marketing agency like Local SEO Search who can help you determine how to move the needle for your business.
Join Existing Conversations About Your Industry
Getting people to talk about you is challenging, but joining existing conversations is much easier. You can use social media listening tools to get alerts about posts that mention your industry, company name, or product.
Once you “hear” that, jump in with your social media account and contribute to the conversation. Of course, don’t just throw out a sales pitch. Think of it as joining a conversation at a party – you want to contribute something helpful without killing the vibe. You can also simply like a post to show that you hear what was said.
Use Hashtags to Extend Your Reach
On many platforms, hashtags allow you to describe your content while making it more findable to other users. Hashtags are especially important on Instagram and Twitter, but they are effective on Pinterest as well.
To use hashtags well, do some research to discover what existing tags are being used frequently that are relevant to your product, service, and industry. Take advantage of those to extend the reach of your posts beyond your existing followers.
When you use these tips, you’ll be off to a great start in your social media marketing. Of course, this is just the beginning – but it will definitely get you going and help you start getting results with your social media marketing!
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