Learn social media strategies to gain more customers and engage more effectively with your current customers.
● Social media is an incredibly effective way to engage with new, current and prospective customers.
● Not every social media platform is created equally. To develop an effective social strategy, focus on the social channels that best suit your brand.
● Social media platforms that work well for businesses include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest and LinkedIn.
● This article is for small business owners who want to learn about using social media for business and benefit from an effective social media strategy.
If your small business doesn’t have a social media presence, you may be missing out on significant benefits for your brand. Through social media, you can gain new customers and engage more insightfully with recurring ones. Social media can be a highly cost-effective and personalized way of reaching your customers while providing valuable insights into your brand.
“Social media provides targeting capability, as well as reach and scale, at a lower cost than almost all other marketing channels,” said Abdul Muhammad, chief digital officer and partner at RBB Communications. “People are on social media all day, every day. Brands must go where the people are.”
We’ll explore social media’s most effective business uses, best practices for an effective social media marketing strategy, how to measure social media ROI and how to select the best social platform for your brand.
How to use social media for business
These are some of the aspects of business that can benefit from a social media presence:
● Marketing
● Customer service
● Sales
● Recruiting and hiring
● Crisis management
1. Use social media for marketing.
When you incorporate an effective social media presence into your small business marketing plan, you can reach customers and prospects where they are. Here are some tips and best practices for creating a successful presence on social media to market your brand:
● Craft a social media marketing strategy. The best way to ensure success on social media is to go in with a plan. This means devising a social media marketing strategy that includes each platform you plan to use.
● Post consistently. Your followers value a steady presence, so follow a consistent posting schedule. While being consistent, avoid posting too much, which can be off-putting for your followers.
● Develop a clear voice. Create a consistent voice and tone in your social media presence – one that resonates with your audience and influences how they see your brand. Listen to your audience and find ways to relate to them without looking like you’re trying too hard. Most importantly, don’t be afraid to show a little personality. This helps present your business as adaptive, friendly and relevant.
● Have fun with social media. Provide fun ways to generate more leads and engage with your customers, like running social media contests, linking to your website or special offers in your profile bio, and hosting live videos with exciting updates or news.
● Know your audience. Use your analytics tools to see demographic information, customer behavior and social media trends to inform your content. Knowing what your audience wants to see from you and responding accordingly can go a long way toward boosting your engagement rates.
2. Use social media for customer service.
Because so many customers already communicate through social media, using social media for customer service is a no-brainer. Through social media communication, you can address customer problems quickly and efficiently, helping you create a loyal customer base.
● Respond to customer issues quickly. Many businesses approach social media as another channel for self-promotion and don’t always respond when customers comment on their posts or tweet at them. According to research from Convince & Convert, 42% of consumers expect a response to a complaint on social media within 60 minutes, and nearly one-third expect a response within half an hour. Monitoring social media channels and responding to concerns promptly can help you build strong relationships with customers.
● Use hashtags strategically. How hashtags operate within a social media platform’s algorithm is likely to change frequently, so stay updated on your social platforms’ hashtag recommendations and best practices. Hashtags help keep topics organized and easy to navigate, especially on platforms like Twitter. You can also add more information and curate content to your hashtags.
● Take public conversations private. Many angry or frustrated customers leave public comments on a brand’s Instagram and Facebook accounts or tweet at a business. While you shouldn’t ignore these messages, it’s not always wise to handle the entire encounter publicly. Show other customers that you value their input and time by sending an initial response requesting to continue the conversation privately.
Comments