Social Media Strategy – 5 Tips for Boosting Your Small Business!!

According to a recent survey, it’s estimated that 71% of small to medium-sized businesses now use social media for marketing. In light of this, if you’re a small business owner, it’s important to regularly evaluate your own strategy to make sure you maintain a competitive edge. Here are five tips for improving your business’s social media strategy: 

 

1. Research your competitors on social media

If you have a small business, chances are, you have competitors that are also advertising their products and services on social media. 

But, you can also use this to your advantage. By researching your competitors, you can gain valuable insights into what works, what doesn’t, and how you can improve your strategy. 

There are a few ways to learn from your competitors. One option is to look at their performance and compare their engagement, audience growth, and activity to yours. 

Additionally, you can use a social media analytics tool like SproutSocial to compare data on your competitors and get data on their social media performance. 

 

2. Choose the right channels for social media marketing

There are lots of social media channels available for businesses. You don’t need to use all of them. Instead, if you’re limited in terms of time and money, it’s better to focus your energy on a smaller number of platforms. 

One way to pick the right channel is to ask your customers which ones they prefer and use the most. This can help you get the most from your marketing efforts. 

If you already use a number of platforms, you can also check the effectiveness of each one by comparing your analytics, engagement, clicks, and other metrics. 

 

3. Integrate online and offline marketing

Many brands use a combination of online and offline marketing to reach as many customers as possible. If this is the case, integrating these methods can maximize your results. 

You can use social media to promote offline events, and you can use your offline marketing methods to push more customers to your website or social media pages. 

For example, if you use business cards to promote your business, you can add your online platforms to them. You can create new business cards using a tool like BusinessCards. 

When you’re using online and offline marketing together, it’s essential to make sure your branding is consistent. If a consumer looks at a physical marketing campaign offline then visits your social media, the branding should be familiar to encourage customer loyalty. 

4. Use automated posting 

Posting on social media can be time-consuming. So you have the time to focus on growing your business, you should aim to automate this process as much as possible. 

Using a tool like Hootsuite allows you to manage multiple social networks at once and manage tasks like content creation and post scheduling. 

This frees up time, which you can then use on other business tasks. It also helps you stick to your content calendar and post consistently on multiple platforms. 

5. Interact with your audience 

Lastly, one of the best ways to use social media is by building relationships with your audience. And this means being sociable, interacting, and joining conversations. 

You can do this by monitoring your accounts – either manually or using an online tool – for mentions, comments, and direct messages, and then responding to them. Remember to respond to both positive and negative comments. 

Additionally, you should aim to keep your audience engaged using different types of content that will encourage more interactions. Some examples of this include live streaming, videos, jokes or memes, quizzes, and competitions. 

Social media can be an awesome tool for growing a small business. By following these strategies, you can reach your goals and have more success.