How to make Social Media Work for Small Businesses
Does this sound familiar? “I know I should be on social media but I don’t know how to make it work for my small business.” Many business owners are feeling the pressure to be on social media and have heard all the wonderful stories about how it has transformed a business’s sales pipeline but are not sure how to apply it to their own business.
The first thing to consider is do you have the time and resources to manage your own social media platforms and what does this involve?
The expertise
Many businesses delegate social media to a staff member who has a little extra time on their hands and are good at managing their own personal accounts. This is the first mistake. Social Media marketing should be taken seriously and is an effective marketing tool so should be given the time and resources that you would with any other marketing campaign. Furthermore, you need a staff member who can apply marketing principles and sales tactics to your social media activity to make it an effective tool. Not just someone who likes to post about the weather or cakes people brought into the office! (Although we love these posts they’re not going to generate a new lead for you).
The Content
Content is the absolute key to a successful social media strategy so it is vital that you have someone in your organisation who can create strong and engaging content. This includes creative and visually appealing images, thought provoking blogs, informative infographics and the creme dala crème is video content! Again these are skills and qualities you need to find in your staff.
The Strategy
This is where most small businesses fall down. You wouldn’t invest time or money in marketing without having clear goals and objectives so why do it on social media. Before wasting anytime on creating content or posting you need to ensure you have a clear strategy of what you want to achieve with social media and how you are going to do it. This can vary from brand awareness, lead generation or even market research. Some businesses use polls and competitions to undertake product or market research.
So now you feel totally overwhelmed that you need to do all this or find someone in your staff that can. But I am here to reassure you that social media is not that scary! You just need to think of it as an additional tool that you can use to grow your business. By setting out clear goals and a strategy of what you want to achieve and how you are going to do it, you can establish what resources you need to get the job done. Furthermore, don’t be afraid to invest in it and spend time on it. As mentioned in our Content is King blog, in this competitive environment you need to build trust with your target audience and social media gives you a great platform to do this but it doesn’t happen overnight.
Social Media is usually at the bottom of everyone’s list as they know they need to do it but don’t have the time. But if you are serious about growing your business it is the ideal sales tool to reach your customer. Remember there is nothing worse than an abandoned, ghost-town Facebook page so if you don’t use it, don’t have it!
We have helped many small businesses come up with a strategy for their social media activity and have given them a clear focus and direction on how to achieve their overall business goal using social media. If you would like to have a chat about your social media please give us a call on 01324 469 200.
