Today social media for small businesses can be intimidating with all the competition going around, but it still has an overwhelming effect on the businesses. How do we know?

According to research, 90 million small business owners use Facebook, 70% use Twitter, and 10 million use LinkedIn. But being present and accounted for isn’t the same thing as growing a social media presence. You will soon find that an active social media presence requires a lot of work and time. Here is where social media automation tools can greatly simplify things.

Everything Is Social Now!

• Nearly 3/4 (77.6%) of small businesses use social media.
• Facebook is the most highly used social media channel (86%), nearly twice the second-most-used channel, Instagram (48%).
• Women-owned businesses (74%) are more inclined than men-owned companies (66%) to use social media, reflecting that more women use social media.
• More millennial business owners (79%) use social media for their marketing than business owners older than 35 (65%) because millennials have a more prominent comfort level with social media.
• Most companies post images/infographics (54%) on their social media pages because they process images better than text.

On the surface, it may look simple. Just share a few its and bits about the company and go on with your day. But in actuality, social media growth needs time and effort, not to mention ongoing execution, analysis, and strategic adjustment. That’s the reason so many businesses — large and small — turn to automation.

Social media has become an important aspect of digital marketing, going hand-in-hand with the most significant – if not all – digital campaigns. However, social media never stays the same, and what worked a few months ago may not get you the same excellent results now. Habits change, platforms grow, and new media come into existence. All of this influences how businesses use and react to social media marketing and how marketers can reach their audience using a host of digital marketing tools.

Featured Article: 10 Steps to Create an Epic Social Media Campaign

How to Use Social Media for Small Business

While some small enterprise owners still think that social media is just a “trend,” social media marketing has been confirmed to be an invaluable and cost-effective way to promote your small business. After all, social media enables you to personalize your business brand and improve business relationships with potential and contemporary customers.

Facebook

Facebook is a social networking platform to be evaluated with, especially contemplating that the site attracted 500 million members in just a few tiny years. Consequently, increasing your small business on Facebook makes an excellent business judgment, as more people kill time on the social networking site than any other. One of the most reliable ways to promote is by creating a Facebook page.

With 6 billion active users daily, Facebook has a highly cluttered feed, which is why you should not post more than twice on your profile. However, it is important to remember that Facebook has a huge community of people with diverse opinions, which means that conversational posts will work best.

Additionally, posts with visuals are also some of the best-performing content on the platform.

Tips to Use Facebook Effectively

Always remember: Your purpose, at least initially, is to develop relationships with potential customers, not to make direct sales.

• Post Links to Your Blog or Website. In extension, link to other pertinent content. You can always use an RSS feed to automatically share your SEO optimized blog posts to the Facebook page.
• Ask Catechisms. To engage with users, make them busy in discussions.
• Offer Exclusive Deals. To reward your Facebook fans, present special offers regularly.
• Upload Limit of Quality Images. Since Facebook Timeline is more evident than previous versions of the Facebook interface, this approach is an awesome one – images can create a significant amount of consideration and traffic.
• Put Up Content Frequently. As a regular guideline, upload new stuff at least a few times per day.
• Concern Promotions. To sustain your audience’s interest, offer lifts every week.
• Habit to Market. Remember to insert your Facebook page web address on your business cards and other marketing elements.
• Use Facebook marketplace. Facebook marketplace is an excellent way for small businesses to market their products in the locality. With the Facebook marketplace, you can reach a more extensive set of audiences that are well within your locality range.

Small businesses have small teams, which means that you cannot always be present on your social media channels at once. For this, you might want to look into a way to auto-post to Facebook, such as Social Champ!

A social media scheduler is the best way to automate social media. It would not only help you in scheduling regular content. Still, it would also help you connect your blog or website to social media using an RSS feed, tracking analytics, tracking analytics, and engaging with your community.

Pinterest

Pinterest is a social networking platform that authorizes users to share images by “pinning” photos or videos to pinboards. These pinboards typically have a common theme, such as crafts, weddings, or recipes. These “pins” can also be distributed on Facebook and Twitter for additional exposure. As the content is primarily pictorial, this social media site is more regulated towards creative and visual artists.

Pinterest has a total of 459 million monthly active users with almost 77.1% of female members. Interestingly, 7 out of 10 users on Pinterest are women, and 83% of them use the platform to plan important life moments0. Generally, it is best to post 6 to 15 pins per day in a vertical orientation, as they perform best on the visual platform.

Tips to Use Pinterest Effectively

When you sign up, use the same email address you work with for your business Twitter account, as you will be capable of sharing your pins more easily. Of course, if you want to share your Pinterest posts on your Facebook account, simply log-in to Facebook via Pinterest.

• User-centric content. To increase engagement on pins, try to produce content that is user-centric rather than explicitly promotional content.
• Optimize your profile. Maximize the views on your profile by following the steps below:
  • Use Your Business Name – Put your business name in the first and last name section of your profile.
  • Link to Your Business Website – Also, write a quick, informational blurb about your company to include with the link. In interest, for each posted “pin,” again link to your website to boost traffic to your site.
  • Put up Images of Your Outcomes – Upload photos and ask followers to comment on them.
• Give Away Prizes for Contests. For further exposure, run contests or offer rewards, such as for the user who “re-pins” the most of your content.
• Upload Images of You and Your Employees. Add photos of your work culture, actively involved in various activities. This proves that real people work for your business.
• Interact With Other Users. One fantastic way to engage users is to “re-pin” their images.

Twitter

Are you interested in using Twitter to promote your small business? This is a great choice. As of early 2020, Twitter has an impressive base of almost two hundred million users.

With the Twitter algorithm, you should ideally try to keep a busy profile so that you stay on top of your audience’s mind; therefore, try to post at least five times a day. Spread them out throughout the day so that you can stay on top of your user’s feed.

Tips to Use Twitter Effectively

With Twitter, you ideally want to create conversational content. Tweet like you are talking to your audience directly rather than through a platform.

• Optimize your profile. Focus on creating a profile that helps you create maximum engagement on all your tweets:
  • Create an Account With a Relevant Name – Include pertinent info about your business in your profile. Assure that your profile is clutter-free and visually attractive.
  • Follow Other Associated Businesses – You should “follow” users with whom you wish to manage the business in the dreams that they will follow you back.
  • Engage Other Businesses via Twitter – You can interact with these users by retweeting their posts, answering their questions, engaging in their tweets, or commenting on their blogs.
• Post Consistently. To place yourself as an expert in your field, post new tweets regularly. Make sure that the significant majority of your tweets offer helpful supplies, links, and general information.
• Get Involved With TweetChats. To get further informed by Twitter users, chats are a great idea. If you are not accustomed to TweetChats, they function as online conversations that use Twitter as a “chat room.”
• Reply to People. Remember to reply to followers who retweet, comment, or send you a message directly.
• Generate Buzz. Start a contest or provide the audience with a chance to win a reward by retweeting your posts.
• Promote your Twitter account. You can “sell” your Twitter account on your business cards, emails, and other marketing material.

LinkedIn

With about 740 million users and marketing, LinkedIn is the world’s most comprehensive professional social network now. After all, small industry professionals and career professionals employ this site to advance their career and business goals. It’s no wonder there are so many chances to connect with others and grow your small business concurrently.

LinkedIn is usually not as cluttered as other social media platforms are, which is why spamming your connections with too many posts in one day can throw you off balance. Try to post between 2 to 5 times a week.

Additionally, LinkedIn is the place where comprehensive and well-written content will come in good use; ask your content writer to produce long-form content for your LinkedIn profile.

Tips to Use LinkedIn Effectively

Since a LinkedIn study states that you and your firm will have a 40% more prominent chance for relating with others, thoroughly develop your profile. After all, your LinkedIn profile is your front line of introduction to people you may do enterprise with in the future.

• Optimize your profile. Make the most of your LinkedIn profile with these tips:
  • Upload a Licensed Image of Yourself – Since people prefer to handle business with people they know and trust, uploading a personal photo is required.
  • Define Your Small Business Efficiently – Write about your company in a powerful yet concise manner.
  • Make Your Profile Noticeable to Others – After all, you want other people to get your small business.
  • Add a Link to Your Twitter Profile – This gives people another means to get in touch with you. Furthermore, you can link to more than one Twitter profile.
• Post Regular Status Updates. As a means to reach and inform your audience, refresh your status consistently.
• Join Connected LinkedIn Groups. Additionally, to renew your status, you can interact with others in specific LinkedIn Groups by posting and responding to questions within the group. In this way, you improve your visibility and become recognized as a trusted professional. In turn, people from these groups may request you to conduct business with them.
• Take the Help of LinkedIn Answers. This section is placed under the “More” part on the LinkedIn top toolbar. Scan through these questions, and answer the ones that are linked to your professional skill set.
• Recommendations Are Essential. People manage to believe what others say about you more than what you say about yourself. Accordingly, if your LinkedIn profile is filled with enthusiastic recommendations, you are well on your way to winning new business.
• Build a LinkedIn Group. If you want to be recognized as an expert in your field by your matches, consider creating a LinkedIn Group. Nevertheless, remember that you must take a management role and start discussions on appropriate topics.

Instagram

With over 1 billion active users, Instagram is one of the fastest-growing social media networks of all time, which means that using Instagram for all sorts of business is a no-brainer.

Social media for small business can be tricky at times; the owner is unsure how to delegate their budget to ads or sponsored posts and other aspects.

Instagram is a highly visual platform, which means that it is a no-brainer people are addicted to it. Since your audience will check their feed multiple times a day, it is best to post at least once and at most three times in a day. People use Instagram to chill out and spend their time having fun, which means that they are looking to get insights into your business.

Post BTS pictures of your small team working together as a family, generate content that shows that your team is having fun, and post short videos that show what your company is about. Interestingly enough, BTS pictures and videos are the best performing content.

Tips to Use Instagram Effectively

• Create a public account. To promote your small business using Instagram, signup for a business profile rather than a regular public account.
• Nail your bio. Your bio should be small, precise, and straightforward. Include your website link.
• Create highlights! People love getting insights into your business; always save all your stories in your highlights so that people can look back whenever they feel like it. This would increase all your views!
• Stick to an Instagram marketing strategy. It would help you generate relevant content all year long.
• Don’t forget hashtags. Use trending hashtags and events to increase your engagement.
• Don’t make it political. One of the worst things that you can do to your Instagram account is to make it irrelevant and create a negative image of your company.
• Test your strategy! Frequently test how well your marketing strategies are doing and experiment if something isn’t working out.

YouTube

Videos perform better than still images do. They are interactive and sends the message properly. Additionally, YouTube has 2.3 billion active users, which means that someone or the other from your audience is watching you on the platform. Making the most out of YouTube is not an option instead, it is a necessity now.

No one expects you to update your YouTube channel every day. However, your subscribers would want you to stick to a posting schedule. There is no set universal frequency for posting videos, but you should ideally post one or two videos in a week!

With YouTube, small businesses tend to go overboard and post highly long videos, which takes away its essence. The best performing content on YouTube is usually 9.02 minutes long video. Therefore, try to stick to 8-10 minutes videos for maximum views.

Tips to Use YouTube Effectively

• Nail your YouTube SEO. Incorporate keywords in the title and the description.
• Add links. Link all your social channels in the descriptions below the video so that people can easily find you on all other networks.
• Create an engaging thumbnail. With YouTube, you should also concentrate on creating engaging thumbnails so that your impressions will turn into clicks.
• Add a CTA. Add a solid call to action to your videos, which would prompt the viewer to take action immediately.

Why Should You Use Social Media for Small Business?

In this case, when someone says they AREN’T a Digital Marketer!

Social Media Posts Direct Targeted Traffic

Whatever your business, segment, and audience, a plentiful portion of your customers and contacts are on social.

Having an introduction to all those customers helps you heighten traffic, especially for new site content. When you post a unique blog or update your homepage, it can take a while to traction with Google.

Utilizing Social Media for Small Business Advances Site’s SEO

Search engine crawlers understand which pages are consistently getting traffic and are just drifting out there, forgotten and ignored. Although your killer content policy is the most significant factor in your search rankings, directing traffic to your optimized pages will make them climb much faster.

Social Media Can Expand Your Reach via Quoted Experts

This is one of the prevalent benefits of social media marketing. Let’s say you practiced HARO to find suitable experts for your newest blog post. Possibly you quoted someone with a killer social media appearance. Of course, you’re going to send an email to them of a link to the post when it goes live and inspires them to share it, but leveraging your own social media channels will support you to go the extra mile here.

Social Media Ads Provide Targeting and Retargeting

Social media platforms contribute highly targeted ads, which can be customized around your clients’ needs. Facebook ads, for example, can target consumers by factors like age, area, education level, industry, and even user performance — e.g., the pages a user has liked.

Social Media Is the Core to Customer Service

Fast customer response time isn’t arbitrary anymore. If there’s a difficulty with your product or service, your clients expect you to answer it right away. Few organizations are meeting those expectations.

Social Media Is a Classic Addition to PR Strategy

Press releases are an indispensable part of any marketing strategy, especially when you’re launching a new product or making a massive change in your company. Still, most people get the distribution part wrong. If you’re accustomed to writing a press release and sending it out on PRWeb, you’re wasting your money.

Conclusion

Your small business needs to use social media to stay relevant in today’s day and age. Just having a Facebook profile alone is no longer acceptable if you want to maximize your social media marketing proficiency.

Create profiles on multiple platforms as long as your target audience is active on those channels.

You need to post content regularly. Just make sure your posts are all related to your established marketing goals. Your profiles need to be appealing to consumers. Run campaigns designed to get more followers.

Marketing via social media for small businesses can be a fun way to promote your business cost-effectively. However, in order to save time consider using a social media content calendar to plan and schedule content ahead of time.

While Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn fit for many different business models, Pinterest may be more matched towards a more creative business such as a graphic designer or a wedding planner.

However, you can give your business a significant boost by combining multiple forms of social media for small business marketing despite your business type.

Frequently Asked Questions

Happy Business-ing!