Tips To Grow Your Small Business Through Social Media
If you’re a small business owner, social media is one of the most important tools you can use to ensure long-term success. Check out some of our favorite tips.
The domination of social media in our current world has done a lot to level the playing field for small businesses in marketing and communication. Currently, there are over 4.2 billion active social media users in the world, each spending an average of 2 hours and 25 minutes on social platforms every day. This has given small businesses a venue to effectively interact with clients and potential customers on a global scale, in real-time, and with little to no cost. Thus, small businesses can leverage the unique opportunity that is social media and use it to:
- Build brand awareness and increase visibility.
- Communicate with people in a more personal, direct way.
- Generate new leads and boost sales.
- Share expertise.
In this article, we discuss a few strategies and tips to use on social media that will help grow your small business.
Be Clear On Your Goals
Though creating a solid social media presence generally does not require loads of money, it does require you to invest time and effort. There will always be a learning curve as you learn the ropes of what works and what does not. However, having clear, specific goals on what you intend to accomplish on the platform allows you to effectively track the return on investment (ROI) of the choices you make on social media for your business. All moves you make on social media should be garnered to support your specific business goals.
The main reason you’re on social media is to grow your business. Without clear goals, you’re diving into the world of social media blind, hoping for the best, and not taking full advantage of your investment.
Take Time To Nurture and Grow Relationships
Fostering relationships with people from all walks of life on a global scale has never been this easy. The dawn of social media has enabled businesses to directly communicate with customers, followers, and other like-minded business professionals—building and nurturing relationships that could turn into sales or lucrative partnerships in the future. The trick with building relationships on social media is to give your fan following content that is relevant to them. Create and share content that informs, educates, empowers, or entertains people. This will get people intrigued by you and develop a community that trusts your work and will advocate for your business. Further, reach out to influencers who are relevant to your brand. You could also carry out contests and mention some of your followers in your posts and content to engage with them and build deeper connections that will ensure they continue to promote your business in the long run.
Choose the Right Social Media Platform Focus On
There are more than a hundred social media platforms available in the world today. Thus, finding the perfect social media platform for your small business can be difficult. Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook are usually a safe bet to start with, as they give access to a larger, more diverse audience. Nonetheless, you still need to find a particular social media platform to focus more of your time and effort. To effectively know which platform to focus on, you need to find out where and how your target audience spends time online.
Nevertheless, this does not mean you ignore your other social media platforms. The average person has around 8 social media accounts. Thus, having different accounts will allow you to interact with your audience in different ways. The trick is to have a particular platform where you dominate while still paying attention to your other accounts.
We hope these tips help you to grow your small business to success.