Learn how to build a social media marketing strategy for your small business

Social media marketing has become huge. It has become a dominating part of digital marketers’ budgets and a crucial part of small and mid-sized business’s marketing strategies. In fact, approximately 86% of marketers are actively using Facebook to promote their businesses. The barriers to entry are tiny; any business can easily create their own Facebook page and Twitter account in a matter of about 3-4 minutes. With the introduction of affordable social media marketing tools, creating an attractively designed presence on Facebook and Twitter is easier than it’s ever been. The tricky part for businesses everywhere learn social media marketing is creating a following that is actually meaningful in both size and relevance. A couple hundred Twitter followers and a few hundred fans on Facebook aren’t going to produce much revenue, regardless of how “targeted” they are. You need to reach a significant number of people on Facebook in order to get anywhere, then, when you actually reach them, you need to look legit or you’re toast. You must have a solid strategy in place once you have those fans or you may as well not have them in the first place. According importance of social media marketing to Fast Company 93% of marketers use social media for business. Which means only 7% of marketers say they don’t use social media for their business. If you are in that 7%, you are at such a loss! Social media helps share content with thousands of people all at once. In today’s blog, we are going to talk to you about using social media to your advantage.

Here are some easy strategies to get your business up and running

If your company is just starting out, you need to be using strategies that will make your company visible as soon as possible. Don’t follow in other companies methods. What might work for one company might not work for yours. Firstly, find out where your audience will most likely see you. Try and find what social media sites your target audience are commonly on. From this survey, we learn that Facebook has 1.35 billion active social media marketing agencies monthly users but we also learn that Tumblr, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest are becoming just as successful. Take your pick! Before you start looking for friends or followers, you need to have information on your page. You need to give them a reason to follow you. People will look at your page first before deciding whether you’re worth following, if your page is inactive or hasn’t the correct information they will move on. On Twitter or Google+ to find your followers you can search keywords related to your business, the quicker you do this the better relationship you can build with people online and the easier it is to discover your business. Getting followers is one thing, but keeping followers, that’s the challenge. If you are inactive your followers will forget about you, simple as. Remember to post regularly and keep your customers engaged. Commit to a posting schedule, if you’re going to post weekly or monthly, it can give your customers an idea when to check your page for these posts. Get interacting with your followers if they message you with questions or comment on your posts. The main problem many businesses face is the lack of interaction search and social media marketing between their audience. A Hub is an easy way of communicating with your audience and keeping them up to date with everything you do. See an example of a Hub Here. All your posts from social media sites are all in one place for your customers and are updated automatically. Having a Hub is the easiest social media strategy. You can have all of your information and updates in one place on your mobile. It couldn’t be easier to set up.

Is Your Social Media Strategy Consistent?

Figuring out your ideal audience and where they are having conversations on social media is a critical first step in developing a healthy social media strategy. Profiling your ideal customer will help tailor all your marketing messages to attract them at the right place social media marketing applications and time. By knowing more about your ideal customer, you can determine which social media channels to focus your time and resources on. Each channel should have a clear purpose; whether it’s strengthening brand awareness, building your online community, or delivering great customer support. If you’re scratching your head on whether Facebook,Twitter, Google Plus, Pinterest, or Linkedin is right for your audience, here is a great resource from Wix that can help. Social can also be an effective platform for selling to your ideal customers, just remember to put down the bullhorn and don’t push too hard or else you’ll end up with low engagement and a lot of unlikes. Once you know which channels to focus on and their purpose, you can set goals for each. Setting SMART social media goals can be tricky. With so much data, it’s easy to fall into traps like counting followers or likes. It’s exciting to get thousands of followers but with the declining trend in organic reach, marketing using social media that number doesn’t tell the whole story when you are trying to measure success on your social media efforts. Goals will be dependent on each channel and it’s purpose… Think percentage increases because these are specific enough to measure progress but have the longevity a single number doesn’t. You can measure the impact that social has on your website by looking at Google analytics and measuring increases in traffic and conversions linked to social channels. For simple tips on how to track social media in Google check out this great resource from Social Media Examiner. Use can also use simple tools like Klout which measures your brand recognition and influence online, across multiple social media platforms.