According to a recent poll, over 70% of small businesses use social media, according to a survey of more than 350 small business owners.
Ten years ago, just 7% of the U.S. population used at least one social media channel. Now, that number is up to 70% and increasing.
The majority of people are on social media, and businesses of all sizes can use the technology to reach current and potential customers in ways not possible before the internet.
In our own experience, working with small business owners, those who have designed a solid Social Media Marketing Strategy and applied a little Metal to the Pedal have been pleasantly rewarded with increases prospects, sales, and better customer engagement
Here are Five tips to become more effective with your time spent on Social Media
5. Show Off (YOU are Awesome!)
First of all, it’s easy to be inauthentic on social media. Social cues present in verbal communication are just not possible via Twitter and Facebook.
Most social platforms operate best on quick snapshot reflections rather than thorough, detailed reflections of how you feel. Even though capturing your tone is difficult on social, it is vital to your success. Do not hesitate to use audio. Also, remember today on Facebook, you can speak directly to a friend via messenger
There are tons of ways to show off your actual personality and get the tone of voice just right. All it takes is letting your own personality shine through. Be sure your photos are to date and do not hesitate to contact “friends” and followers directly. When I find people who I feel akin to on Social; media we establish a personal connection quickly
And remember, off-the-cuff commentary and genuine humor is social media marketing gold!
4. Focus on the Customer
Many people want to use social media as a forum for customer service. An insightful article from Sprout Social points out that Social Listening Tools are a great way to solve customer service issues.
There are tons of added benefits to using Effective Listening .. like collecting specific phrases people use when discussing your products.
However, the most important thing is that you are solving customer relations issues faster than ever.
3. Know Your Buyer Personas
You need to know who to target with your awesome content, right? Finding your audience means having a strategy to segment demographics based on more than
one or two features.
For example, just because your core demographic is between 18-30 does not mean you should ignore 50+ folks who share similar interests. Building personas can be done either via existing customer information data or be based on an idealized customer. Do not hesitate to run split tests when Boosting on Social Media
Or just plain out ASKING what is your “prospect likes or dislike”
When I was in front of prospects on a daily basis, most of the time was spent ASKING questions and LISTENING carefully.
Finding the common ground helps deliver solutions that are acted upon
2. Adopt A Unique Social Media Strategy (By Platform)
In 2018, the trend of sharing the same creative content across all platforms is going the way of the dodo bird. The market has become inured to the same topic posted across various groups and pages
As more data is collected on Instagram and LinkedIn, social media marketers can now state conclusively that each platform should have its own content strategy. Primarily because each Social Media Platform seems to have unique mindsets on the average
Learn to audit your Social Media Platforms to isolate where the holes are. Look at the insights and analytics regularly and keep notes on changes and then modify your content accordingly. After that, identify your top performing posts by the platform. I typically post different content on Linked-In than on Facebook and also Twitter.
From here, you should start to get a good idea on which content works best for each social media channel.
1. Create CTA Content
Finally, nothing in business should be done without a stated goal and a specific call-to-action. It is imperative to have a goal with your social media strategy that tackles business outcomes.
Business outcomes could be:
- Event sign ups
- Booked consultations
- Downloads of your long-form content
- Subscribing to your newsletter or podcast
An effective social media strategy should be a problem-solving tool for your business. It should also be a problem-solving tool for your customers!
And so many forget to ASK. Yes, ASK for the decision. Make sure every piece of content conveys that with a clear call-to-action (CTA)
