To any small business owners out there I am sure that I don’t need to tell you just how challenging these last 12 months have been, and to those of you who are still fighting to survive then all the best with your efforts. Today, in this vein, we are going to talk about the importance of using social media for small businesses, something which many experts like Will Sherlund have been discussing recently, calling it the key to survival for businesses. More to the point, we will discuss exactly how you can take your business to the next level though the use of this medium. Predominantly here we are talking about Facebook and Instagram, and how you can use these social media channels to improve the business.
Marketing
There is absolutely no doubt that the biggest benefit which social media can offer to small businesses is the chance to market for free. In order to maximize this opportunity there are a couple of key aspects which you need to focus on. When marketing a product or a service it is critical that you get the content right, both the image or video and the accompanying text. Make sure that you do some research on what looks great and what grabs the attention best. Secondly you need to get your timing right, there is no point in posting in the dead of the night. Finally be sure to market the products or services which will attract the most people.
Engaging
Social media offers small business owners a rare opportunity in being able to communicate directly with their customers. This works as a long term marketing strategy because we know just how important it is for us to gain trust and loyalty from customers, especially in the current climate. Something which customers love is when you put a face or a voice to the business and your individual comments to them will do exactly this. Show your customers that you really care through direct engagement with them abut all manner of topics.
Calls to Action
A great way to get your social media popping is to use calls to action to entice your customers to get involved. The way that the algorithms work on these channels is that they feed your content to those accounts who they believe wants to see them. If you are able to create calls to action which bring about engagement then this is going to greatly help you when you post marketing content, to ensure that it goes to as many news feeds as possible. A call to action could be a poll on your channel, even about something topical rather than something business based. The idea is to get that engagement which you can then use to bring about more engagement in the future.
With just 30 minutes each day you can seriously use social media to bring in more customers and to increase sales from your existing customers too. There is no great science to much of this, the key is to recognize the need for consistency, do that and you will find success.
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