How Do I Make Social Media Work For Me?
Never fear! We've got a few tips and tricks that can help you make social media work for your business. Keep reading to find out more.
Small-medium-sized business owners have a lot on their plate. They are responsible for not only the day-to-day operations of their businesses but also for marketing and growing the company. And often, social media falls to the bottom of the list of priorities.
This article is designed to help small-medium-sized business owners understand how they can make social media work for them and their businesses. It will provide tips on creating a content strategy, making time for social media in your day, and leveraging user-generated content.
Social media can be an incredibly powerful tool for small-medium-sized businesses to reach new and important audiences for their brand, products and/or services.
If you’re like most small-medium size business owners, you know you need to be on social media, but you might not be sure how to make it work for you. After all, with so many options and platforms available, it can be tough to know where to start—or what to do next.
Never fear! We’ve got a few tips and tricks that can help you make social media work for your business. Keep reading to find out more.
Pick the Right Platforms
One of the first steps in making social media work for your business is to pick the right platforms. Not every platform will be a good fit for every business; it all depends on your target audience and what kinds of content you want to share.
For example, if you’re trying to reach millennials, TikTok might be a good platform for you. On the other hand, if you’re a B2B company, LinkedIn could be a better option. The important thing is to think about who you’re trying to reach and then choose accordingly.
Trying to be active on every single social media platform is a recipe for burnout—so pick a few that will work best for your business, and stick to those in the early running.
There will always be new platforms to jump on in the future, and you will also have the chance to start posting on the platforms you don’t choose to go with from the start as you progress on your journey.
As you build up a bigger and bigger bank of content, you’ll eventually be able to repurpose your content for other platforms, meaning you can start reaching new audiences without creating a whole batch of new content from scratch.
Consistency is Key
Once you’ve selected your platforms, it’s important to be consistent with your posting. That means posting regularly—aim for at least three times a week to start with and then build up to at least once a day—and using the same branding across all of your channels. This will help people recognise and remember your company, which is essential for building long-term relationships with customers and followers.
It can also be helpful to create a content calendar so that you always have something lined up to post. This will save you time in the long run and help ensure that your content is always fresh and relevant. Writing everything out in advance also gives you the opportunity to batch similar tasks together, which can make the actual process of creating and posting content much easier.
Listen and Engage With Your Audience
Also, it’s important to remember that social media isn’t just about broadcasting your message loud and clear; it’s also about listening to what others have to say. Pay attention to the comments people are leaving on your posts, as well as any messages or questions they might send your way via direct message or email. Then take the time to craft thoughtful responses—people will appreciate feeling heard, which can only help grow your audience and expand your reach.
Additionally, try to engage with other users on the platform, even if they’re not following you yet. Like and comment on their posts, and share their content with your followers when appropriate. This is a great way to build relationships and connect with potential customers or clients.
Create a content strategy
Another important tip for making social media work for your business is creating a content strategy. This will help you focus your efforts and ensure that all of your content is working together to achieve your larger business goals.
Your content strategy should start with your overall business goals—what do you want to achieve? Once you’ve answered this question, you can start thinking about what kinds of content will help you get there. For example, if you’re trying to increase brand awareness, you’ll want to create content that is shareable and catches people’s attention. If you’re trying to drive sales, on the other hand, you’ll want to focus on creating content that showcases your products or services in the best possible light.
Try and make content creation an organic part of your day
If you have to spend 30 minutes psyching yourself up for a video every day, your efforts on social media are going to fall flat pretty quickly.
Instead, it’s important to think about your day and work out what are the naturally occurring content creation opportunities.
For example, if you’re a personal trainer, filming your clients working out and then sharing their transformation story is something that you should be doing anyway. It’s not an additional thing on your to-do list that you have to plan and schedule; it’s just part of your normal routine.
The same goes for if you own a cafe. You should be taking photos of your food and drinks whenever you make them anyway, so why not share them on social media too?
The key is to make content creation an organic part of your day rather than something that feels like a chore.
Leverage User-Generated Content
One of the best ways to make social media work for your business is to leverage user-generated content (UGC). This refers to any kind of content—textual, visual, or otherwise—that’s created by regular people rather than businesses or paid influencers.
UGC is incredibly powerful because it’s seen as more trustworthy and relatable than content that comes directly from brands. People are more likely to believe and be influenced by their peers than they are by businesses, which is why UGC can be such an effective marketing tool.
There are a few different ways you can go about incorporating UGC into your social media strategy. One option is to run contests or giveaways and encourage people to submit photos or videos related to the prize. You can also simply ask your followers to share their own stories or experiences with your product or service and then repost the best submissions on your channels.
Another great way to get UGC is to partner with influencers in your industry. This can be anything from a micro-influencer with a few thousand followers to a major influencer with millions. The key is to find someone who’s relevant to your target audience and who produces high-quality content that will resonate with your followers.
Once you’ve found an influencer you want to work with, reach out and see if they’re interested in promoting your product or service on their channels. This is a great way to get your brand in front of a whole new audience, and it can also help boost your own social media following.
Final thoughts on making social media work for you
Making social media work for your business doesn’t have to be complicated or time-consuming; it just takes a little bit of planning and effort. By picking the right platform, being consistent with your postings, and taking the time to engage with your audience, you’ll soon see results.
As the above demonstrates, it is hard to get away from the fact that social media marketing – even when exceptionally well planned – is still a time-consuming task. For some businesses, it may be worthwhile to engage a digital marketing agency specialising in content and/or social media to assist.
Even if you can shoot the majority of content yourself, these businesses can assist with fantastic post-production support and take the fuss out of writing captions and scheduling posts.
However you want to go about it, the most important thing to do regarding social media is just to get started.
So what are you waiting for? Get started today!