Social Media Strategies to Help Your Business Grow: In today's world, social media is one of the best ways any small business owner can market themselves - if it is done right. In North America alone, the populace spends, on average, 126 minutes per day using social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. In a sea of like-minded business owners and consumers, there is more content and networks than ever before, making it more important than ever to stand out among the crowd.
In order to do this, a succinct strategy and set of goals are imperative. Here are some strategies that can help you to use your social media effectively, improve your reach, and hit those major milestones that you need to grow your business to new levels.
Define Your Goals
It is important in any endeavour, to start out with a goal in mind. In terms of social media, you should understand clearly what exactly you expect as a result of your social media use. If you are working with a team of social media specialists, communicating these goals will help them to curate your content towards that realization. You should make sure they are attainable, and measurable so that you can see if your strategies are working or not. A few goals you may have in mind could include:
- Driving Traffic To Your Website
- Generating Leads
- Increasing Sales
- Growing Your Audience
- Growing Your Brand
- Increasing Community Engagement
Quality over Quantity
There are many ways that you can be present on social media, however, just because they exist, does not mean you need to use them all. It is important that when you do something, you do it well. Attempting to saturate all social media platforms with blogs, vlogs, podcasts, and posts can have you spreading yourself thin, and diluting your effort. Instead, stick to the platforms you are most comfortable with, and master them. The quality content that you release will be more effective and produce better results than posting more content that may not be as impactful.
Develop Your Content Ahead of Time
A content calendar will help you set yourself up for success by pre-planning your content in advance. You can plan themes by month, plan to celebrate holidays with your audience, and see everything at a glance to ensure your brand’s message is being delivered. You can do this on your own with spreadsheets on Google or Excel, use social media scheduling programs, or hire a team of social media specialists to take care of all the behind-the-scenes planning and posting that you require. At Virtual Roots, we meet with our clients regularly to ensure their voice is heard and their brand is represented in all of their posted social media content.
Master the Art of Scheduled Posts
If you're running a business, you likely already know that every minute counts. Keeping active social media accounts shows your audience just how much your business means to you, and how passionate you are about your product. Unfortunately, keeping up an active social media account can feel like a separate part-time job altogether - and that’s because it is!
The solution: Once you have all your content, schedule it in advance. Set a few hours aside once a week, or once a month, to pre-plan your content and schedule it to publish at times when you are otherwise unavailable. This keeps your brand active while you stay on top of the to-do list that occupies your daily routine.
Engage With Your Audience
Posting on social media is one thing, but engaging with your followers brings new depths. If your audience is responding to your content, try engaging more with your people! Ask questions, take polls, get their opinion, offer solutions, and keep generating informative or inspirational content that has them liking, sharing, commenting, or getting in touch with you directly! Interacting with your client base can help you to increase sales, recommendations, and reviews while creating brand loyalty along the way - all of which are a great help to any small business!
Investing in your business with precise social media strategies is key to successful digital marketing. For help with your social media management, get in touch today. We are here to help you plant the seeds that will have your business growing in no time.
