If you’re struggling with your small business’s social media strategy, turn to these tried-and-true tips for taking your strategy from stalled to stellar in no time at all. Here are five tips that put your social media activities to work:
1. Just Be Yourself
Plenty of marketers post multiple updates per day on places like Facebook, offering their followers links to their recent blog posts and tips for succeeding in business. How can you stand out from the crowd?
Being yourself and allowing your personality to shine through your social media communications can help you get the attention and interaction that will boost marketing success. Let your followers and fans know there’s a real, live person behind your posts by sprinkling in personal touches.
For example, posting pictures of your latest culinary masterpiece, or other creative endeavors, adds a fun element to an otherwise “just business” profile. If you’re heading out to cheer on your favorite sports team, or you heard something hilarious (but PG-rated) on the subway that your followers might enjoy as well, share them with your online community. These personal touches keep things fresh and are excellent conversation starters, so be sure to use them in addition to your regular wall posts.
2. Find Your Place Online
As a small business, you know you have to prioritize your resources carefully, including which social networks you devote time and energy to. Having your business on multiple social media profiles, but only giving them partial effort, won’t cut it. You need to determine where your customers are, and then devote all your effort to that network.
Use Follower Wonk or Facebook’s advertising platform to find out where your target audience is most concentrated. Then, invest all your resources building a loyal following there, and engage your community by giving it the attention it deserves. Your good work here will help you build a case for expanding your reach (and the necessary resources) on additional sites as you grow.
3. Generate Leads With Facebook
Once you’ve begun engaging your Facebook community, why not leverage your page to generate leads? Facebook offers small businesses new ways of building their lists of qualified leads. For example, you can offer an opt-in strategy directly on your page by using iFrames to create a custom welcome tab. This tab should include a two-step process called a “reveal tab.”
Step 1: Create a call to action to encourage new visitors to Like your page.
Step 2: After visitors Like your page, offer them a giveaway for providing their name and email.
Following this simple two-step model will help you increase both your fan base and lead list–now, that’s efficient!
4. Make the Most of Video
Using video is a creative and interactive way to get your small business to the top of search results, and social media can help. Google and other search engines use video to decide which pages should be displayed first, but you must tag, title and publish your videos correctly to get their full SEO benefits.
One way to add video marketing to your social media strategy is by creating a custom channel on YouTube. This is super easy to do. Think about what problem your business solves for its customers, and create a series of short instructional videos related to this problem. Use the videos to show how your business can help customers, and try adding testimonials from current customers as well. For the best videos, use humor and graphics to communicate your messages, and keep it under three minutes.
5. Do The Hard Work
To stand out in a sea of content, sometimes you have to get down and dirty. What information do your customers really want to know? If you’re willing to solve your customers’ hardest problems and answer their toughest questions, your content will be linked to and shared. This activity will get you higher search rankings and more followers/fans on Twitter and Facebook.
Think about the most difficult and interesting customer questions, and create a list. Every time you sit down to write, use one of these questions as a starting point. Be honest, do the extra research required, and strive to help customers with their challenges. Then, publish your content and promote it on all your social media platforms. Doing this consistently will earn you significant results.
If you follow these five tips, you should start to see the payoff of your efforts rather quickly. Do you have additional tips that have taken your small business social media strategy from mediocre to outstanding? Share them with us by leaving a comment below.
Image courtesy of creative design firm Arrae
