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Grow Your Small Business With Social Media

Social media is everywhere these days. People can access various platforms on their phones, tablets, computers and even get updates on their smartwatches. If you have a social media presence, people all around the world can discover who you are.

And this is perfect for any small business hoping to grow its company and expand its audience. Because social media is so widespread, reaching people across the globe becomes a simple task. 

But how does social media help small businesses flourish? Let’s take a closer look at social media, its benefits, and how small businesses should harness its power.

Why Is Social Media So Good For Small Businesses?

The benefits of social media are wide-reaching, but for small businesses, in particular, you can use social platforms to better your business and brand. The following are the top five benefits of social media when used correctly by small business owners.

It Allows You To Increase Brand Awareness 

Posting on social media is an effortless way to highlight what your business offers and create brand awareness across many social platforms. And because of its sharable nature, it just takes a few customers clicks to spread your brand further.

It Encourages Conversations

In its essence, social media is all about communication and opening up conversations between people. And for sellers, hearing directly from the customer via incoming messages is crucial to learn more about your customer base.

It Is Cost-Effective

Generally, social media is free to use and promote your products or services on. This makes it a great tool for small companies that want to get their name out there and garner more customer attention without having to spend cash on special promotional services.

It Is Perfect For Customer Service

Social media is about people, so businesses will find it very useful to keep in touch with clientele and their concerns. Businesses that interact with their social media audiences will likely boost sales due to good customer relations.

It Reaches Everyone

Once thought to be a young persons’ game, social media now reaches all ages and demographics. This is important for any business, as narrowing your audience or potential customer outreach will only damage your sales and brand awareness.

How Do You Grow Your Small Business With Social Media?

Social media is not just for personal use—businesses of any size can benefit significantly from its outreach and shareability. But how do you use it to enhance your small business? Here are 21 of the best ways you can use social media to grow your company.

1. Choose The Right Social Media Platforms

There are so many choices for social media sites these days. However, it’s important to choose the correct social channels to funnel your content into so that you reach the right audience.

Having the best place to actually put your social media posts out into the internet is crucial, as posting to the wrong channel for your type of business might not have as much brand outreach.

Popular major social networks that many businesses have found successful include the following:

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Snapchat
  • Tik Tok
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
2. Communicate Authority

Not only should your social media posts spread awareness of your company, but you should also be able to communicate your brand’s authority within both industry trends and the sales sector that your products are part of.

Businesses with a strong voice of authority within their sphere and customer base can also have excellent reputation management, allowing for better customer relations should something go wrong during a sale or transaction.

3. Create A Conversation

Social media is about communication, and every business should use its platform to converse with the target audience. That includes reading incoming messages, taking customer feedback, and offering great virtual customer service.

When your client base feels comfortable enough to share your business’s social posts with new and potential customers, it can generate leads that would not have been possible otherwise. So, encouraging conversations is essential.

4. Create A Recognizeable Brand

One of the first steps is to create a recognizable brand for your customers to associate with your company. 

Not only does that include narrowing your content and streamlining the services or products you offer, but also making a visible marker for your business.

Brand recognition includes the visuals used on your social media profiles, including profile pictures and cover photos. The aesthetic aspect of a brand’s marketing strategy should be subtle but still draw in curious new customers.

5. Decide On Your Goal

Traditional media can only spread brand awareness so far, but social media does not suffer from this limitation. But you should narrow down what aspect your business should focus on.

Decide early on your goal with social channels—increasing the customer base, getting feedback, or simply getting more clicks on your website.

6. Establish Your Brand As A Thought Leader

No matter what your brand offers, use social media to establish it as a thought leader among other businesses—in other words, as a go-to place for information about the industry, latest trends, and top tips.

Social media might not be a fact-checking environment, but make sure all your posts and content are information-based and truthful. This enhances the trust and loyalty of your customers and promotes your brand even more.

7. Expand To New Audiences

A loyal social media audience is important for your business, but brand reach that brings in new customers is essential for growing your company. Always try to expand your perimeters to encompass potential clients for the best results.

This can be done through advanced targeting and excellent customer service for current customers. If your existing and loyal clientele enjoys your business enough, they will inevitably bring in new people!

8. Have A Consistent Voice & Message

Always keep your voice and messaging the same in social media posts. Because social media users look for consistency in brands they trust, this is an important consideration.

Choose whether you want your language to be elevated and academic, or if your posts can start with “hey, you guys”—they’re two very different voices, and you shouldn’t switch between them.

9. Have A Constant & Strong Social Media Presence

Always be on the minds of your customer base with a consistent social presence. This is especially key for any small business social media channels, where latency periods could cost you, customers. 

Posting and interacting are keys to increasing web traffic and sales.

10. Increase Audience Engagement

Whether you are working with an existing clientele, a possible target audience, or trying to entice potential customers, it’s important always to know what your audience is looking for and provide that.

Engaging customers online is one of the best ways to boost sales and connect with active users and their social media followers. If you can actively engage with the community around your business, brand awareness and curiosity are sure to follow.

11. Increase Brand Awareness

Brand awareness is synonymous with a better understanding of your business, which is key. Your company’s domain authority also rises as your social media reach increases.

This content sharing and brand recognition create what is known as a lead funnel, where people can click on your social posts and end up with goods or services being purchased from you.

But it all starts with raising awareness for your brand and business!

12. Improve Search Engine Ranking

When it comes to the technical side of your social media marketing and brand reach, SEO is a surefire way to increase traffic and subsequent traffic generated sales.

In short, by harnessing the correct keywords and structuring your social media content around them, you can reach the top-ranked pages as determined by search engines and their algorithms. SEO is a key part of social media marketing.

Not only does your web traffic rise, but your content will be more likely to show up on the feeds of people who don’t already follow your business, bringing in even more customers. This all generates leads, website traffic, and more sales.

13. Listen To Your Audience

Most people are not shy about voicing their opinions over social media, so small business owners should listen to social media users. It’s important to keep your business in touch with the needs of your target audience.

A great way to use the social network for gauging audience feelings is through pain points—by creating an interactive way for customers to tell you about the process of using your business and where you might improve.

Taking customer experience into consideration via social media networks is key for creating a lasting and impactful small business.

14. Mix Up The Content

Content creation is the base of your social media marketing, as it shows your customers and potential clientele what your business offers. It’s important to make plenty of content for your social channels and keep them constantly updated.

The most successful social media marketing for a small business involves varied content. Don’t just post photos of your products; add some blog posts into the mix. Alternatively, if you have a lot of wordy content on your social pages, add video content.

The key is to keep your business’s content diverse and fresh across all your social media profiles for current and potential customers alike.

15. Monitor Metrics

One of the best ways to see where your business lies in terms of social media success is through important metrics, such as competitive analysis, keyword reports, and more.

Some businesses find this so helpful that they employ a social media examiner. However, if your small business cannot afford it, don’t worry too much.

The key is to monitor the metrics and data generated by your social networks and other forms of social media interaction. Not only your business posts but also customer interaction and even engagement with other brands!

16. Offer Great Customer Service

Other businesses might offer similar products or services to your own business, but the way to make your company shine is through fantastic customer service and client interactions directly with you. This also creates a strong sense of customer loyalty.

Social platforms are the perfect place to interact with various social media users, and by taking advantage of the two-way communication that social media platforms provide, you can easily increase audience engagement and perfect customer service.

17. Show Authenticity

Having a social presence is all about letting your personality shine through online, and a small business’s social media is no different. Be true to the heart and purpose of your brand, and let that show across your social networks.

18. Tell Your Story

People love a story, and the same is true for social media users. Many consumers appreciate the background of a company and the history behind a small business in particular.

Don’t be afraid to share your business’s story on social media. This can be done simply or through extensive posts, depending on what your audience wants. It creates a human engagement that will drive your popularity even further upwards.

19. Utilize Social Media Upload Tools

We already discussed the importance of consistent posting, but how do you truly achieve a regular flow of social media content?

Lining up posts to put up every day—or even multiple times per day—can seem daunting, but luckily, some tools can assist your business in achieving just that.

Using applications that help you schedule posts and create an entire content calendar means you no longer have to worry about what you need to post on a given day. Plan your social media weeks in advance, and set posts to auto-upload for you.

These applications are an easy way to set up recurring events on social networks, such as Small Business Saturday, which is a great promotional marketing campaign started by American Express.

Never forget a post with these easy social media marketing and management tools! Some of the best options for social media posting and scheduling tools include the following:

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