Top 10 Ways Small Businesses Can Improve Social Media Presence

Small businesses around the world know that social media is here to stay. You only need to look at the social media demographics across all platforms to know this! But that doesn't mean you've got the time or effort required to create a proper presence on the right network.

Even if you haven't optimized your social media presence, there's still time, and the benefits will be well worth the effort. There are many benefits to developing your brand on social media. It can help improve your brand's social customer service, help you communicate with customers and prospects on a whole new level, reach new audiences, build authority, and drive traffic to your website.

In short, creating a workable social media strategy can drive growth for your small business by fostering lasting and loyal relationships with prospects and customers. Use a social media style guide to keep track of several different elements to ensure that your brand presence on social media is managed with quality and consistency.

1. Choose the Right Network

Social media has exploded since Facebook went public in 2012, and there are thousands of networks dedicated to everything from connecting old classmates to social activism.

So with all these options, how does a business choose the right people? Most experts recommend joining the most popular, and choosing the right people depends on your audience and your goals. Here is some information to help you get started:

• Facebook: The largest platform, has 2.89 billion active monthly users, and the site is ideal for businesses that want to generate leads and build relationships. If you're just starting out to network, check out this guide to advertising on Facebook!

• LinkedIn: Platform for Business Networking can be used by both B2B and B2C businesses to build trust, build authority and engage audiences.

• Twitter: Whose platform is instant, perfect for businesses that have a core audience of less than 50 and need to stay on top of time-sensitive information like breaking news, announcements and trending topics.

• Pinterest: The photo-sharing site is a great platform for businesses with visual appeal (think restaurants, fashion, art, travel, and weddings). This is more for social discovery than social networking and is great for increasing sales because so many users look to the site to plan a purchase.

• Snapchat: The expiring-content platform is one of the fastest-growing social networking sites, despite rumors that parent company Snap was in trouble a few years ago. Businesses can take advantage of Snapchat by offering promotions, providing personalized content, providing exclusive reach, and building relationships with influencers to drive brand recognition and loyalty.

• Instagram: Instagram was so successful that it was bought by Facebook in 2012, just 2 years after its launch. Its success lies in staying true to its core goal - to allow users to post photos and videos from their mobiles. Featuring content that expires in 24 hours, building Instagram Stories (an idea stolen from Snapchat!) has enabled it to amass nearly 1 billion global users.

• TikTok: A phenomenon in the social media world, TikTok is one such force with which it has grown rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Its popularity among influencers and celebrities made it the first app not owned by Facebook to reach 3 billion installs. The platform's usability, vast music directory, and unique filters attract an engaged young demographic.

2. Set a Goal

Being active on social media has many benefits for your business, and there are many things you can accomplish with a social presence. This includes serving customers, attracting customers, generating leads, expanding your audience, increasing sales, increasing web traffic, gaining valuable insights and feedback, and more.

But to achieve these as with any measure of success, you must have a goal to work towards because you will need to create a social media strategy and take steps to get there. For example, your techniques for increasing sales will differ from your approach to improving your customer service proposition. That's why it's important to know what you want to achieve.

3. Come up with a Strategy

Aiming to improve your social media presence is great, but it's only the beginning. Once you know what you want to achieve, you need to have a plan to get there.

Begin by designating the person or people who will be part of the social media team, and break down your roles and responsibilities so that everyone knows what is expected and when.

You should also decide on your posting frequency, and create a content calendar that will help you plan posts and not miss the day. This approach to scheduling is a big part of your strategy and there are great social media calendar templates you can use:

• who is your audience
• What topics and topics are interested in your audience
• Content you already have
• What kind of content do you still need to create or curate
• When and on which platform the content will be published

The most effective way to develop a strategy for your business is to learn from the best. Consider a social media marketing and marketing course that focuses on social research and social strategy so you can find your audience and know how to engage them.

4. Build a Content Creation or Curation Plan Keeping Your Audience in Mind

Knowing your audience is important when it comes to finding success with social media engagement. This is because the interests and needs of your audience will determine what type of content you should share and how you engage your followers.

For example, if you're a coffee roaster, your target audience may be interested in recipes for fancy coffee drinks, brewing tips and techniques, and other Java-related articles. Some important things you should know about your audience include age, location, gender, goals, likes, needs, behaviors, challenges, and pain points.

No matter who your audience is, the content you share should always be high quality and relevant. You should check popular content types and prioritize videos, images and other types of visual content as often as possible as these are liked by all demographics and audiences.

5. Select Tools to Schedule and Automate Posts

It takes time and dedication to be active and present on social media. But there are plenty of automation tools available for content creators to automatically publish and schedule up to a month in advance.

These tools, which include Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Buffer, MeetEdgar and BuzzSumo, can save you time by allowing you to plan and schedule batches of posts all at once. They also make it easy to monitor your network and respond to messages quickly.

6. Actively Engage Your Audience in Relevant Ways

Although content is extremely important on social media, it is not enough to simply post your content and walk away. You have to create content that is upbeat and entertaining to drive engagement and engagement. This way you can foster the relationships you want to build and gain the trust of your audience.

There are several ways you can connect with your audience:

• comment on post
• initiate and participate in conversation
• share relevant information
• Share User-Generated Content (UGC)
• ask and answer questions
• Post polls and follow results
• Address complaints and criticisms
• Show Appreciation for Customers

7. Minimize promotional time

Although the practice of social selling to drive sales is becoming increasingly popular among salespeople and marketers, the process of using social networks to drive growth is different than most people are used to.

Instead of using social as an active promotional platform, it is best to use it as a tool for engagement and communication.

In fact, it is recommended that businesses follow the 80/20 rule and keep their promotional materials to 20%. The lion's share of the content should be devoted to meeting the needs of your audience.

8. Maintain a Consistent Presence and Brand Voice

Social media is not another done deal. Developing a believable presence takes time and patience.

A perfect platform for brand building and recognition, it is important that each post is in line with your brand and image. This can be difficult if you have multiple people assigned to social media, as everyone will bring their own personality to their posts. For this reason, it's best to limit the number of people responsible for posting, and make sure everyone knows the voice and image you want to present.

When it comes to posting, automation tools used effectively can save you a lot of time and ensure your presence on your network, even if you are not! With the right tools, you can reduce the time it takes to dedicate to social media, but still need at least 15 minutes a day to monitor your channels and answer questions.

In terms of posting frequency, the exact number really depends on the platform you are using. For LinkedIn and Facebook, don't post more than once a day, and limit posts to five times a week. Twitter, on the other hand, changes so quickly that the more you post, the better. With Pinterest, 11 pins a day seems like a magic number while Instagram audience likes 1-2 posts a day.

9. View accurate metrics to monitor your progress

The use of social media is increasing all the time, and there are more active users each month than ever before, especially on popular networks. It is not necessary to have a presence on every social platform. This is a better strategy for defining your goals, locating your audience, and choosing the right network for you based on those factors.

Your brand capabilities and social media goals will determine important metrics and it is important to measure these to make sure you are on the right track. For example, if you want to increase site traffic, focus on the amount of referral traffic coming from social.

There are many resources you can rely on for metrics, including Google Analytics, Facebook Analytics and Page Insights, Sprout Social, LinkedIn Company Page Reports, Keyhole, Twitter Analytics and Keywords reports, Buffer and BuzzSumo.

10. Keep learning by enrolling in a social media and marketing course

The key to mastering social media is understanding how to find and connect with your audience and how each platform works. A great way to do this is to take the time to enroll in a social media and marketing course that will teach you everything you need to know for business success.

With DMI's Certified Online Social Media Marketing course you will gain a deeper understanding of social research, social strategy and content development as well as important social platforms including Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube and TikTok. Get started today to set your business on the right track.