How to Promote Your Business on Social Media
You may know nothing about social media, you may not even care, and yet there is probably some part of you that feels like your business may be missing out on revenue if it does not have a presence on social media. So here are a few tips on how to promote your business on Social Media.
Social media is ubiquitous. It is so deeply ingrained in our lives that much of what we consume in terms of news and information somehow arrives through the filter of social media channels. This means it is extremely important to have some form of presence for your business, but it is useless (and maybe counter-productive) unless it is properly curated.
Millennials (and anyone else for whom social media is second nature) are subtle, so you need to use social media in an honest way that gains trust. This means you cannot simply shout about your product, brand or service from the metaphorical street corner, but instead you must be honest about your business and provide useful, informative and engaging online content that generates trustworthiness and loyalty which can ultimately be translated organically into sales. This might be funny or serious or indeed a mixture depending on your audience so…
…Find out who your audience is.
We all have a preconception about our line of work and our business and therefore who our target audience is, but it is always worth researching this in order to find niches you can target or simply to open your eyes as to how society’s norms change.
I first went to the gym when I was 19 and there were no women lifting weights. This is wildly different to the gym I now frequent some 25 years later. It is also fair to say the slimming products have always been targeted at women, whereas I wouldn't mind betting there is now a growing market for men to buy these products.
Find out where your audience hangs out.
Once you know who your audience is it is also important to understand where they meet, what platforms they use and what are their interests. This not only helps you understand where you should be present, but gives you the opportunity to see what makes them tick. Listening is a key skill in building a valued social media presence for your business.
Armed with this information, you can listen to them, talk to them (answering in Facebook groups or Twitter chats for example) and…
…Find out what your audience needs help with.
When you understand the “pain points” of your target market you can begin to see how your business (brand/product/service) can help to solve them. Once this is clear to you it can inform the kind of content you create, (for example videos addressing issues that crop up frequently) and how you go about engaging with them through your online presence and social media.
For example, quite a few of our clients are looking to free up a few hours so they can concentrate on growing their business. Naturally a lot of content we produce relates to how a virtual assistant can help them to lighten the load, but we also tackle the associated problems (whether real or perceived) that crop time and again, such as the process of delegation and how to delegate work successfully.
Don’t be everywhere, just be consistent
You don’t need to be everywhere. If your audience does not tend to use LinkedIn but does use Instagram, don’t feel you have to maintain a LinkedIn presence. It is better to be focused and do one thing well, than to spread yourself too thinly and not properly promote your business on social media.
Quality over quantity is a good rule, however each social media is different in terms of the optimum number of posts. What they have in common is the need for consistency. You need to be using social media the way “they” want you to. This means (amongst many other things) posting regularly - not sporadically, uploading your videos rather than linking to them on another network, creating the right length post for each network, using the right number of hashtags and so on and so forth.
The algorithms which end up serving your content to users will reward your consistency and your adoption of their ways, so in order to make sure you have a regular stream of fresh and interesting content on your channels make sure you...
...Plan and Prepare
Create a calendar and prepare what you will post, the different styles of posts and when you will post them. In this way you can schedule content for a whole month or at least 2 weeks in advance ensuring that you maintain your visibility and credibility.
This does not mean you cannot be spontaneous or react to current events and trends, but it does take the pressure out of managing and maintaining your business social media channels. Once you have a plan, you can use your site content, testimonials, useful links to blogs or vlogs to prepare your posts in advance.
But remember, you are not shouting about yourself, but providing useful, amusing, informative and engaging snippets for your audience. Build trust and credibility - don’t go chasing sales.
These tips form the basis of a Social Media Strategy. If you are interested in finding out how we can help you make more of your social channels, get in touch.
We assess your needs, your target audience and put in place the correct strategy for you to exploit the appropriate channels to target your ideal audience.
Author: Thomas Smallwood is an outsourcing specialist. Having worked in companies around Europe, from the support desk to the boardroom, he founded bizee.co to help small businesses grow through efficient delegation to skilled virtual assistants. He is an award-winning blogger and a passionate advocate for mental health awareness.
Connect with Tom on LinkedIn.