IS YOUR SMALL BUSINESS READY FOR SOCIAL MEDIA?

Social Media has revolutionized the online marketing world. Though many marketers predicted that the popularity of social media would fade over time, its presence has only grown and it’s now an essential part of any content marketing strategy. Social media is a great way to vastly widen your company’s reach, but it can take a lot of work in order to be effective. Is your small business ready to take on the responsibility of a full-fledged social media strategy?

Picking the Right Channels

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Instagram, Pinterest, Periscope: The list of social media sites goes on and on. It’s easy to create a presence for your business on all of these sites, but it may not be wise to. Small businesses don’t have the advantage of dedicating an entire team to growing their social media presence. It’s best to pick the sites that will give you the most bang for your buck; the most leads for your time. 

Before you jump into social media, evaluate which channels cater most to the audiences you hope to reach. For example, a B2B company may find more of a qualified audience on LinkedIn than on Facebook, but a retail boutique will have more success finding customers through Pinterest. Researching which social channels will give you the highest ROI will pay off tenfold.

Posting Regularly

One of the most important factors in growing your social audience and keeping them engaged is posting often and consistently. When you are breaking into social media, make sure you set a posting schedule that you can stick to. This schedule should go hand in hand with your overarching content strategy to make sure your blog posts, offers, and updates are being shared.

Engaging Your Fans

If you want your social media strategy to be successful, you can’t just post and walk away. It’s imperative to interact with your fans by replying to their comments and messages on a regular basis. As you build your audience, you can leverage them to create user-generated content to help fuel your content marketing strategy.

This is Just the Beginning

Once you’ve launched your small business’s social media strategy, you’re opening the door to a world of potential. As your business grows, you’ll be able to take advantage of all of the benefits these sites offer.