Nowadays, everyone needs to know they need social media to grow their small business. Social media can be a great way for small businesses to advertise and connect with customers without the need for a huge marketing budget. Done right it could mean a huge boost to your sales. 

While the world of social media marketing might feel overwhelming, at its core it’s simply about engagement. With a bit of careful planning, consistency, quality content with a purpose, you’ll have the tools for success.

Here I share 10 Social Media Tips To Grow Your Small Business:

1. Set the objectives for your social media in order to grow your business

Social media can help you reach your goals you just need to look at how it can do that. Want more sales? You need to reach more people. Try a paid Facebook and Instagram cross ad and working with influencers. Want more followers? Up your content strategy and try a giveaway.

2. Outsource

Social media is a big commitment and there are people like myself who know how to do it well. A lot of founders take on marketing and sales themselves and aren’t achieving what they want/need to achieve. Let someone else take the reigns so it frees up your time to do other things. Plus I guarantee you’ll see better results when someone’s only focus is on your social media and they know what they’re doing.

3. Get your branding down

Your social media should reflect your brand as much as possible. Down to colours and what things are important to you. People want to know you and what you’re about. I also find using a colour palette steps up your Instagram in an easy way.

4. Engage engage engage and then engage some more

Part of managing your social marketing and growing a business is customer engagement. Social media requires interaction from both sides you can’t just post content and leave it there – Try to acknowledge as many people as possible. Algorithms work by showing posts that are well liked and receive good engagement so it really is key.

• Make an effort several times a day to see if you need to respond to anyone.
• Answer direct messages quickly
• Post with a purpose, ask questions, make it easy for people to engage with what you’re posting.

5. Use a post scheduler

Let that do the hard work for you. It’s easy to be consistent that way and it saves time. Plus some of them have built in features that allow you to preview how your feed will look and the best hashtags to use.

6. Pick a platform to dominate

Depending on your business the platform you choose will differ. Find out where your target customer spends their time and focus on that one. Post on the others sure but your main focus should be on one, like Instagram for example. A robust social profile gives your small business a more established look when customers stumble across you or go looking online.

3.5 billion people use social media with 54% researching products.

If you have very visually appealing products and a young audience Instagram seems like a smart choice. Instagram is about images first so with the right branding and marketing strategy you can really use it to upscale your business. You can use all these social media tips to grow your small business, if you don’t focus on the right platform for you getting to your goal will be harder.

7. Cross post

The less time you spend in marketing, the better. Cross-posting allows you to save time while also letting your audience know they can follow you on other social channels. Invite your followers to join you on another platform, entice them with exclusive content or a giveaway.

8. Use images as much as possible

People are very visual online, their attention spans are short and your content needs to grab them. So be sure to add photos and videos to your social content. Its perfect for businesses with products to show off and will boost your engagement. If you have a service-based business, consider a photo with words (canva makes this so easy) or a photo that compliments the topic.

9. Check your insights

There is a wealth of information about your followers and their social habits at your fingertips, use it to your advantage.

• Which posts are seeing the most engagement
• When your people are most active
• Demographics

By checking on what times people are most active that will help you create a schedule which is sure to perform better. Looking at what posts perform well you’ll be able to streamline content and know what works and what doesn’t, this will help you to plan your social media schedule further.

10. Mix up your content

Your followers like you and what you have to offer but constantly trying to sell to them or having the same content is going to get boring, fast.

You both have other interests, so find content from other sources that cater to those interests. A fresh and varied stream of content can help keep your engagement up. It also tells the customer that you value them.

And don’t be afraid to get personal, let them get to know you. Have plans with the family this weekend? Share your fun day out. Give other parents ideas on how to keep the kids entertained and appeal to your audience in an emotional way. People like to see reality and feel like they’re part of your life, along for the ride. That is part of what social media is and what makes it so great, it connects people.

Content ideas:

• Industry articles
• Videos (funny, educational, or instructional)
• Emotional
• Images and memes
• Causes and charities

More resources:

Social media can feel overwhelming, especially to the already stretched-in-a-million-directions entrepreneur. A few additional resources that can help include:

• Canva for business – an amazing tool to up your design game. Create an image or infographic in minutes.
• Tailwind – post scheduler
• Pixabay – stock images
• Instagram & Facebook insights
• Crowdfire – scheduler/news tool
• Feedly – News tool
• bitly – link shortener