It’s no secret that social media is driving small business success in a BIG way.  Social Media is not going anywhere fast, and if your business is not present in the digital space, you are missing a trick that could ultimately be the difference between your company making a huge profit or packing up shop for good.

Social Media to a newbie can be daunting and frustrating to understand, but here, at PrimePixels, we pride ourselves in our vast knowledge of social media and how to master the art of social media marketing for small businesses.

Here are our top ten tips to succeed as a small business, using social media marketing:

Create a Social Media Plan

Just like any business model needs a business plan, so too does your marketing model. Your social media plan should be strategically sound and well planned out.

Set social media goals and objectives

With these, we don’t mean how many likes and followers you get!  What is important here are leads generated, conversion rates, referrals. Get S.M.A.R.T (work on goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely), and begin to carve out the perfect social media marketing strategy for your business.

Check out what your competitors are doing

What is working for them?  Where are they present? Who are their audiences? How are they engaging with their followers? Once you have all your data, begin to follow suit! We are by no means saying plagiarise here, but if something is working for your competitors, and you aren’t in that arena, you should be!

The saying “keep your friends close, but your enemies closer” rings true especially in business.

Decide which platforms are best for you

Just because you may enjoy tweeting all day, this doesn’t mean your audience is there. You can’t force people to sign up to a platform they have no interest in, so make sure you do your homework.  Once you have figured out which social media platforms would be best for your business, begin putting your energy into building up your social media presence across all your platforms.

Ensure too that the message you are putting out there reflects who you are as a business.  Always be true to the business’s core values and keep it real!

It’s very tempting at first to spread your brand across every single social media platform out there, however, there really isn’t any benefit to spreading yourself too thin.  Focus on 1-2 platforms at first, and slowly begin to increase once you fully understand what is working for your business. In this game, it is all about quality versus quantity.

Know who you are targeting

Determining who your target audience is, is a vital piece of your market research. Without understanding who you are targeting means almost certain failure. Find out the age, gender, location, goals, average income, and from here, create your audience persona:

1. Collect demographic data from social media, surveys, focus groups, and customer interviews.
2. Look for trends within this data (behaviour, age, occupation).
3. Dig a little deeper, research and create your audience personas.
4. Always remember, a good persona isn’t just a list of information or traits – you are trying to create a picture of your customer – who they are, and who they aspire to be.

Test, test, and test again, then adjust your strategy

You should be constantly fine-tuning your strategy based on performance metrics. Analyse your data all the time, and then adjust and improve your strategies, based on this data.

Content is everything

Use visually stimulating elements wherever possible across all platforms. Creating good quality visuals, from static images to videos, GIFs, and memes, in your social media content is key. Make sure, however, that visually, your content is relevant to your audience.

Get clued up on time-saving tools

There’s an almost limitless supply of social media management apps and tools out there to choose from, so make sure you find the best one for your business. Running a small business demands your time and attention in a variety of areas, and so you cannot afford to get bogged down by social media, longer than you need to.

Good platforms to start with are Hootsuite or Buffer – everyone has their preference so check them both out to see which you prefer.  What they offer:

• 1. Platform integration: This allows you to manage your presence on major networks like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn from a single dashboard.
  2. Scheduling: You can schedule up to 350 social media posts at once across all platforms.
  3. Engagement:  You can quickly respond to messages, mentions, and comments across channels with a single click.

Engage with your audience

Responding directly to the audience allows you to humanize your brand and draw in loyal followers. Failing to engage with your audience will put people off, and eventually, you will lose them.  And let’s face it, that isn’t wise for any small business.

Social media engagement also offers an opportunity for you to demonstrate your brand’s unique personality.  Reply with a bit of banter and light humour (where applicable), whilst showcasing your brand’s expertise.

Be inspired

There is absolutely nothing wrong with using brilliant strategies on social media that other brands have used with remarkable success. Get inspiration from established brands on social media and play around with ideas on your own social media platforms, because we can almost certainly guarantee, even established brands got their inspiration from somewhere or somebody else!

If you see something that resonates with your brand, adapt it to suit your campaigns.  Just remember, always keep it honest and true to your business ethos.

And there you have it!  We hope you enjoyed our top ten tips to successfully create social media marketing for a small business! We are on hand, any time, to assist you with your marketing, social media, SEO and more, so please do get in touch to find out more.