Why social media presence is required for small business ?
Unlike B2B and B2C companies, small business may not be able to spend considerable amount of money on advertisements. Even some B2B companies are facing difficulty in making huge investments on ads; and so they are stepping back. Some of them even stopped relying totally on advertisements.
But, thanks to social media. These tools are helping business/brand to do marketing without much expenses, and interestingly they are turning as a weapon for brands growth. Every brand should therefore target for SMM strategies by utilizing them effectively without overlooking their importance. Here are some important tips for you to realize and implement.
1. Increase online presence
We all know some facts about McDonald and Pepsi, they are well known business players all over the world, right ?. But in spite of having their vast presence, they are still engaged in spreading their brand through online as well as advertisement. That itself proves the power of social presence. We need to constantly pinch people saying that "We are still active". Without getting noted by people, your brand won't get attention from audience and so it's important that you increase your brands online presence. You have to tell the world that there is a brand and that can offer some desired benefits to the interested. If you don't do this, then your brand might get hidden somewhere and it's only you (and some your friends) who visit your brand !
2. Selected and targeted media
There are more than hundreds of social media websites till date. Not all social media networks suits your business, in fact it's very difficult to maintain a constant and active participation in all networks. So, it's always advisable to select most suited/appropriate networks that drive more audience to your business. Choosing three to four social media platforms showed good results.
3. Best social media to share content
OK, we have just learnt - how selective participation in social media pays good results to our business. Now the question is "which social media is best to my business ?, where I need to be active to drive traffic to my business ?" Of course this is a big challenge to all business. Some brands usually end up involving with false social media that doesn't help the business grow.
Research the market, research your competitors
To decide 'The best social media' that suits your brand, you need to understand the behavior of market ongoing practices. Explore and understand where your competitors are playing. Compare the behavior of many competitors and then you will automatically understand where to keep your brand active. For example say, competitor A is active in Twitter and has got 20K followers and competitor B is active in Pinterest but has only 3K followers, then it does mean that for that niche, targeting twitter should be better. However it also depends on other factors like
- Frequency of sharing
- Quality of content
- Variety of content
- Time from which they are active in market
- Marketing STRATEGIES they employed
- Promotions and giveaway techniques
Do analyze the above factors; by considering at least three to four competitors and then you will come to know the best place for sharing your content.
4. Serve even one !
If say you got only one follower in your social network., then also don't under-estimate or neglect that single gentlemen, just keep on sharing your works as usual. You might have seen many great influencers having quite a good number of followers (starting from thousands to millions) but you might also have noticed that they aren't sharing things frequently/regularly. I even noticed that some of them are active only once or twice in a week.
But can you imagine how much strain they took to grow that huge network ? They too started from the scratch with a single follower and because of their initial active participation and care for the followers, they achieved this much. So, as a beginner you need to be really patient and optimistic. Single follower is just an example for comparison. Neglecting even a single follower is a big loss. Care should be given each and every individual as far as possible.
5. Search for new followers, connect with influencers
Keep searching for new audience; whom are interested in your content. Instead of waiting for their follow, you yourself approach and follow them. Soon, they will follow you back. Connect with as many influencers as possible and analyze
- how they are behaving
- how they are responding
- what kind of posts they are sharing and
- how often they are sharing
Regularly visit the profiles of influencers (as many as possible) and search for the people who are following these influencers. Follow these new people in order to attract them and follow you back. This is a very good way of socializing and driving new audience to your brand.
6. Leave comments in influencer pages and get recommended
If you are running a website or online blog, then trust me leaving comments in influencers page works like a gem. As you know, some thousands visit influencers page (website/blog) everyday. So, if they find you in the comment section, then they will definitely visit yours too ! But you need to be sincere in writing comments and not comment just for backlinks. You may also request some of the influencers to visit your page and leave their suggestions/recommendations in the comments, so that who ever visits your page and go through the comments will understand the importance of your site.
7. Same content in all networks ?
Like we discussed, not all social media suits your total business. And it's usual to have multiple content area, like say if you run a blog, then you may be discussing about online marketing, technology and more. In such case, the best thing to do is to post relevant content in the network that has active audience for that particular niche. Say; you may select Pinterest for sharing technology related content and you may use Facebook and twitter for online marketing related content. But not like sharing all content in all media. That doesn't sound impressive.
However, you first need to understand the behavior of audience in all social networks. Understand what type of information audience prefer and share in each social media websites. Do act accordingly for better results.
8. Targeted approach - (Objectives and goals)
Of course I should have discussed this in the beginning. Before you start marketing with social media, set your objectives and goals. Target for that and act accordingly. Your objective may be any of these :
- Brand awareness and exposure
- Build audience or traffic
- Promotions
- Sales parameters (ROI)
- Products and Services
9. Active member in groups
Well, most people join groups and forums to get their doubts clarified or likely to explore some new developments in a particular niche. If they find someone being active and responsive to their queries, then they would love such people for sure and would recommend them to their community (friends and other group members). Therefore, sparing some time to solve others problems would indirectly save your own time for finding new and regular customers.
Responding to users queries might showcase your talent/ grip in that subject and in this process more people will come to know about your potency. So act wisely and be an active group participant. Give away your suggestions. This world is always filled with good and bad, some people may not agree with your opinion, but don't worry just give your intellectual views. You will then see the miracle !
10. Creative Content
Whatever techniques you employ and whatever freebies you giveaway won't turn successful if your business is poor at quality, I mean content. Quality rules the entire world and it is this quality that makes your content a big hit/success. Keep it user accessible, target for delivering qualitative content rather than aiming for ways of driving audience. A qualitative content will drive you enough traffic even without the need of any free giveaways ! It's like the saying 'Success follows hard-work'.
11. Brand Vs human
Act like a human, even though you represent a brand. Suggest, comment and share like a friend. There's a lot of difference between a brand and a friend. Branding is like 'targeting only business - caring for ROI' (Return on Investment); but being friendly reminds the saying 'sharing is caring, we care for you'. Working with this attitude helps you grow your business at a rapid phase.
12. Appreciate others
Everybody loves to get appreciated. Acknowledge others for their works and contributions. Even, appreciate the followers who pose questions or answer others queries. This will help you build a strong community relationship and will last for a longer period. Remember socializing is all about building relationship and not about 'only sales'.
13. Infographics, Images and videos
I have been discussing about multimedia in almost all of my posts, such is it's importance. In fact infographics are performing well these days. Images and infographs attract more people and drives huge traffic to your brand. So, make a strategy of utilizing these resources. You may use these free online tools to make inforgraphs.
However making a infograph is time taking process and sometimes it consumes more time than writing an article. So, If you have capacity, spare a little amount to hire a good designer, who work on infographics. That will save your own time, so that you could better concentrate more on content !
14. Using same profile in all social media pages
It's essential to maintain a brand image in the chosen networks by creating a good profile. It's even important to maintain same profile in all social media websites so that audience could find them and easily connect with the brand. If possible get your profile images as well as backdrops designed from a designer.
15. Consistency and Dedication
Well, gaining reputation and prominence is a time taking process and requires a lot of dedication. Like I said earlier, one should be patient and consistent. There are a lot of competitors striving to highlight themselves and if you don't show consistency or dedication, then you will be at loss. Be patient and keep moving.
16. Free giveaway
Freebies are the coolest way of growing network. It's a strategy that most top companies follows; like giving some coupons, eBooks, free tips, courses and more.
Finally I would like to summarize our learning as follows for better SMM
- Increase online presence
- Select limited but best social media networks
- Research the market, reasearch your competitors
- Understand your Audience
- Targeted approach - set objectives and goals
- Use multimedia - infographs and images
- Be an active group member
- Be friendly and human, not a brand
- Search for new followers and connect with them
- Connect with influencers
- Comment on influencers page
- Get recommended by influencers
- Aim for delivering quality content
- Raise thought provoking questions in forums
- Serve all
- Free giveaways - tokens, coupons, discounts, eBooks etc.
- Maintain consistency and dedication
Feel free to share your thoughts and suggestions by posting a comment below.
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