Social Media Management Is a Must for Every Small Business

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Discover how social media management impacts your small business and why it is a must. Find new and interesting methods to be social online and gain an audience.

Do you own a small business? If our headline piqued your interest, you most likely do or maybe you are planning to build one in the near future.

Did you know that social media management and website personalisation are considered the best weapons for expanding your business? 

According to this recent collection of statistics and trends, unsurprisingly, there is a direct correlation between a business’ social media marketing efforts and increased brand awareness.

If this is news to you or you’d like to learn more, read on! In this article, you will find creative and interesting ways to achieve your desired business goals using the following social media tips and tricks.

Let’s Explore the Benefits of Social Media for a Business

Have you ever applied social media strategies for your business? If yes, what tactics and platforms have you used so far and brought you results? Would you change anything?

A study shows that almost 50% of small businesses do not use any social media platform to advertise their products and services. What is even more astounding is that 25% of these don’t even consider doing so in the near future.

In the era we live in, such an approach places a company at a great disadvantage compared to its competitors. Keep in mind that according to a study, 71% of consumers that had a good experience when using social media with a brand, will recommend the company to their friends and family.

Here’s a list of benefits that social media presence would bring your business:

• Increased website traffic;       
• Partnerships and potential business opportunities;
• Opportunity to deliver your brand socially;
• Organic social media interaction with your possible customers; 
• Research and analysis for your marketing campaign; 
• Keeping track of your competition;
• Unfiltered customer feedback;
• Sales directly within social platforms;
• Good value with minimal resources.

Therefore, social media management is definitely crucial for your business. Keep scrolling, because the more you read, the more you will find out about this topic.

Social Media Marketing Tips

Managing your business's social media campaigns can be pretty difficult if you are new to the digital space. You might not have the necessary time or the inspiration to come up with new and captivating content each time.

Here is where digital marketing comes in handy since it is composed of many pieces that come together in perfect harmony to generate interest and in the end to produce sales. Social media management plays a crucial role in this big puzzle, so here are a few aspects to get you started:

A. Create a Social Media Strategy

B. Know Your Target Audience

Customers are often more open to the messages presented on social channels than they are to traditional advertising messages.

In order to get the most out of your product, you need to know who your audience is and how to get to them through these channels. The key to this is understanding demographic information such as age, income, and education. 

If you want to expand your target audience, you may need to think outside the box.

You might believe that your ideal customer is someone who can afford to buy your product, but that is not necessarily always the case. Sometimes the willingness far exceeds someone’s disposable income.

After all, it all boils down to whether your prospects find value in your offering or not. If they do, it's no limit to what they're willing to invest. And to make sure that you deliver value, you need to spend a significant amount of time making sure that you understand their needs, wants, and expectations.

C. Manage Your Online Reputation

Online reputation management is an important factor for the prosperity of your business. You should set alerts to get notified as soon as drastic changes in brand sentiment occur.  Keeping abreast  of customer complaints before they go viral is crucial for your online reputation

Answering comments from followers or fans on your social media account is equally important. Not to mention that it is a great opportunity for you to create a bond with them. Whether it’s about questions or concerns, your answers provide value and reflect a high standard of customer service.

The time in which you reply to comments is a key factor. A survey found out that 83% of people want replies to their social media comments in a day, or even less. Next to swiftness is empathy. Customers want to feel that your end goal is to help them. Also, owning up when you make a mistake will only strengthen the relationship with your audience.

D. Create a Social Media Schedule

Like in many aspects of our lives, consistency is key to social media management.

After you decide on the frequency of your post on the desired social media platform, it is essential to keep doing it constantly. This can be challenging, as you might forget to post, or do it too often and spam your audience.

Also, quality over quantity is another key indicator. Quality content is necessary to keep the customers committed and increase your followers’ number.

The easiest way to keep track of all of it is to build a content marketing calendar. A tool that enables you to organise your content from a to-do list to a well-planned calendar to implement your marketing strategy efficiently and in a well-timed manner.

You can make content calendars for your blog posts, emails, social media posts, and any other type of media published consistently. A calendar example that is available to almost everyone is Google Sheets.

Generate Rewards for Your Followers

Contests and giveaways are great methods to engage your audience, as well as increase it.

Because let’s be honest: who doesn’t appreciate free stuff? 

This is most effective with Instagram. First, you need to set up your objective. Let’s see some examples: 

• Acquire new followers;
• Obtain user-generated content for you;
• Get an increase in traffic that materializes in purchases. 

After that, establish the prize. It needs to be related to your products and services and to attract potential customers from your ideal target audience.

Here are four popular types of contests/giveaways:

• Like this post contest;
• Photo/video contest;
• Caption this contest;
• Follow to win the contest.

Here are some other tips and tricks that will pique the interest of your followers and get you new ones:

• Interview an industry expert or influencer;
• Steam live events;
• Create “tag a friend’ content;
• Post-behind-the-scenes content;
• Don’t be afraid to use emojis;
• Create a how-to video;
• Poll your audience;
• Set up Q&As;
• Make a special announcement to generate hype.

The Sooner You Start, the Better

With the perpetual and unpredictable disruption in technology and social media, it’s important to get your business on social platforms and to get ahead of your competition. 

As we've said, almost half of businesses don’t use these awesome promotion tools, so hurry up and make a difference. If the other aspects of your business don’t leave you enough time for this, or you are at the beginning of managing social media for a small business, don’t be shy to ask for advice.