You want to promote your small business but you have no idea how to do it? Social media marketing is the first thing that comes to mind.
In addition to business cards, catalogues, logo stickers, and other types of marketing materials you plan to use, social media marketing is a must!
But how do you do it?
The important thing is to start and stay committed to your marketing campaign.
We’ll give you tips that will make this start a successful one.
15 Tips for Social Media Marketing Beginners
1. It All Starts with Facebook
There’s one main rule to keep in mind when getting into SMM: you have to master one platform before you expand on another one.
It’s a mistake to believe that you can simply repost the same things on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and any other network you have to mind. All these platforms have different communities that prefer a different style of expression. So you have to start with one of them.
Which one? Facebook; of course!
It’s the largest, most powerful social media network, with 2.23 billion monthly active users.
2. Make Your Facebook Business Page Good
It’s best to use your brand’s logo as the profile photo. That will make your posts recognizable.
Another important rule: you’ll need to keep posting on a daily basis. It’s important to engage the audience, so they will know you’re there and they will keep visiting your page. This means that you’ll need to make Facebook part of your daily life.
3. Keep the Posts Clear and Brief
People don’t like reading long paragraph of text, unless you’re Humans of New York. When you’re trying to promote a business, it’s best to keep the updates as brief as possible.
4. Give Them Value
You don’t post just because someone said you have to do it frequently. You post because you have something important to share with your audience. Make your Facebook activity meaningful.
5. Mind the Visuals
Photographs, graphics, or videos – that’s the kind of content that immediately gets the attention of a Facebook user as they scroll down the feed.
6. Link to Your Website or Blog
When someone is interested in your offer, you want them to take action without hesitation.
If you don’t provide a link where they can buy the product you’re talking about, the Facebook user would have to go to the about section of your page to find it, and then they would have to search through the website to get to the product you’re talking about. That’s a hassle and not everyone is up for it.
Provide direct links to product pages at your website.
7. Analyze Your Audience
Remember: you’re on Facebook to offer something that your target audience really needs. Solutions!
So you need to develop your marketing campaign on the foundation of solutions. To do that, you have to understand what problems your audience is dealing with. Observe conversations on Facebook. You may even share surveys to ask people what they expect from a business like yours.
8. Analyze Your Competition
You can never know how great your ideas are unless you compare them to what your competitors are doing.
So discover competitive businesses on Facebook (and any other social media network you plan to target). See how they engage their audience.
Are there any surveys? Videos? Competitions?
You need to do the things that work, but do them better.
9. Speaking of Competition, How About Some Contests?
Social media users are always pleased to get something for free. If you offer a valuable prize and invite the community to compete for it, you’ll build brand awareness.
How do you do this?
- First, you need that prize. Offer some of your products or services, and make them look really attractive.
- Invite people to do something to get this prize. They can invite at least one friend to like your page and tag them in the comments. They could take a creative photo inspired by your business, share it on their profile and tag your brand. Think of something that would gain you more exposure.
10. Respond!
You probably noticed that businesses can be ranked on Facebook, right? People can share their honest opinion and real experience.
Not all of these reviews will be great. Whatever the case is, you need to respond to them.
Be polite and if someone complains, try to fix the problem. Offer a refund or product replacement, so you’ll make your business look like a serious one.
11. Expand to Instagram
If you understand Facebook and you see good results there, you’ll be ready to take your business on Instagram, too.
But there’s a difference. Facebook is visual, but Instagram is even more dependent on that aspect. It’s all about the photographs and videos here. So you have to make them absolutely great. Consider hiring a professional photographer to help you with the campaign.
The rules for creating good posts are basically the same ones you followed for Facebook posts. There are only two differences:
- The visual aspect is dominant on Instagram.
- You cannot include clickable links in the photo description. You can include a link in your profile description, though.
12. Start Instagram Challenges
What contests are for Facebook, challenges are for Instagram. You want to inspire your target audience to do something great. Yoga practitioners, for example, inspire them to practice yoga every day and share the progress. At the end of the month, they pick a winner who gets a valuable prize.
You can do something similar. Think of a challenge that’s somehow related to your business and develop a program. You’ll need to post something every day, so you’ll encourage the participants to do the same.
Even if only few people decide to participate, it’s worth it. If you start a contest and promise a prize, you have to deliver.
13. Collaborate with Instagram Influencers
If you start a challenge without developing a presence first, it won’t reach its full potential. You want to build that presence, and the best way to do that is to rely on the power of influencers.
Find the influencers from your niche! These are people who know how to engage the audience. They have thousands of followers, likes, and comments. Their stories are being watched and the messages are being heard.
Contact some of these influencers to offer collaboration. You’ll offer some of your products for free in exchange for their honest review. When they share opinions about your business, they will expose it to a huge audience.
14. Twitter Is Still Important
Although the number of active Twitter users in the USA is decreasing, this still is a popular social media network with tons of potential to spread your message. It’s a great place to connect with influencers and to get closer to your target audience.
So you need to plan to include Twitter in your marketing campaign at one point or another.
15. Make Your Tweets Impressive
Twitter is all about brevity… and hashtags… and wit!
The platform gives you space to get creative within a limited number of characters. So you have to learn how to use that space well.
Share news, opinions, and interesting facts related to your business!
When You Master a Single Network, It’s Easier to Expand
The things you learn through Facebook marketing will help you gain your presence on other platforms as well. Just don’t add too many networks at the same time; you’ll only get confused by doing that.
As you keep expanding your SMM campaign, you’ll realize you can’t handle everything by yourself. At that point, you need to think about hiring a social media marketing team to promote your business online.
