Most business owners know what social media is. However, some of them are still wondering whether or not the social media “phenomenon” can help them grow their businesses. What do you think? Is social media the missing piece of your inbound marketing puzzle? Is it really worth it for a small business?
As you may already be aware, managing social media can be time consuming. But it works. Why? To keep it short, it works because it has a lot to do with what current customers want. In fact, social media is one of the few marketing tools that offer businesses qualified prospects on a silver platter. As your main goal is to grow your business by acquiring new leads and customers, social media can help you do just that.
Making Social Media Work for You
Yes, we know it; social media may feel like a never-ending party, especially for a small business owner, who must manage many tasks and responsibilities on his own. Yet, social media is critical for your online presence, with the potential of becoming a source of significant business support, especially if a thoughtful approach is taken. Too often, unfortunately, small business owners make some rookie mistakes, such as:
- blindly taking the plunge into social media channels – opening a Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or Google+ account is very easy. But the question is, can you keep up with multiple social media streams? Can you engage with all of your followers and answer all their questions? To make social media work for your business, you need to find out what social networks your potential customers visit along with the type of content they like and share. If your findings suggest that most of your potential buyer personas are Facebook users, then it is quite useless to spend time posting on Twitter.
- decreasing posting frequency – many small businesses post content at an impressive pace in the beginning; however, most of them decrease posting frequency over time, getting out of the game within months. To boost your social medial presence, you should put emphasis on content quality, rather than quantity. Posting new, valuable content once a week and answering questions as soon as possible can help a small business be heard, be seen, and become remarkable in the social media world.
- failing to engage with the right people – your social media community represents one of the most important elements for your business. To become popular, you should engage with strong social influencers, recognised as such by the community you belong to. Here are two ideas you could embrace: 1) follow other businesses with a high number of followers; 2) follow bloggers your readers love to read, share their content, and comment thoughtfully. This will help you open new communication channels and get in touch with an unexpectedly large audience.
In the age of social media, you cannot afford to refuse “a piece of pie”. But can social media really help you achieve business success? To be honest, social media marketing is not a game-changer for every business with a Facebook or Twitter account. To make social media marketing work, a small business owner should carefully ponder marketing strategies, set realistic goals, and then spend the minimum amount of resources to meet those goals.
If used correctly, social media can help you promote your business, communicate your uniqueness, attract more visitors to your site, and build a great online community, ready to support your future marketing efforts.