If your small business isn’t on social media yet, it’s never too late to get started. As social media use continues to increase each year, now is a better time than ever. Forbes reports that 4.9 billion people use social media worldwide, offering major outreach potential for small businesses.
Creating social media accounts for your small business allows you to provide value to old and new customers from anywhere anytime. Follow these tips to start building a successful social media presence for your small business.
- Know where to reach your audience. Your small business doesn’t need to be everywhere all at once. Decide the main audience that you’re trying to reach, then do a little research about which social media platforms they use most. Focus on building a strong presence on those one to two platforms. Once you’re happy with your engagement, apply the strategies that have worked there to getting started on other platforms.
- Keep it concise. People come to social media for simple, bite-sized content. Keep your captions short and get to the point as soon as possible.
- Celebrate national holidays. In the gaps between traditional holidays, people love to find reasons to celebrate. National days are a great way to add joy to your followers’ social media scrolls and bridge a connection to your business. Check a national day calendar to see which days are relevant to your business’s products and services, team, history, or mission and values. Share posts on these days with a fun fact, statistic, conversation-starting question, quote, or story about such topics and how they relate to the holiday.
- Share posts from other accounts. Your social media accounts should be a resource for anyone looking to learn about your business or industry. Sharing content from other accounts shows customers that you keep a pulse on industry updates and increases your credibility.
- Be human. Professionalism is important, but there’s a line between professional and robotic. Keep a conversational and friendly tone on social media. People like to know that there’s a human on the other side of the screen.
- Be social. Social media is a two-way conversation, not a soap box. Get your followers engaged by asking questions, sharing polls, and responding to comments.
- Remember the 60/30/10 rule. You shouldn’t only post about your business’s products and services. In fact, most of your business’s social media posts shouldn’t be promotional. Your content should be 60% educational/informational, 30% entertaining, and 10% promotional.
- Educational content provides long-term value and teaches your audience something. This includes fun facts, tips, and other helpful information.
- Posts that are informational teach your audience something they need to know in the short-term, such as your small business’s seasonal hours or other temporary changes.
- Entertaining content is enjoyable to read and makes people smile.
- Promotional posts highlight your small business and its products and services, encouraging followers to interact in a specific way.
Building a presence for your small business on social media doesn’t have to be as daunting as it seems. When getting started, focus on being a resource to your customers and having fun. With some strategic thinking, a little time, and a lot of patience, you’ll see your small business’s following start to grow.