Social Media Post & Ad Strategies for Marketing your Small Business
LorI'm going straight to the point today- just the necessary details you need to know to put together a social media strategy that reaches your customers and inspires them to take action. We'll look at which social media platforms you should be utilizing, how often you should post, and some key points for using your advertising budget online.
What social media platforms should your business be on?
The answer is different for every business, but you can make an educated decision based on a few key variables: your business's brand values, who your ideal customer is, and the maturity of your business.
Your business's brand values may impact if you are on a specific social media platform. For example, if your business prioritizes sharing stories and communicates through extensive copy, Twitter is probably not the ideal platform for your business because it focuses on quick communication in a limited number of characters. Similarly, if your business is all about quick results and it is likely that your audience will need customer support, Pinterest is not your ideal platform. This is not to say that a business can't be successful on all social media platforms. They absolutely can. But some platforms will be a more natural fit and will provide greater results with less investment.
Your ideal customer or "customer avatar" also impacts where your business should be marketing online. Each social media platform has users of various ages, genders, and demographics. But each social media platform also has a group that is most prevalent. This changes frequently, so it's important to keep up with statistics. Matching your customer avatar to the prevalent users on social media platforms can help you more easily access an audience that is interested in your business. You can find information about user demographics on social media platforms at https://sproutsocial.com/insights/new-social-media-demographics/
The maturity of your business is another consideration you can take to discovering which social media platforms to utilize for your social media marketing. A business that has been around for decades is more likely to be able to utilize a wider variety of platforms because they have had years to develop and test content, better understand their customer avatar, and establish expected lead costs. Younger businesses are better off focusing their efforts on a select number of social media platforms so they can maintain consistency and accurately test strategies before expanding.
My favorite note here: Growth for the sake of growth is called cancer. Don't force your business's marketing to grow faster than it needs to. Make sure your investment of time and resources is strategic.
Posting Frequency
Deciding how often your business should create a post on social media should include looking at: the platform norms, your audience size, audience engagement levels, and your content production ability
It is normal for Twitter accounts to average 3-5 posts per day, or more. Pinterest accounts usually post 5-30 pins per day. Instagram may average 1-3 posts per day and Facebook between 1 and 7. Some businesses have success with posting only every other day. So, why is there so much variation? The factors of audience size and engagement come into play. If your audience is small, say less than 100 followers, posting less frequently is advised. However, if you have an audience of less than 100, but your content receives numerous reactions, comments, and shares, then your audience is indicating they want more!
The most important factor when deciding your post frequency is your ability to produce quality content and in what timeframe. Posting content that doesn't provide value to your audience in some way is a sure way to fall on the wrong side of the social media algorithms. The best method for establishing your post frequency is to test and analyze. Make sure when testing you allow an adequate length of time before changing your strategy to get accurate results.
Budget-Friendly Social Media Advertising
In order to effectively advertise on social media, be sure you follow these basic principles:
Establish goals
Track results
Analyze results
If your goal is more clicks to your website, get specific. How many more? Over what time period? Next, track your results. Be sure your ads are set up to identify clicks, and even conversions, not just impressions and engagement. You can do this by installing a "tag" on your website. These tags (there will be a separate one for each advertising platform) helps identify traffic from social media. Bonus: you can then re-market to that same audience! Lastly, analyze your results. Was your goal met? Why or why not? What could you adjust next time to reach your goal? What information can you learn about your audience based on their interaction with this ad?
Takeaways
Establish a plan.
Keep up to date on social media platform changes.
Allow adequate time for results to show when testing. Be ready to adapt when something isn't working.
Always track your audience. If you aren't tracking your audience and the results of your ad, then you are missing out on the most valuable part of online advertising.
Expand to additional platforms when you have adequate content, budget, and a good understanding of your ideal customer.
Are you utilizing social media marketing for your business? What have you learned along the way? Anything you wish you could tell your younger entrepreneur self?
