Why Small Businesses Need To Focus On Social Media Marketing
In today’s digital age, it’s more important than ever for small businesses to focus on social media marketing.
By creating engaging content and cultivating a strong social media presence, small businesses can connect with potential customers and build lasting relationships with current customers. Not only that, but effective digital marketing can also help businesses achieve their business goals and objectives.
So if you’re a small business owner, it’s time to start focusing on social media! Here are a few reasons why you need to place more focus on this area.
The Importance Of Social Media For Small Businesses
When it comes to growing a small business, staying connected with your local community and prospective clients is vital. This is where social media marketing can play a key role, in terms of connecting with an audience with relevant content and then turning them into a customer.
Let’s take a look at some of the reasons why small businesses need to take advantage of social media if they are looking to grow.
It’s a great way to connect with potential customers
If you want to reach new customers and grow your business, you need to be where your target audience is spending their time. And these days, that means being active on social media.
By creating informative and engaging content, you can attract the attention of potential customers and get them interested in your products or services. You can also use social media to build relationships with potential customers and turn them into lifelong fans of your business.
It helps you stay top of mind with current customers
It’s not enough to just connect with potential customers — you also need to keep your current customers happy! Social media provides an excellent opportunity to do just that.
By regularly sharing quality content and engaging with your customers on social media, you can keep your business top of mind. This will make it more likely that they’ll choose to do business with you again in the future.
It’s a cost-effective digital marketing tool
One of the best things about social media marketing is that it doesn’t have to be expensive. In fact, it can be completely free to get started!
Of course, you can choose to invest money in ads if you want to reach a larger audience. But even without spending any money, you can still market your business on social media.
It allows you to track your progress
Another great thing about digital marketing platforms such as social media is that it’s easy to track your progress. There are a number of free tools available that allow you to see how many people are seeing and engaging with your content.
This information can be extremely valuable in helping you to fine-tune your social media strategy and ensure that you’re using your time and resources effectively.
It provides an opportunity for real-time customer service
In today’s world, customers have a growing expectation that businesses will provide them with prompt and efficient customer service. More and more businesses are choosing to use their social media channels as another way to provide service.
By monitoring your social media channels, you can quickly respond to any customer complaints or questions. This will show your customers that you’re dedicated to providing them with a great experience, and it may even help to prevent negative reviews.
You can increase your reputation with social media
If you’re not already active on social media, you may be worried about what people will say about your business. But the truth is that social media provides an excellent opportunity to improve your reputation.
By regularly sharing quality content and engaging with your customers, you can show the world that your business is trustworthy and reliable. You can also use social media to build relationships with influencers in your industry, which can help to boost your reputation even further.
You can improve your website traffic and brand authority
In order to grow your business, you need to be visible on the web. And one of the best ways to do this is through social media marketing.
By sharing links to your website content on social media, you can drive traffic back to your site and improve your search engine ranking. You can also use social media to build relationships with other businesses and influencers in your industry, which can help to improve your brand authority on the web.
Tips for effective social media marketing for a small business
Now that you know the benefits of social media marketing for a small business, it’s important to develop a specific social media marketing strategy for each channel that your business uses.
Here are a few tips to help you get started:
- Decide which platform is right for you: There are a number of different social media platforms out there, so it’s important to choose the one that’s right for your business. Pick the ones that give you the best chance of getting seen by your target market.
- Create quality content: Once you’ve chosen a platform, it’s time to start creating quality content. Remember that people on social media are looking for interesting and engaging content, so make sure that’s what you’re providing. Focus on posting different types of content to keep things interesting.
- Repurpose content: Many business owners think that if they post it once, “everyone” will see it. Nothing could be farther from the truth. It’s perfectly acceptable to repost things here and there, but if you already write blog posts, use your blog post as content for your social media channels.
- Be consistent: In order to see results from your social media marketing, you need to be consistent. That means posting regularly and engaging with your audience on a regular basis. Use a content calendar and stick to posting certain topics on specific days & times.
- Identify your key performance indicators (KPIs): Once you have identified a strategy for each platform, you’ll need to decide which metrics get you closer to your goals. Maybe you want more followers or engagement. shares, etc.
- Monitor your progress: So many people invest their time or their money (or both) into social media but don’t do much to monitor how things are going. This is an essential aspect of all your marketing.
- Get help if you need it: Social media marketing can be time-consuming, so don’t hesitate to get help if you need it. There are a number of services out there that can help you with everything from creating content to managing your social media accounts.
Should You Advertise On Social Media?
Deciding about this really depends upon your overall goals around social media. Keep in mind, when you post on Facebook, roughly 2-5% of your followers see what you post, so having a budget to show your content to people outside your followers can be a wise move especially if you’re trying to generate more leads for your business.
Generally speaking, it makes sense that the higher your ad spend budget, the more likely you are to bring in more leads, but there can be other factors involved with your click through rates and conversions to pay attention to.
Many people ask us if boosting is a smart move. Again, it depends upon your goal, but if you’re trying to increase your followers, boosting can certainly help put your content in front of people outside of your followers. That’s generally the best way to use boosting. There are certainly critics out there who feel that boosting is nothing more than a donation to Facebook. That’s why it’s important that if you try boosting, you measure the results to see how effective it is for you and only continue doing what seems to work.
Boost your social media strategy with Make it Loud
Make it Loud is a digital marketing agency in Atlanta that specializes in social media marketing. We can help you create quality content, track your progress, and engage with your audience on a regular basis. Not only do we do social media marketing well, but we also specialize in web design, SEO, Google ads, Facebook ads, and a variety of other digital marketing strategies.
Contact us today at 678-325-4007 to create a social media strategy that will take your business to hero status in no time.
Cliff Tillery, MBA is the Chief Operating Officer at Make It Loud which is a digital marketing firm located outside of Atlanta Georgia. He is also the Director of SEO. More than 14 years ago, he started search engine optimization at this agency and has taught digital marketing skills to business owners at the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce, the Gwinnett Entrepreneur Center and other groups.
