As a marketing tool, social media marketing is growing. It has become essential for businesses especially small businesses. According to The Social Skinny, 94% of businesses are using social media marketing and 85% of them reported that they are benefited from social media marketing. Further, according to a recent survey by ThomasNet Industrial Purchasing Barometer, more than 63% of users use social media at least once a week. Therefore, small businesses cannot afford to ignore the benefits of using social media networks for promoting their business. In this article, we will discuss five tips for small businesses to execute social media marketing effectively.
1. Share compelling content
Content is an important tool for promoting your businesses. It is important to share educational and informational content. For this, you need to share content that engages your audiences, furnishes updated news, solves problems that your audiences might have, and urges them for further action. Compelling content enables your audiences to accrue some value from it.
Content should focus on your audiences’ interests, needs, concerns and should give them a clarity on your products/services. According to Forbes, 80% of the content should deal with these aspects. This is likely to make the content compelling and will attract new customers and keep your existing customers engaged. Sharing compelling content is, thus, an important aspect of executing social media marketing effectively.
2. Share at right times
Quality content is important, but you need to make sure that your social media marketing is executed at the right times. You need to share content at times, when many of your customers or prospects are active and your posts get more exposure. According to Social Media Today, the right times to share content on
Facebook: 1pm to 4pm EST
Twitter: 1pm to 3pm EST
Google Plus: 9am to 11am EST and
LinkedIn: 7am to 9am and 5pm to 6pm EST.
3. Make conversation more interactive and interesting
Social media networks are great platforms for interacting with your audiences. Make sure to post content that is interactive. You could engage your customers or prospects by asking them questions on products/services in your niche and in return offer something to them. You could also upload photographs of the products or videos on how to use, etc., and ask your audiences to comment on them. Social media websites are used as two-way communication tool between business and the customers.
4. Respond to every comment
Your audiences are likely to comment on your products/services in your niche. Make sure to respond promptly to comments. Avoid being reactive to unfavorable comments. Give a balanced view. By doing so, it shows you care for your audiences.
5. Never automate your posts
You need to execute social media with caution. You need to check (or get checked) manually with the comments, etc., of your audiences. Avoid publishing content using automation such as program, etc. This will impair the quality of the content as well as search engines take it as spam. Spam content endangers your business’s online success.
Social media marketing is an effective strategy for promoting your small business at a nominal cost. It enables you to reach large number of targeted audiences. It is, however, sensible to keep the progress intact by a strategy, which needs to be executed effective along the points just discussed.
Nancy R Jones is a writer and blogger for Marvist Consulting LLC which offers small business Internet marketing services. Since establishment in 2005, Marvist’s SEO services have earned the goodwill of clients with uncompromising commitment to business values while delivering expert services.
Great list. I totally agree that businesses shout respond to the comments of their audience/followers – positive or negative. But since social media requires a lot of time, I think it’s a good idea to outsource their social media marketing team. This will not only save their time, their social media plan/strategy will be taken care of.
Speaking to all the alleged marvels of social media without considering risk is problematic. Social Media has become a cesspool of garbage mixed with some gold. The problem is that some of the garbage can be toxic to your bottom line, reputation, and your serenity. Nefarious characters and the applications they create mine social media for purposes of social engineering, cyber attacks and to prey upon others to fulfill lusts for sexual perversions and other questionable pursuits like identity theft. As an Information Security Professional and a CISSP, I feel ethically obligated to remind readers to be careful what they share online and more importantly to be mindful of their children’s activities online. There are some really sick people out their in cyber space who thrive on making others miserable. This sad reality is well known, but ignored in light of the perceived value that traffic and attention appears to offer. In short, be careful what you wish for and know your target audience before casting your baited marketing lines out on social media. You never know what you don’t know, but you can be prepared for risks by being mindful of risk mitigating strategies.