Social media is a big deal for small businesses. The average person spends upwards of two hours on social media sites each day, and more than half (54%) use their favorite platform for product research.
If you’re not doing social media marketing — or if you’re not doing it right — you are missing out on a huge piece of a very lucrative pie.
While more than 77% of small businesses have a social media presence, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re using it to its full potential. If you’re looking to up your engagement, expand your reach and bring in new fans and followers, take these tactics for a test drive.
5 Social Media Marketing Tactics to Employ This Year
Provide Customer Service Via Facebook Messenger
With more than 1 billion monthly users, Facebook Messenger has gone from a glorified chat app to a full-fledged marketing portal. And it’s high time you made it part of your social media marketing strategy … by using it to provide customer service.
Do you have a live human answering questions and providing information in real-time? Can a customer reach out with a problem and get a solution without ever leaving Facebook? Can you walk them through a return or help them assemble their product without requiring them to visit your website or call a dedicated customer service line?
Giving people the option to handle their business on Messenger makes things quicker and more convenient for your customers while giving you a reputation for responsiveness.
Empower Employees to Advocate for Your Brand
It’s a proven fact: Good employers create happy employees, and happy employees make enthusiastic ambassadors for your brand.
Encourage (but don’t require) your team members to share your small business’s content on their personal pages. When they’re excited about what they do and stand behind the product or service they sell, it’ll show — and it’s a great way to increase your organic reach!
Know What Works on Which Platform
If you’re copying and pasting the same post over multiple social media platforms, you’ve got social media marketing all wrong.
LinkedIn isn’t big on memes or other casual content. Pinterest might not be the best place to share your newest white paper or case study. And you probably won’t get too far on Twitter if your message takes 28 tweets to get across.
What you post on which platform matters. Take some time to figure out what does well on all of your social media channels and you’ll be in a better position to meet your audience on their terms.
Engage With Your Audience
Social media is social. And as such, it requires give and take from both sides. If you’re talking at your audience but never to them, you’re not doing yourself or your business any favors.
Take a few minutes each day to engage with your fans and followers. Share that cute pic you snapped of your new puppy chewing up your favorite pair of slippers. Pop into the comment section and join the conversation. Your audience will appreciate seeing the real person behind the business.
Deliver on Your Promises
We have become so conditioned to expect clickbait that we don’t trust much of anything these days. So it’s more important than ever to deliver on your promises — explicit or implied.
Are you running a 20%-off special? That link had better lead to a product that is actually 20% off, not a page full of products where only some (not all) customers qualify for the discount. Sharing a blog post entitled “5 Steps to Stop a Leaky Faucet?” Make sure you’re really giving them five actionable steps, not 500 words on why it’s better to call your plumbing company, instead.
Today’s social media users can spot a con from a mile away and you won’t get a second chance to fool them. Honesty really is the best policy!
Social media is one of the best, most economical ways to market, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Put some serious thought into your strategy and your small business is sure to make a big impact!
Are you suffering from a case of social anxiety? Mischa Communications has the cure. Come see what we can do for you!