When you’ve just started establishing your dream business, you surely have to build a strong social media presence for popularity and significant commercial growth. This is in fact the best way to reach out to more of your target audience in the least span of time.

Here we’re taking a deep dive into all you need to know about social media marketing and how you can make the best of this amazing opportunity.

Why Your Small Business Needs a Social Media Strategy

Brand building

Social media has connected over half of the world’s population through numerous platforms. Unlike many other mass media, social media can be very specific when it comes to targeting your potential customers.

You can use platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to capture new audiences and retain the existing ones. According to a study, 83% of Insta users discover new products on the platform. Sprout Social says, around 55% of all consumers learn about new brands on social media.

With social media marketing, you’ll master the art of being in the right place at the right time.

Growth

Social media marketing will teach you how to grow your brand. You’ll be able to make your visitors engage with your content, and establish your brand as a thought leader. This will help you grow exponentially.

With this knowledge, you’ll be able to direct more traffic to your website, generate leads through proper funneling, and turn those leads into recurring sales. You can also team up with influencers to boost your brand awareness/sales campaigns.

Advertising

Campaigns are the core of any social media advertising strategy. Most social media platforms offer sophisticated marketing tools that can be leveraged by any small business. Additionally, social ads are comparatively cheaper than most other forms of ad-media.

With dynamic and robust targeting and retargeting options, building a very specific targeted audience is easier than ever. According to Statista, by the end of this year (2022) advertisers are expected to spend around $56B on social media, just to advertise and promote products

Insights

Social media is the goldmine of client information. With this, you get access to the info on your clients’ clothing preferences, eating habits, shopping preferences, and more data in real-time. All those insights can help you reach and sustain more clients.

Alongside demographic data, social media will also provide insight into the connection your clients have online. You’ll be able to gather intel on how your clients view your brand and how you can improve that image. This will help you to connect to your audience on a core level.

Communication

Maintaining healthy communication with your audience is the way to build your brand over time. Being at the right place at the right time also helps here. If you create an impression that no matter what happens, your brand is here to take care of the clients; you’ll be able to gain their trust.

Unlike many other mainstream media, social media offers a two-way communication where, in order to make your clients engage with you, you need to engage yourself. This will also help you to build up networks and loyalty through crisis communication, customer service, and loyalty programs.

Content management

The biggest perk of social media marketing for small businesses is the chance to get viral. With a good content management plan, you’ll have to focus on the types of content your peers are interested in. The average attention span of a human is below 8 seconds.

Additionally, since we’re now used to smartphones, you’ll need to focus on engaging and mobile-friendly content. Learn what your peers want and provide content they will want to share. Proper content management is essential for maintaining steady growth.

ROI

Defining the Return On Invest (ROI) can be difficult when you don’t have much information on what impact you are having. With advanced analytics and reports social media advertising tools provide, it’ll become much easier to visualize your growth.

When you can see the exact impact of your social media activities from lead generation all the way to purchase. Proving the ROI will become much easier and you’ll be able to maintain steady growth.

Why Small Businesses Have the Social Media Marketing Advantage

Business type

Unlike big businesses, small businesses focus less on the overall mass. What I mean by that is instead of being like a giant like Starbucks and serving everyone, your granny’s recipe will connect more with the local audiences and communities.

Sometimes, marketers become a part of the community and run ad campaigns together. Small enterprises can reach their clients better with dedicated customer service, User Generated Content (UGC), and reviews.

Less expensive advertising

Social media is far more targeted to your clients and less expensive, compared to other media. For example, if you want to run a TV or a newspaper ad, it’ll cost you significantly more. However, not all the people that’ll watch the ad will be your customer.

With social media marketing, you won’t have to pay for advertising outside of your local customer base. Additionally, your ads will reach only interested or potential clients to create a business persona comparatively easier.

Joint marketing efforts

As mentioned earlier, small businesses have the scope to collaborate on their collective social media marketing strategies. As a small business owner, you’ll be able to reach out and team up with other businesses that share a similar audience.

You can offer special discount coupons that will redirect your customers within the community and your business will grow gradually. You can also try out events, giveaways, contests, or collaborations to discover and connect to new potential clients.

This will not only help to boost your sales, but it will also create strong brand awareness.

Personalized attention

You’ll also have the ability to connect with your peers on a personal level. According to a study, 53% of consumers want to shop at a small business just because they like the personal service they receive.

Small businesses can focus more on personalized attention, whether it’s online or offline. Big corporations focus on production, whereas your small business can focus on quality and personal attention.

According to Sprout Social, 68% of consumers think that social media enables them to engage with the brands. With personalized attention, small businesses can create a strong bond with their customers that in turn, will help them grow.

Piggyback on big advertising

Big brands often sponsor events to promote local small businesses. For example, in 2010, American Express established a day named “Small Business Saturday (SBS)”. Your small business can take part in such events to broaden your horizon, and meet new peers.

SBS takes place on the Saturday after Thanksgiving and is basically like a trade fair where people get to know small brands and buy from them. That way, both bigger and smaller brands get public exposure. In 2016, SBS had around 112 million people buying at the event.

The biggest advantage of this approach is that you won’t have to advertise for the event. Big corporations will advertise, and you can piggyback on that advertisement to meet new people and broaden your connection.

FAQs

1. How much time should I spend on Social Media each day? 

Ans: Around 30-40 minutes each day should be fine for beginners. However, it would be better to split that time in the morning and in the evening as traffic is usually the highest at those times.

2. How much does Social Media cost? 

Ans: The lowest you can spend on your social media campaigns is $1 per day. The cost depends on a lot of things like your operation type, the number of employees, the content types, and the platform you want to use. It can range anywhere from $300-2000 for small businesses.

3. What social media should a small business use? 

Ans: If your business has a lot of visual elements and targets young audiences, Instagram, Pinterest, and Tiktok will work better. If you want a more professional outlook, go for LinkedIn or Twitter. If you’re a novice, start with Facebook. On the other hand, YouTube can be used to educate the customer base.