Quick And Dirty Guide to Social Media
December 14, 2017 By everybody , aka mind
With hundreds of different social media applications in existence now, it can be difficult to know which to use and how – especially for a small business. If you look up social media marketing strategies, you’ll quickly be inundated with a myriad of ideas from all over the internet. For most small businesses, these plans are simply overkill. A guide to social media can be a big help.
To help fight this information glut, we created a quick guide to social media with all the information you need to know for the top four social media sites including how they can benefit your business and the easiest ways to get started:
1. Facebook
Perhaps the most well-known and highly trafficked, Facebook arguably has the largest reach while providing the most general feature set. Included in its capabilities are pages for individuals, pages for businesses, group forums, integrated shopping, and more. If you’re doing business online, being on Facebook is a must.
Small Business Marketing On Facebook
Creating a presence on Facebook is crucial for a small business. Not only for obtaining high visibility in your target market, but for establishing an air of legitimacy. Having a business page on Facebook allows users to share it with their friends, and expand your network of subscribers. It cements your business by verifying your information upfront in an easily accessible way.
Simple Methods to Try on Facebook
Facebook allows for solid marketing opportunities with features like image albums, event pages, location tagging, hours listing, and many more. With a user rating system, your subscribers can even market for you with positive comments. As long as it’s monitored carefully, Facebook is one of the strongest marketing options out there – for absolutely free. But if you feel like your business needs a little extra push, paid advertisements are available through Facebook as well.
2. Twitter
This social media channel allows users to share information one “tweet” at a time, using messages of no more than 280 characters in length. While Twitter may be less feature-rich than Facebook, its brevity and simplicity are key factors behind its popularity.
Small Business Marketing On Twitter
Twitter is a great place for quick messages for followers. For a small business, this means anything from operation hours updates to trending articles. A good small business Twitter campaign stays true to its brand and gears tweets towards their target audience.
Simple Methods to Try on Twitter
To get the most out of Twitter, you can create a network of followers that share your tweets on their Twitters. The more shares, the wider your audience, and the higher your conversion. Keep your messages as authentic as possible while still advocating your brand.
3. Instagram
More niche than the channels we’ve looked at so far, Instagram targets two specific markets with its unique functions: mobile users and photo takers. This app revolves around photos that users take on their mobile phones. While this makes Instagram a bit of a challenge for businesses marketing, it has a greater impact for businesses that do it right.
Small Business Marketing On Instagram
Instagram is like Twitter for images. For a quick visual update, Instagram is the place to check. Small businesses can utilize this social media platform by posting images that encapsulate the message they want to convey. Small businesses can use Instagram as visual cues for their followers; reminding them to come in.
Simple Methods to Try on Instagram
Try posting a picture of new stock as a simple way to advertise what’s newly available for purchase. The sky’s the limit with Instagram: pictures of the storefront on a sunny day, or brand-adjacent images, or more subtle pictures can do wonders for conversion. After all, a picture is worth 1,000 words. There’s a lot you can say with an image that just doesn’t come across as text.
4. Pinterest
Pinterest is similar to craft catalogs or bulletin boards. Placing a large focus on graphic representations of content, Pinterest is primarily used for infographics and imagery. By grouping images together according to click rates, this application quickly adapts to user preferences. Combined with easy sharing capabilities, Pinterest has catapulted to the forefront of social media.
Small Business Marketing On Pinterest
Pinterest excels in giving people what they want to see. By showing similar posts based on user clicks, it naturally prunes unwanted posts from the home screen. And it does so while being so stylishly scrollable. Small businesses may have a tough time in the Pinterest arena unless they have a carefully cultivated content generation.
Simple Methods to Try on Pinterest
Infographics are a phenomenal way to portray knowledgeability while remaining entertaining. It’s hard to present information in a way that isn’t dry, and infographics are a nifty solution. For a small business with tech acumen, making a data-driven infographic about servers and posting it to Pinterest is a giant leap towards brand recognition – and gaining user trust.
The Bottom Line
Ultimately, maintaining a wide array of content across all four platforms is ideal. Posting regular, brand-specific, quality content on social media will net positive results. Avoid spamming too many posts per day, and keep a lookout for negative feedback. Try not to post content that reflects poorly on your business.
Above all, always keep your target audience in mind! Think of specific customers if you need to. Before every post, think about your most loyal customer and ask yourself: “Would they really want to read this?”
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