To make social media marketing work, you’ll have to research, test, and have patience. If you lack one of these three things, you can expect unpredictable results, at best. We’ve all been there. You start getting your foot in the door with Facebook and Instagram, and then suddenly, the algorithm changes. Now, your audience can’t see the things you’re posting, and you’re getting nowhere. So, what to do in this situation? Well, learning more about the ways to use social media to grow your business is a good place to start.
Sometimes you won’t have to do much, and you’ll be just fine. On the other hand, there will be times when you have to leave your comfort zone and be patient. We already talked about the advantages of SEO and why every business needs it. And the things are pretty similar with social media, as well. The results don’t come overnight. But when they do, you’ll feel them with your revenue and the number of new leads.
So, if you stick with it, it will pay off. And here are the things you need to focus on.
- Layout your goals
Most business owners are aware that they should use social media. However, the vital thing is to know where to start. You can’t make a page, post a couple of things, and expect to get ten thousand followers by the end of the month.
So, before you even start, you need to outline your goals. To do this, we suggest you use the SMART framework. With it, you’ll be sure that your aims are:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Relevant
- Timely
Before you dive into ways to use social media to grow your business, be sure to make a plan and know what you’re after. Alt tag: A plan for social media goals.
- Choose the right platforms
Choosing the right social media platforms for your brand is the second thing you need to focus on. And to figure out what you should do, there are two paths you can follow. You can reach out to experts from digitaldot.us, explain to them what your business is all about, and they’ll tell you right away where to make accounts.
But, you don’t have to do it this way. You can also research on your own. Find out how your target audience spends time online, and the answer you’re searching for will be in that information.
For example, if teenagers are the people you’re after, you can’t go without Instagram, as they make the majority of users. Daily posts and stories are a great way to engage them. Of course, you’ll have to make content that is suitable for the network you’re posting on. But more on that later on.
- Use micro-influencers
It’s not a secret that companies use influencers as a marketing tool. They’ll share your product with their fans and say a few nice words about it. And as a matter of fact, they can be extremely effective. However, it seems that people think that they are reserved for big companies. And that’s not how things work.
Even if you’re running a small business, there are plenty of micro-influencers you can connect with. These are people who have a following larger than a regular person but smaller than a celebrity. Their services will be affordable, and they’ll help you grow and establish your brand.
Micro-influencers can help you get your brand out there. Alt tag: A woman thinking about ways to use social media to grow your business.
- Pay attention to trends
Trends and memes are what the internet is all about. So, we can’t talk about the ways to use social media to grow your business without mentioning them.
When you get a following and start making progress, you need to stay on top of all emerging trends. If there’s a new viral video going around, you need to know about it. If there’s a new hashtag, you want to use it. So, you’ll need one of the social listening tools, such as hashtag tracking tools are.
These will enable you to hear and understand what your audience talks about. And if you can use some of the viral content to promote your business, be sure to do it. It’s a free advertisement that can give great results.
- Quality over quantity
You might think that the best way to arrange your social media marketing is to be present on every network. However, that will get you nowhere. You won’t have time to create content that will be high quality, and you’ll be shouting to an empty room.
This is why it’s a much better idea to pick a few channels that you think will work for you and concentrate on offering value. By doing so, you’ll be able to establish a relationship with your followers. You want to come off as authentic, human, and honest. That’s what the audience wants to see, and that’s what you need to offer them.
If that sounds like a bite that’s too big, you can always consult with the professionals. Social media marketing is easy if you know everything about it. And these people do. So, they’ll be able to help you achieve your goals, no matter what those are.
Don’t spread your time and effort too thin between different social networks. Alt tag: A man working on a computer.
- Schedule post publishing
As you know, the key to success on social media is consistency. You need to post on your chosen networks every day or week, and you can’t afford to skip a beat. After a while, that can get tiring. And that’s where tools like Hootsuite jump in.
These allow you to schedule when your content goes live and when it gets published on each site. So, you can do a month’s worth of posting in just a couple of hours. It frees your time for other important tasks. And as a small business owner, we know that you have plenty of those hanging above your head.
- Track performance
By now, it should be clear that there are many options for free advertising on the internet. And social media is one of those. However, you can’t just do what you do and hope for the best. You need to track the results to make sure what works and what doesn’t.
So, read analytics, talk to your followers, and see what they like. This will enable you to spend less time on things that make no impact and utilize ways to use social media to grow your business to its full potential.
