Love it or hate it, social media is a proven game-changer for small business owners. What was once seen as a platform for college students and cat memes is now a powerful tool to boost your brand awareness, increase sales, and forge meaningful connections with customers. But why? And how do you grab someone’s attention as they sleepily doom-scroll through all of those summer vacation photos?
If you’re a small business owner and you want your company to thrive, you may want to beef up your social media presence. It may just be that secret sauce for success.
The thing is, we’re hit with thousands, yes, thousands, of marketing messages each day. What’s your angle to make your prospects take notice? Here are a few strategies my team and I keep in mind.
- Visibility: Remember the days when you had to rely on local advertising and word of mouth to promote your business? Social media takes those limitations and tosses them out the window. With the right strategy, you’ll reach beyond your local community and get in front of an international audience that needs your offering. Businesses are now less confined to brick-and-mortar stores and can be accessible to potential customers worldwide 24/7.
- Cost-effective marketing: In the past, advertising budgets could pose a significant barrier for small businesses in marketing efforts. Social media levels the playing field. Whether a one-person operation or a larger team, you can compete with the industry giants without going broke. Most social media platforms are free, cost-effective modes of advertising.
- Get them to slow their scroll and stand out: Get creative. Your social media content needs to be more than promotional – it’s a place for the personality of your company to shine with eye-catching visuals. Along with those visuals should be strong, short messaging to convey your offering and the problem it will solve for your customers and clients. Show your audience who you are with testimonials from employees and those you have served well in the past. I like to combine a personal post each week to remind people that I’m human too!
- Offer support and build relationships: Relationship building with customers is easier now more than ever because social media provides a direct line of communication between you and your audience. You (or even a virtual assistant) can engage in comments and conversations, and address concerns promptly. Showing that you care about your customers’ needs and opinions, you’ll offer support and build a trusted brand that will turn one-time buyers into loyal lifelong advocates of your business.
- Decisions based on data: Want to know what your customers like, dislike, or dream about? You can get that golden intel through social media analytics. Track engagement rates, and audience demographics to understand your content performance and fine-tune your marketing strategy. Utilizing a data-driven approach will help you continuously adapt and grow to meet your customers’ evolving needs.
- Understand where your people are: Are your prospects on Facebook or LinkedIn more? Find out where they congregate, what their challenges are, and how you can help them with the transformational promise of your product. Pro tip? I like LinkedIn for speaking posts, but I keep the lifestyle posts to Instagram and Facebook. Know what your audience will be drawn to and on what platform.
All this to say, if you want the competitive edge, you need to grab attention with relevant, supportive, captivating, and regular content – and one of the best methods in marketing on your social media platforms. I can’t wait to follow you to see how you shine!
Wishing you health and wealth always.
-Mike
For more marketing expertise, check out Get Different, by Mike Michalowicz, and save $6 on the book, too!
Want to lead your team to greatness? You can also pre-order Mike’s newest book, All In, here.
To learn more about Mike and get access to a treasure trove of entrepreneurial tips, visit www.MikeMichalowicz.com.
