How to Improve Social Media Marketing Efficiency for Small Businesses

Social media is the most happening place on the Internet. Of 4.4 billion internet users, 3.5 billion are active social media users. From being a blogging platform to a powerful, AI-based marketing platform, social media has transformed significantly since its beginning in the last decade of the last century.

Today, social media enables users to connect with friends and family and broaden their network. On the other hand, it is a platform that connects brands to their existing and potential customers.

More than 77% of businesses use social media for sales, marketing, and customer service. However, the role of social media isn’t just limited to sales, marketing, and customer service. A large number of businesses use social media to find partners and investors.

Social Media Marketing for Small Business

For small businesses, social media is a tool to market their brand among their audience. Many use social networks to interact and engage with their audience. Some use social networks to offer customer support.

Some of the best sides of including social media in your marketing strategies are that it reduces your cost, allows you to serve your customers better, enables you to promote your brand and its message, and allows you to build a far-reaching online reputation.

Social media marketing is simply marketing or promoting your products and services through social networks. However, it is not as simple as that.

To see your social media efforts flourishing, you will need a rock-solid social media marketing strategy. If you already have a strategy but outcomes are not as per your expectations, it is time to make a shift in your approach.

Include Multiple Platforms

Despite the figure that 73% small businesses use social media, there is a huge percentage that uses just one or two platform(s). Lack of resources and shortage of time are the most common answers for that.

A few calendars back, Twitter was the only and most efficient social media marketing channel. Today, Facebook is the largest marketing channel of all.

Social media marketing isn’t limited to Facebook and Twitter. Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, LinkedIn, and other leading social media channels have their own user base and marketing channel.

So, have plans for more than two channels (possibly, as many channels as suitable for your brand) in your social media marketing strategy.

Organize Your Dashboard

Small businesses have a real shortage of time and resources. If you are creating and posting updates by yourself, you need something that saves your time and energy and works as a boost to your creativity.

Empower yourself with an easy-to-use social media scheduling tool that lets you schedule and manage your posts across multiple platforms on an interactive dashboard. With one such tool, you can check notifications, mentions, comments, and direct messages without logging in to each platform multiple times a day.

You should also introduce a powerful social media analytics tool that gives you insights on all your channels. Every social media marketer needs to know the performance of their posts.

One such tool enables you to measure success rates in terms of efforts and spends made. This also allows you to make strategic changes in your approach.

Have a Separate Plan for Each Social Network

There is no one-size-fits-all situation here. Each channel works differently.

Facebook is a social media giant that owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Each channel has a completely different purpose and process. Similarly, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube are not alike.

So, if your strategy hits your expectation level on Facebook, it might not be suitable or applicable for YouTube.

 

Strategize which social networks will be suitable for your small business and develop an action plan for each. The idea is to find and connect with your audience on each platform applicable to your business.

Be Super Active

At many times, social media growth strategies fail due to non-engagement from brands. You have got a great audience that engages – reacts, shares, and comments on your updates – but you do not engage back.

You might be happy checking out the user reactions on your timeline; however, that is the worst you can do.

If you don’t engage back, there comes a time when your audience stops engaging with your page. That is when your strategy stops bearing fruit.

For customers, social media is the most preferred communication channel. So, if someone comments on your status update, it is your job to respond as soon as possible.

If it is a negative remark, try your best to resolve their issue quickly. However, if it requires the user to share his contact/personal details, it is best to move to a direct message for further conversation and resolution.

Doing so helps you demonstrate that you care for your customers.

Bottom Line

These steps set you up for social media success. However, that is not all. You need to define and find your audience on each social network. Gear yourself up and create updates analyzing the likes and dislikes of your followers.

Moving ahead, the idea of social media marketing is not ONLY about posting updates. It is about how useful your brand, page, or content is to individuals.

If your content helps users in any way – whether it entertains them, eases their lives, or solves their problems – it has the potential to give your strategies a boost. So, focus on the quality of content being shared.

This is a Contributor Post. Opinions expressed here are opinions of the Contributor. Influencive does not endorse or review brands mentioned; does not and cannot investigate relationships with brands, products, and people mentioned and is up to the Contributor to disclose. Contributors, amongst other accounts and articles may be professional fee-based.

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