If you’re planning to manage the social media for you small business alone, this blog aims to steer you clear of the pitfalls many small business owners fall into. In fact, you may be pleased to know that the answer isn’t to just do more – it may even be to do less!
One of the biggest mistakes small business owners make is feeling like they need to ‘do it all’ with their online presence. They have several social channels with very few followers, instead of focusing on one that they can really smash, and being strategic about how they use it.
Two other big no-nos for social media are poaching/sharing other people’s content and not creating anything of your own, and not responding to messages or comments within a reasonable time frame.
We develop ‘Social Media for Small Business’ strategies for our clients to use as blueprints for success, but if you can’t afford us, that doesn’t mean you have to resign yourself to applying a scattergun, ‘suck-it-and-see’ approach!
Your first step is to access our Instagram 101 pdf by subscribing to this blog (click HERE to sign up!). The second is to take a deep breath and sit down and answer these questions for your small business.
1) Who is your target audience? Get as specific as you can. What do they like, where do they shop, which brands to they adore, what time are they online, what do their lives look like?
2) Which social channels do they use? Do some googling, speak to your own network who fit into this demographic, and use your intuition. Focus only on the main channel/s they use, drop the rest. You don’t have time to do everything!
3) WHY would they follow your account on social media? What reason do they have to follow you, and what are they hoping to get out of it? Work this out, and always have it top of mind when you post.
4) How can you organise it so that you can post what they want to see, consistently? Ensure you allow time to practice good grammar and punctuation, appropriate crediting and tagging and applying hashtags. Do you need to pay someone a few hours per week to get on top of this? Do you need to set aside two hours on a Saturday to tackle it? Do you need
5) How can you get a response out of them? You need engagement. Look back over your posts and see what has encouraged engagement so far – do more of this!
Social media for small business is not the same as it is for big brands. You don’t have the time or the budget, but you do have you. YOU know your customers and your products or services better than anyone else. Use this to your advantage, get organised, and get started!