How To Create A Long Term And Sensible Social Media Strategy For Your Small Business

It is common knowledge that social media is great for engagement and building brand awareness with potential customers. Are there benefits beyond this?

If you are a small business or startup you can resolve a lot of issues through social media advertising. For instance, if paid per click marketing is not reaping the rewards you want, you may need to focus on more than just keywords and location. The good news about social media is that advanced targeting options are freely available.

For instance, when talking about Facebook you can detail targeting options according to the following.

Interests categories – which include business, family, entertainment, food, technology, hobbies and sports.

 

Demographic categories – which include home, life events, politics, parents, relationships.

 

behaviour categories – these include consumer classification, charitable donations, financial, media, job role, purchase behaviour, mobile device users, expats, digital activities. Twitter offers similar targeting options for its audiences and also offers targeting options for people who have visited specific pages or any page on your website. LinkedIn is also a powerful advertising platform which allows location targeting as a definitive way to reach audiences on social media platforms.

For any startup or new business, Google Analytics is essential as it can tap into a personal side of the company. Google Analytics will give a breakdown of visitors depending on their age, gender and other interests. You can also determine how many people have viewed content and for how long they have stayed on the page.

While people have multiple social media accounts, they still have their favourite one and will spend the most time on it. This is why you need to invest in multiple social media networks.

Here are some tips on what successful brands do on social media networks.

Have a common username

If you have the same username on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and LinkedIn it will help your audience identify you, and lead to growth and eventually a strong customer base.

 

Common profile photo

Consistency is key when it comes to maintaining social media networks. When the same profile appears across social platforms, visitors do not have to play a guessing game.

 

Clear message

Your social media platforms should incorporate a link to the website and you need to display a clear and consistent message across all platforms.

 

Some businesses find being active on social media a challenge. If you find it takes up a lot of your time, schedule time according with your followers in mind. You should update your social networks at least once a day.

 

What are the most popular platforms to build a community?

In a nutshell, Facebook and LinkedIn groups will give you an advantage. Facebook currently has over 1 billion users of which the majority are logging in daily and actively engaging and searching for things. LinkedIn offers you the advantage of a mailing list. Your social media agency can email members in your group as long as they have not turned off the option. Both Facebook and LinkedIn provide the opportunity of building communities.