Social Media Guide for Small Business

Social media allows people to connect online by sharing stories, photos, and information. These platforms also can prove helpful when trying to start or develop a business. Social media marketing is the modern and easy way to advertise. Luckily, there are many platforms from which to choose if you want to broadly promote your business. So why not take advantage of as many as you can handle?Different people use different social media platforms for different reasons. The more you can connect with people, the greater your chances of generating more interest in your business. Not only will social media connect you with potential customers and help you form a sense of community, but it also can legitimize your business in a more modern sense. Use this guide to discover how social media can help your business thrive.

Why Social Media is Important for Small Businesses

Social media represents — above all things — an opportunity. It’s a way to quickly and clearly communicate news about your business. Social media marketing is pretty much free (or cheaper than other methods of marketing). You can showcase new promotions and deals, changes in your business hours, your business’ community outreach efforts, and more. If you think your customers will find something useful or entertaining, post about it somewhere online so they can stay in the loop. In today’s digital age, many people will check out a business’ social media presence before giving that business another thought. As such, you should view social media as a tool that can help you with four things:

• Marketing and Brand Awareness: People want to not only understand your business’ values, but also who you are as a business owner. With social media, you can tell the world exactly why people should want to be a part of your business.

• Research: Analyzing your existing customer base can help you better understand your target audience and how to appeal to them. By conducting some analysis on your social media followers, you can determine what’s working for your marketing goals and what’s not. By using these insights, you can adjust or reinvent your marketing campaign to better appeal to your target audience. You also can use social media platforms to research your competition.

• Connection: People want to feel a genuine connection to the businesses they choose to participate in and support. You can form and nurture these connections by engaging with your target audience on social media as you respond to messages, create polls, or hold a friendly competition. You can find many ways to captivate your audience’s attention.

• Credibility: In this digital age, people like to check out businesses online to help them decide to whom they’ll give their money. Leveraging social media in a responsible and entertaining way will send your clientele a signal that says, “This business is legitimate.”

Choosing Your Platform

The social media platform(s) you decide to use for your business should depend on the type of business you run as well as your target audience(s). The most popular platforms for businesses are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Here’s a brief overview of each:

• Facebook serves as a useful place to make announcements about business hours, holidays, events, and pricing. Some businesses even invite customers to leave reviews on this platform. Mostly, Facebook provides a good way to bring a community together by posting photos and using its comment section to drive engagement. When a business publishes a post on Facebook, it usually has the option of sharing that post on its other social media accounts. If you post a photo on Facebook, for example, you also can push it to your business’ Instagram account at the same time. Suddenly, you have a new, exciting post on two social media platforms.

• Instagram caters to people who value visual content. This platform even provides photo-editing tools to help you make your images really pop. Behind-the-scenes material is popular here because people want an inside look at the businesses they support. If you decide to host an employee appreciation brunch, for example, take some photos so you can show the world your employees’ smiling faces. This will help your target audience connect with your business on a deeper level.

• Given its character limit for individual tweets, Twitter works best for giving your audience quick updates about your business. It also provides a good tool for directly interacting with your audience and soliciting feedback.

• LinkedIn provides a platform specifically designed to help individuals can expand their professional network. People and businesses connect with other professionals and post about information, knowledge, and job availability.

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Why Social Media is Important for Small Businesses

Social media represents — above all things — an opportunity. It’s a way to quickly and clearly communicate news about your business. Social media marketing is pretty much free (or cheaper than other methods of marketing). You can showcase new promotions and deals, changes in your business hours, your business’ community outreach efforts, and more. If you think your customers will find something useful or entertaining, post about it somewhere online so they can stay in the loop. In today’s digital age, many people will check out a business’ social media presence before giving that business another thought. As such, you should view social media as a tool that can help you with four things:

• Marketing and Brand Awareness: People want to not only understand your business’ values, but also who you are as a business owner. With social media, you can tell the world exactly why people should want to be a part of your business.

• Research: Analyzing your existing customer base can help you better understand your target audience and how to appeal to them. By conducting some analysis on your social media followers, you can determine what’s working for your marketing goals and what’s not. By using these insights, you can adjust or reinvent your marketing campaign to better appeal to your target audience. You also can use social media platforms to research your competition.

• Connection: People want to feel a genuine connection to the businesses they choose to participate in and support. You can form and nurture these connections by engaging with your target audience on social media as you respond to messages, create polls, or hold a friendly competition. You can find many ways to captivate your audience’s attention.

• Credibility: In this digital age, people like to check out businesses online to help them decide to whom they’ll give their money. Leveraging social media in a responsible and entertaining way will send your clientele a signal that says, “This business is legitimate.”

Choosing Your Platform

The social media platform(s) you decide to use for your business should depend on the type of business you run as well as your target audience(s). The most popular platforms for businesses are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Here’s a brief overview of each:

• Facebook serves as a useful place to make announcements about business hours, holidays, events, and pricing. Some businesses even invite customers to leave reviews on this platform. Mostly, Facebook provides a good way to bring a community together by posting photos and using its comment section to drive engagement. When a business publishes a post on Facebook, it usually has the option of sharing that post on its other social media accounts. If you post a photo on Facebook, for example, you also can push it to your business’ Instagram account at the same time. Suddenly, you have a new, exciting post on two social media platforms.

• Instagram caters to people who value visual content. This platform even provides photo-editing tools to help you make your images really pop. Behind-the-scenes material is popular here because people want an inside look at the businesses they support. If you decide to host an employee appreciation brunch, for example, take some photos so you can show the world your employees’ smiling faces. This will help your target audience connect with your business on a deeper level.

• Given its character limit for individual tweets, Twitter works best for giving your audience quick updates about your business. It also provides a good tool for directly interacting with your audience and soliciting feedback.

• LinkedIn provides a platform specifically designed to help individuals can expand their professional network. People and businesses connect with other professionals and post about information, knowledge, and job availability.

Other social media platforms businesses may want to consider using include Yelp, YouTube, Reddit, Snapchat, and Pinterest. Here’s a quick look at each:

• Yelp can prove helpful if you want honest feedback from customers who have used your business’ products or services. You can post pictures, interact with people, and buy targeted ads to help with marketing.

• seful place to make announcements about business hours, holidays, events, and pricing. Some businesses even invite customers to leave reviews on this platform. Mostly, Facebook provides a good way to bring a community together by posting photos and using its comment section to drive engagement. When a business publishes a post on Facebook, it usually has the option of sharing that post on its other social media accounts. If you post a photo on Facebook, for example, you also can push it to

• Reddit hosts thousands of active groups who use the site to share information and conduct conversations. However, because this is one of the most community-based social media platforms, you can’t treat it the same way you would Facebook or Instagram when it comes to marketing. “Redditors” don’t take kindly to companies that only use the site to market their business. Instead, they want to see business representatives actively contribute to the group in a valuable way. This is important because Redditors prioritize the quality of their little corner of the internet. In other words, they don’t want to be overrun by people who only want to sell things. The good news is you can potentially gain loyal customers if you use Reddit in a respectful way.

• Snapchat’s mobile-only platform appeals to a younger audience (those under 34 years old). Its story feature is very popular among businesses because it allows them to post as many “snaps” as they want and then see how many people watched them. This provides a great opportunity to show people your business’ daily operations. The platform also offers some unique ways to advertise your business, such as snap ads, sponsored geofilters, and sponsored lenses.

• While Pinterest is a platform on which hobbyists look for new ideas, about 84 percent of its weekly users also turn to it to help them make purchasing decisions. In addition, people visit Pinterest to find inspiration and plan special events. It’s one thing to be a business selling a product; on Pinterest, you also can be a source of inspiration.

Dependi can easily communicate your business’ personality by hosting your audiovisual content. Connecting with existing and potential customers this way might feel more personal if you film yourself — the business owner — discussing your products or services. Using multiple formats to convey information also can help you connect with a larger audience because some people might prefer watching videos vs. reading articles or . is best for your business.

Connecting With Your Audience

Depending on your involvement with your social media campaigns, you may wish .ess. When you publish posts on social media platforms as a business owner, remember to always use a respectful and professional tone. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t incorporate your personal voice, however. Sharing your own voice can actually help people relate to you more. In situations when you must deal with .