Social Media Marketing Tips for Small Businesses

As a small business looking to grow, you’ll often be looking at new ways of attracting customers.

The first step would be to create a marketing plan that will set out how to improve your business outreach, customer service and revenue.The second step is to find the right type of campaign that will assist you in increasing your customer base. Social media marketing for small business can form an important part of your overall marketing strategy.

In this article you will learn:

• Why you should social media for your small business
• Which social media platforms are the best for small business
• How to manage content for social media
• Social media tips for small business

Why you should social media for your small business

In February 2022, 82.7% of the Australian population had active social media accounts. That means that 21.45 million Australians were active social media users. Most small-to-mid-sized businesses (SMB) use social media to market their products and services. Here are some essential reasons for using social media for your small business:

• Reaching more potential customers: your small business to reach a wider audience through social media platforms by creating engaging content and encouraging social media users to purchase from your brand
• Increase brand awareness: posting interesting, relevant and interactive content on social media that users will share can lead to an increase in brand awareness and visibility
• Understand consumer behaviour: analysing your followers behaviour on social media can help you better understand your customers and how to target them through social media campaigns
• Increase brand loyalty: social media platforms allow your small business to interact directly with your customers through comments, likes, DMs and polls to answer their queries and collect feedback. Showing your customers you care about their opinions and experience helps build long-term relationships with your customers and is likely to lead to increased brand loyalty. 
• Increase conversion rate: your business can leverage mobile commerce by selling products through social media platforms such as Instagram Shop, Facebook Shop and TikTok Shop to simplify the checkout process for your customers

Which social media platforms are the best for small business

Small businesses can use different social media platforms to reach different audiences or to meet different business goals. Infact, omnichannel marketing is becoming more popular than ever. Omnichannel marketing is a multichannel approach to sales that aims to provide a seamless shopping experience by allowing customers to shop on multiple channels through various devices. 

Deciding on the best social media platform for your small business also depends on the type of content you produce and which platform your target audience spends most of their time. Some of the best social media platforms for small business include:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Pinterest
• TikTok
• YouTube
• LinkedIn

How to manage content for social media

There are a number of tips your small business can follow to manage content for social media effectively:

• Batch content: set content pillars that are relevant to your brand to help you create consistent content
• Create a content calendar: using editorial content calendars helps organise your social media posts, provides consistency and ensures your campaigns are aligned with seasonal trends
• Use scheduling tools: save time by automating your social media posts with preset captions, hashtags and scheduled upload times
• Recycle content: use your content across multiple platforms and adjust the format to fit the relevant platform

What to include in a social media content calendar

When you create a content calendar make sure to include:

• The type of content you will be posting (blog, image, carousel, video)
• The date the content will be posted
• The social media platform the content will be posted to
• A description of the content
• Copy that will accompany the post
• Links, tags and mentions (people, accounts or location) and any hashtags that will be included

Social media management tools for small business

Using the right tools can help you execute your social media strategy and save your business time and money. Consider using the following social media management tools in your small business to help plan, schedule and automate your content:

• Hootsuite
• Planoly
• Loomly
• Buffer
• Facebook Creator Studio

Social media marketing ideas for small business

Once you’ve decided on the social media platforms, it’s time to start posting content. Here are some social media tips for your small business to get you started.

1. Claim your Google Business Profile

Claiming your Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business account (GMB)) is a must for any local business. By claiming your Google Business Profile, you can verify and edit all the information about your business as it appears on Google when people search for it. This is an opportunity for you to make sure your details are correct, add photos of your business, and keep track of any social proof such as reviews. You can also add your social media profiles such as Instagram to your Google Business Profile allowing potential customers to visit your socials directly from a Google search.

2. Apply for Business Awards and Share your Wins on Social

Chances are your industry offers various business awards every year. Entry into these awards is often free and it is a great opportunity for winners and runners-up to gain free publicity. This can be the best type of publicity as it relates to your business receiving industry recognition for your product/service. Depending on your industry, these awards often attract media attention, and enhance the growth potential for your business. Adding your business awards and certificates to your social media profiles and bios is a great way to increase brand authority and trustworthiness.

3. Reach Out to Publications with HARO

HARO stands for Help a Reporter Out. Essentially, it’s a platform for journalists writing about various topics where they may need a quote from an expert.

Let’s say you own a restaurant in Sydney. A reporter can make a request for a piece they’re writing about restauranteurs in Sydney. By providing a quote, you will be attributed in the piece and may gain a link to your restaurant website. With a bit of time and effort, HARO can be a useful way to gain some free advertising in a major publication. Share your brand appearing in media publications across your social platforms to increase brand awareness and authority. Make sure to tag the publication and include a link the post.

4. Schedule and Share Local Events on Socials 

If you're a local business, use your social media platforms to schedule and share local events. You can use Facebook to create and schedule an event your small business is hosting and share it across your social media platforms. For example, share your local pop-up shop event. You can also share local events you will be joining, either as a participant, sponsor, volunteer, or board member. 

Sharing events on social media allows your small business to reach a wider audience and lets interested customers join the event and set reminders to attend. By joining and socially sharing these events, you increase your visibility and get the chance to network with locals in your area - the potential customers for your business. When you’re at these events, bring something of value to entice your audience on the day, whether it's free samples or informational content.

5. Share your Newsletter

Much of modern content marketing centres around offering educational value to your customers.

Sharing valuable information builds your reputation as a creditable, trustworthy source. Keep this up over time and word of mouth will spread about your status as a go-to source in your industry.

Consider a monthly newsletter sharing the latest industry insights and news. You can send this to your email subscribers or share on socials to start building that reputation.

6. Host a Social Media Competition

Your social media platforms are a free method of communication with your customers. In 2022, social media should be one of your key marketing channels. You can use this in many ways to cheaply engage with the audience. 

Consider giving away something for free—such as a product bundle or discount vouchers —in exchange for social media engagement. No matter how saturated a user’s feed is, they’ll often still stop scrolling for something free

Have your followers like, comment, share, and tag a friend in the giveaway post to boost reach.

7. Share User-generated Content

If you can, encourage user-generated content that you can share through your socials and on your site. 

Consumers love to see other consumers using and enjoying a product or service as this acts as the perfect social proof of your business offering in action. 

Incentivise existing customers to share photos, videos, and testimonials of them using your products, but ensure you ask permission to use their content. You should also monitor unprompted social media content by tracking your hashtags to find other opportunities of positive content that you can share.

Let that user-generated content do the talking for how your product offers a fantastic solution to customers who may be on the fence about buying from you. 

8. Collect Customer Feedback

Social proof is integral to business success these days. Consumers want to see what others think of your products and services before they commit to a purchase.

Therefore, ask for customer feedback through various methods, whether it be encouraging reviews on online directories or asking customers to fill out surveys or questionnaires that you can then share on your socials or your website.

9. Share Video Tutorials

If your business is related to a particular expertise or skill you have, consider creating tutorial videos showcasing your skills for others to learn. Educational content is a great way to provide value to customers, and educational video content is even more engaging. 

10. Optimise Content for SEO

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is a fantastic, long term strategy to increase web traffic to your website. Essentially, an SEO strategy helps you design your website and publish content in a way that helps your site appear higher in search rankings for specific keywords. You could hire an SEO expert to help you, but if you can do it yourself, SEO is a free source of increased web traffic, compared to paid advertising. If you use YouTube as your social media platform, make sure to optimise your videos for SEO.

11. Partner With Other Small Businesses

A great way to freely advertise to a new audience is to partner with a fellow small business and leverage their social media following.

Look for opportunities within your industry for another small business that isn’t a direct competitor. You can conveniently piggyback on each other’s social media channels and blog pages, or host a podcast or webinar together. The critical aspect here is that you both get access to a whole new audience that should be primed and ready to hear your offering.