How To Have Effective Social Media AND Run Your Small Business

For many small business owners, social media management is a task that is either exciting or simply forgotten. With so many responsibilities, there is often no time left over for marketing. Whether you enjoy social media or not, managing your followers, likes, and shares can seem impossible. But, it doesn’t have to be! The following can help you manage your social media effectively.

Set realistic and measurable goals

Setting goals for your social media can give you something to focus on besides posting. This can be especially helpful if you get stuck on creating posts. You can begin this step by looking at your marketing goals and overall business metrics, like average sales.

If you do not have social media accounts at all, it may actually be best to focus on page followers or likes, rather than leads or sales. You will need a customer base to work with when choosing goals. You can look at your competitors to see where they stand on social media and how they interact with their followers. From there, you can set your goals. These can look like:

• Getting 150 likes on social media posts and 50 conversions to your contact page on your website in a month from those posts.
• Generating 100 new sales leads in 8 weeks from an ad on Facebook.
• Increasing your followers on your new Twitter account because that’s where your competition is strongest.
• Creating brand awareness by engaging with more customers across all social platforms.

The first steps in your social media plan

Once you have set some goals, you can begin establishing your strategy. The following is not an exact guide, but something that can be customized to fit your business and social media needs.

1. Find your audience: This is often the first step in any marketing strategy, not just for social media. You need to understand who you will be interacting with before you can create engaging content for them. You can do this by looking at analytics from Facebook or Twitter (If you already have accounts) or by looking at similar pages in your industry.

 

2. Understand which platforms are best for you: This doesn’t mean you can’t or shouldn’t set up accounts on all social platforms. It is best to be available to your customers and clients wherever possible. But, some platforms will be more popular and useful than others. This has a lot to do with your audience, so pay attention to where they are on social media.

 

3. Begin creating posts: You can start the process of writing posts and designing graphics by thinking about the basics of your company. What should your customers know about you or your products? What is trending within your industry? Is there anything that could help them choose you over your competition?
    
   Along with knowing the answers to the above questions, you should also know which types of content are appropriate for each social media outlet. For Facebook and LinkedIn, longer posts and videos are great, but for Twitter and Instagram, shorter posts and high-quality images are needed.

 

4. Create a schedule: When you first start posting, you may not know the best days and times to share content, but this is fine. Be sure to remember to post at least once or twice a week, or every day if your audience engages with your content that often. However, you should never post too often. Spamming your followers will make them feel overwhelmed or like you are just trying to sell to them.

Tracking your results

Once your schedule begins, you can start tracking your results. Analytics from social media outlets, as well as from other sources, can help you see what is successful and what is not. You can also use tools that integrate all your social platforms to easily post and track everything. Some of the most commonly tracked metrics include impressions, likes, shares, clicks, comments, and visits to your website. Reputation is another aspect that should be monitored, as well as what your followers and your competition are saying.

You don’t have to do social media alone

It is best not to handle your social media management by yourself. No matter if you are a one-person company or a larger business, this can be overwhelming. Your employees can be involved in social, which can be helpful. But, this could also mean you have too many people working on this job.

The best way to handle your social is to hire an experienced digital marketing company to work with you. They will know how to focus in on your audience and be able to create professional, engaging posts, share that content, and track the results. Hiring a company will save you and your employees time, allowing you to focus more on running your small business.

Other ways you can take advantage of social media success

Here are some other tips you can use to get the most out of your social media strategy. Remember, every business is different, so you should experiment, track, and update your methods and strategies whenever it is needed.

• Be an expert in your field. Whether this is baking cookies, fixing plumbing systems, or running a non-profit, you want your followers, peers, and even competitors to see you as an authority.
• Only post content that informs, helps, and creates value. Value can mean leaving a positive thought in your customers’ minds or providing a coupon, among many other things. Never post for the sake of posting.
• Be human! A professional tone is fine for social media outlets, but remember to show your business is run by people. You can do this by showing your followers and customers that you appreciate them and by sharing employee spotlights, event videos, and more.
• Be a part of conversations. Your followers WANT you to interact with them.

Social media marketing services in Amarillo, Texas

If you need help with social media for your small business, the Team at UCI Digital in Amarillo is here for you. We offer a variety of services, including creating and tracking Facebook ads, managing all your social media outlets, and more. You can reach us at (806) 553-5332 or Send Us an Email to learn more about our Services. You can also visit us in person at 1000 S. Adams Street.