Businesses around the country see the importance of using social media as a marketing tool, and they are investing millions of dollars into getting results. According to Business Insider data, social-media ad spending will top $8.5 billion this year in the United State and will reach nearly $14 billion in 2018, up from just $6.1 billion in 2013.
For small businesses, it often is difficult to invest thousands of dollars into social media marketing campaigns. Fortunately, there are options and plans for people who want to use social media for their business, but are on a tight budget. With a little effort, your business can get the most out of social media without paying for expensive services and tools. Below are some tips to get started:
- Determine Your Goals
Before your business begins any sort of social media strategy, you should determine your goal or goals. Are you launching a social media campaign to gain more followers? Do you want to enhance your communication with people who already are involved with your business? Do you want to gain more customers or patients through your social media campaign? These are all questions you should ask yourself when establishing a social media plan.
Once you determine your goal of why you want to use social media, you can determine which platforms will work best for your business. Taking the time to consider this before creating and managing multiple profiles that may not work will save you time and effort. Generally, professionals use Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google Plus to establish a social media presence, all of which can offer cost-effective marketing options.
- Post Creative and Optimized Content
To ensure your social media strategy is effective, your business should post timely content that is relevant to your audience. The content you post, of course, would be determined by your industry. For example, an accounting firm may post news articles related to tax season or tips for followers to use when sorting and storing receipts and other tax documents. The key is to ensure the information is something people want to read and share.
Additionally, you should be aware of what type of content works best on social media. According to a Fractl and BuzzStream study, posts with lists and why-posts proved to have the most reliable social traction, averaging around 21,000 shares per month with a variance of less than 2.5 percent. Varying your content, however, is still important, and your social media should be a compilation of valuable content formats.
Finding and developing this content can be one of the most time consuming parts of managing social media accounts. Fortunately, there are several free options to help you shave hours off of your social media management. It can be as simple as following related news sites or organizations on Facebook or searching for keywords related to your industry to find relevant news.
- Engage with Followers
One of the biggest benefits of social media is being able to engage with people who support your business. This can give you an idea of what they like about your business and changes they would like to see. Also, it makes them feel more connected to your company and can help facilitate a stronger brand loyalty among patrons. Getting them engaged on social media is vital to keeping a strong relationship.
To do this, businesses can share interactive media like videos, gifs and polls to get people spending more time on their social media pages. They also can share things like giveaways, special promotions or discounts. Things like this often get people tagging and sharing the information with friends. One of the best ways to get people talking, however, is to simply ask them a question.
Asking probing or thought-provoking questions on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or other social media platforms can help to get your followers talking. Simple questions likely will not get the type of responses you want. For the best interaction, questions should be related to topics people are passionate about. You also could ask about their past experiences with your company or, if you dare, areas in which you can improve.
Engaging with patrons, of course, requires your business to be consistently active on social media without oversharing. You cannot post once a week, or more than four times a day, and expect people to interact with your business. According to research by Buddy Media, pages that posted one or two times per day receives 40 percent higher user engagement compared to pages that had more than three posts per day.
- Study What Works
One of the best things Facebook can offer to businesses is the use of its free analytics program, known as Facebook Insights. This free data tracking system is a way for businesses to get a behind-the-scene glimpse of what works on their social media without having to pay high costs. This can help businesses determine what and when to post to get the most out of their campaigns.
Facebook’s Page Insights lets users view metrics about your their page’s performance, learn which posts have the most engagement and see data about when their audience is actually using Facebook. All of this information can be used to determine the best type of content to post, the format to do so and when most people are engaged on Facebook.
Conclusion
These tips are just some of the things your business can do to get the most out of social media with paying hundreds of dollars for advertisements, sponsorships or expensive marketing tools. Social media can produce a significant return on investment for businesses, but the process does not have to be pricey. Companies can run successful social media campaigns with imaginative posts and a little effort. Experimenting with what works best for your business and your industry can help you achieve the results you want.
About the Author
Precious Thompson is a board-certified dentist who provides comprehensive general and cosmetic dentistry and the founder of Thousand Oaks Dental, a San Antonio-based dental practice. You can follow her on Facebook and Twitter.
Note: This content is accurate as of the date published above and is subject to change. Please seek professional advice before acting on any matter contained in this article.
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