As a small business owner, you’re likely always looking for ways to market your business and reach more customers. One of the most popular and affordable ways to do this is through social media marketing.
In this article, we’ll review what social media marketing is, the benefits of social media marketing, and the necessary steps to create a social media marketing strategy.
By the end of this blog post, you will have everything you need to create a social media marketing blueprint for your small business.
So, let’s get started!
What social media marketing is and isn’t
Social media marketing is a process of creating content that is posted on social media platforms in order to achieve marketing and business goals.
It is important to note that social media marketing is not just about posting random content on social media.
To be successful with social media marketing, it’s important to have a strategy in place (which we’ll dive further into later in this post).
The most popular social media platforms for businesses today are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
Now that we’ve reviewed what social media marketing is and some of the most popular social media platforms for businesses, let’s talk about the benefits of social media marketing.
The benefits of social media marketing
Social media marketing comes with a lot of benefits.
Some of the most notable benefits include:
Increased brand awareness
Social media marketing increases your business’s brand awareness by getting your brand in front of more people.
The more consistently people see your business, the more likely they are to remember it and think of it when they need your services.
More traffic to your website
Many people think social media marketing exists entirely on social media. The reality is, when done correctly, social media marketing also drives potential customers to your website.
You can do this by including links to your website in your social media posts or by running social media ads that link to your website.
Improved search engine rankings
When you include links to your website on social media, you are also helping improve your website’s search engine ranking. This is because social signals (i.e., the engagement your website receives on social media) are one of the factors that search engines take into account when ranking websites.
Greater engagement with your ideal customer
Social media marketing provides the opportunity to engage with your ideal customer in a more informal setting. This is a great way to increase trust and loyalty between your brand and your customers.
For almost every business, the primary goal of social media marketing is to increase sales and leads. By increasing brand awareness and converting followers to website visitors, social media marketing can help you achieve this goal.
Now that we’ve reviewed the benefits of social media marketing, let’s talk about how to create a social media marketing strategy.
Creating your social media marketing strategy
The first step of your social media marketing strategy is to determine what your goals are.
Are you looking to increase brand awareness? Drive traffic to your website? Improve your search engine ranking? Increase sales and leads?
Once you’ve determined your goals, you can start putting together your social media marketing strategy.
Here are a few things to keep in mind when creating your social media marketing strategy:
Your target customer: Who are you trying to reach with your social media marketing?
Your goals: What do you hope to achieve with social media marketing?
Your budget: How much can you spend on social media marketing?
Your resources: What social media platforms will you use? Do you have the resources to create social media content?
Your content: What kind of content will you create? Will it be blog posts, infographics, images, videos, etc.?
Your tone: What voice and tone will you use on social media?
Your distribution strategy: How will you get your content seen by your target audience?
Your social media marketing strategy should be tailored specifically to your business’s goals. There is no one-size-fits-all strategy for small businesses.
Once you’ve created your social media marketing strategy, it’s time to start creating and distributing content.
If you’re not sure where to start, here are a few ideas:
- Create a social media calendar
- Write blog posts
- Create images or videos
- Schedule your posts in advance
No matter what type of content you create, the most important thing is to be consistent and to stick to your social media marketing strategy.
Social media marketing is a great way to reach your target audience, increase brand awareness, and drive traffic to your website. When creating your social media marketing strategy, be sure to tailor it specifically to your business’s goals. Do you need help with creating or optimizing your social media marketing? If you need help with anything we talked about in this blog post, or if you want to learn more about our social media marketing services, contact us today! We’ll be happy to answer any of your questions.
