Is your money and time going down the social media black hole? You may wonder what I mean by that. Let me explain...
It can be really overwhelming thinking about what you need to do on social media to promote your business. You spend countless hours working out what you think you should post and put things up when you can. You may even be spending money thinking someone else knows better and be shelling out money every month to them. But it's still not making you any money. Plenty of activity and no results.
That's what I call the social media black hole.
So it begs the question...How do you do this right?
These are the questions you need the right answers to:
- How often do I have to post?
- What platforms do I use for my business?
- What kind of content do I need to post?
- How do I create the content?
- Where am I going to get the time to do all this?
You may even feel like you don’t have the skills to do this and feel like screaming and giving up.
But you know you should be using social media for your business, especially when you consider some of these statistics...
“78% of small businesses attract new customers with social media.”
“33% of customers use social media to find new brands, products and services.”
“63% of consumers are more likely to use businesses with an informative social media presence when searching online.”
“71% of consumers who received a quick response on social media would recommend the brand to others.”
So what can social media actually do for your business?
1. Stay top of mind with potential customers
2. Grow brand awareness with the general public
3. Become an authority in your niche
4. Increase visitors to your website
5. Promote your content to add value to prospective customers
6. Boost sales
What is the right plan?
Use social media to inform, educate and connect with the people in your circle of influence. Share valuable information. Don’t give away the baby with the bath water but do give useful tips and tricks that will make a difference for your audience.
When you do this, what would be happening for your readers and their perception of you?
A few things actually, the first is credibility!
They’re reading your stuff and learning some elements that they may not have known about, or maybe it reinforced what they’d heard before. Either way, their view of you as being someone that has knowledge and insight in this area is being strengthened. Your credibility is increasing.
What else is happening?
Trust is being established. Same as the consultant in the store, we bought from them because they were helpful, they certainly didn’t just seem to be there to get a sale, they showed they were interested in us by asking lots of questions.
They knew what they were on about right? And we trusted them.
The simple truth is we don’t buy from someone we don’t trust, that’s a fact.
And that’s the real power with social media marketing. Relationship and Positioning!
What Platforms Should You Use For Your Business?
Here’s some information about the major platforms to help you decide which to choose for your situation.
Choose as many as you can fit into your schedule or can get someone else to do for you.
Facebook – This is the biggest platform and just about everybody’s potential clients are on this platform.
LinkedIn – This is a business and professional community platform. At a minimum, we recommend an optimised personal profile AND a company page.
Instagram – This is a more visual platform and is used by a younger target audience.
YouTube – Video platform and underutilised by many businesses.
Twitter – This is a platform to send short tweets. Some businesses use it as a customer service tool and for networking.
Pinterest – A social network that allows users to visually share, and discover new interests by posting (known as ‘pinning’ on Pinterest) images or videos to their own or others’ boards.
Google My Business – Play the game with Google, and Google will play the game with you.
Podcasts – An on-demand audio content facility – you can listen to educational or entertainment audio content when you want, where you want, and how you want.
Whatever you decide to do, make sure you do it well and do it consistently.
Step 1
Create and/or optimise your social media profiles.
Step 2
Make sure you know your audience to create great content.
Step 3
Plan your content. Include images and video.
Step 4
Create and post consistently.
The best time to start doing this was when you started your business. The next best time is right now.
Have you got this or do you need help?
If you'd like some assistance, take advantage of a free consult with us to talk over your options and how we can help you reach your social media goals.