Social is one of the biggest marketing channels for small businesses. For starters, it’s free, and it’s so easy to use there’s no reason anyone couldn’t do it.
A little time and effort are all it takes to set your local business on the path to success by developing a custom marketing strategy that leverages the power of social media.
With over 4,2 billion social media users worldwide, tens of thousands of potential customers are waiting for you to grab their attention.
This article will look at the six ways you can efficiently promote a social media campaign for your business.
The six ways to efficiently promote a local social media campaign:
Choose the right platforms
You can guarantee success for your social media campaign by selecting the right platforms to promote your business on.
Every social media platform is different, so you must select the platforms you will use for your marketing campaigns based on your target audience, your strategy, and the goals you want to achieve.
You could pick any social media platform you like, but we recommend initially building your campaigns on the major platforms. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter are massively popular, and chances are you will reach significant segments of your potential customers on each.
Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok are excellent social media platforms to run your campaigns on because they are designed to make sharing visual content a breeze. Visual content is highly engaging, and with any of these platforms, you can immerse your audience into who you are as a brand, business, or part of their community.
Twitter does not lend itself to visual content like other platforms do, but it is perfect for staying top of mind with quickfire tweets throughout the day, so do not underestimate it.
Study your audience
Effectively marketing your business on social media is about understanding your audience. Understanding the demographics in your community will help you position yourself in a way people can relate to and connect with.
Think about who in your community you want to reach. If you offer a service, your target audience could be other businesses you wish to provide a service to. Or, you could be a food or clothing joint looking to reach the younger crowd of college kids in the area.
Whatever business you are in, take some time to clarify who you want to reach. Then, once you have that image in mind, study and understand the target’s needs, motivations, behavior patterns, what they are drawn to, and how they communicate.
The deeper your understanding of your audience is, the better equipped you will be to reach them and influence them the way you want.
Of all the steps you could take to guarantee the success of your social media marketing campaigns, sharpening your knowledge of your audience will be the most influential one.
You can build up your knowledge by observing your potential customer and asking questions to understand them better. You can also invest in social media tracking platforms to help you collect online insights.
Social media might be free, but you should be prepared to invest some money if you want to gain an edge other local businesses are not considering.
Create a content schedule
Once you know which platforms to use and understand your audience well, the next step in social media marketing should be putting together a content schedule for your posts.
Having a content calendar will help you effectively manage your efforts and keep things organized to prevent overwhelm.
Managing social media campaigns and ensuring the right content is posted to the right platforms is a lot harder than it sounds. It is impossible to share compelling, high-quality content when you are scrambling to put it together moments before posting it.
Posting low-quality content will not drive the type of actions in your target audience that will make you hit your targets.
Having a content schedule will also help you avoid prolonged absences from your audiences. Social media audiences quickly forget you if you don’t keep them entertained.
Using an automation service like Hypefury and its cross-posting features can help you minimize the effort required to maintain a presence on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. There are several other tools, but investing will improve your social media marketing.
One last thing you want to keep in mind regarding your content schedule is how you will share your content. Do not overpromote or come on too strong. It can be off-putting and leave your audience feeling like you are after their money.
You should find the right balance between these four elements, Informing, Educating, Entertaining, and Promoting. If you can find your sweet spot, you’ll keep your audience engaged and primed to do whatever you tell them.
Engage
Social media is all about engaging and making connections. If you want to pull off social media campaigns for your business successfully, you will need to get your engagement hat out and start talking to your audience.
Engaging and building relationships will not be complicated if you understand your audience and have a consistent schedule of high-quality content for them.
Your posts should encourage your audience to get in touch and chat via DM’s, comments, or show up at your place of business. Invite people to connect with you, and when they take you up on that invite, be sure to respond and let them know you’re stoked to know them.
Be interactive, show some personality, and take advantage of the incredible opportunity of a direct link to your audience. Whatever business you’re in, social media is a place to have fun, so don’t be afraid to let loose within reason.
Getting people to read your posts, ask questions, comment, like, DM, and visit your establishment is how you know your social media marketing is working.
Connect with other businesses
Part of running an effective social media campaign as a business is connecting with other companies in your sphere. For individual influencers, this would be similar to partnering up with other influencers to collaborate, share ideas, increase reach, and explore opportunities to benefit mutually.
Connecting online and offline with other businesses is a great way to get others to help you achieve your goals. You might have to return the favor somehow, but getting others to know you and spread your message will be well worth it.
Positioning yourself as the business in your community that wants to see others thrive and do well is a great way to secure your goodwill.
Social media marketing is about reaching your customers mainly, but you shouldn’t underestimate the impact of building relationships with key players in your locality.
The relationships you build will be instrumental in developing your audience, expanding your reach, using your influence to drive real action, and elevating yourself as the business to patronize in your community.
Build a community
One of the best ways to successfully represent your business on social media is by establishing a community for your audience.
Not everyone on social media will turn into a customer. That’s why you should segment your audience into regular followers and a community of loyal, engaged customers interested in giving you business.
If you’re on Facebook, you can make a group for your community or use your platform’s method. You can also use Discord, Telegram, and Reddit to create distinct groups within your audience.
Your community can be a place where you provide extra value, give discounts, or show people how to get the most out of your business. If you provide insane weight in the community and incentivize loyalty, your community can become the biggest supporter of your business to new people.
Social media is suitable if there’s one thing, and it’s creating die-hard fans. And, once you have those, you’ll have set yourself up to flourish and grow in your area, unlike any other business.
Social media can be an incredible asset for any local business if used correctly. The key to it having a real impact on your business is to optimize your processes regularly and maintain a dedication to understanding and engaging your audience.
Other things you could do to increase the effectiveness of your social media campaigns are to pay attention to trends and seasons, track your analytics to see the impact of your content and monitor your business-side numbers to see if your social media success is translating into tangible results for your business.
For more on how social media can take your business to the next level, check out the rest of your blog, and connect with us on Twitter.
