Social media isn’t just for sharing funny cat videos and pictures of your kid’s birthday party. If you’re a small business owner, and you are not using social media to market your business, then you are missing out. Used correctly, social media is a valuable tool for meeting your marketing goals. It can help you do the following:

  • Increase brand awareness
  • Communicate with and interact with your audience
  • Increase website traffic
  • Build conversions

To help you get started on social media, we’ve put together a list of social media marketing tips:

Create a Social Strategy

This is number one in our list of social media marketing tips for a reason. As with any marketing campaign, a clear plan of action and an end-goal are key to a successful social marketing strategy. You should be asking yourself these questions:

  1. What do you want to accomplish with social media marketing?
  2. Who are you trying to reach (i.e., your target audience)?

Decide Which Social Media Networks You Should Prioritize

You don’t need to be on ALL of the social media networks. It’s best to focus on 2 to 3 networks, depending on what your business offers. For instance, if you own a business that is visually oriented (e.g., e-commerce, travel agency, etc.) you should probably focus your efforts on Pinterest and Instagram.

Develop a Content Strategy for Each Platform

You should do some competitor research and keyword research to come up with ideas for content that will interest your target audience. Create a social media calendar to map your content. 

Share Engaging Social Content

A good rule of thumb for sharing content on social media is to share 80% external content and 20% your own. By sharing valuable external content, you are making yourself the go-to source for your audience. Not only will you develop trust with your followers, but you may also get some shares in return. Some ideas for external content include videos, articles from industry leaders, infographics, social media images and memes, etc.

Create Your Own Amazing Content to Share

Once you have a loyal following and have established trust, start developing high-quality content and posting it more often. People will be more likely to visit your website, read your content, and share it on social media. This a type of content marketing, and it works hand-in-hand with social media marketing.

Leverage Paid Advertising

The nice thing about paid advertising on social media is that you can develop a highly targeted ad campaign directed at your target audience. Especially in the case of Facebook Ads, you can research your audience’s likes and interests and create a laser-focused ad campaign at a reasonable cost.

So now that you have a few basic social media marketing tips to get started, why not contact us at Smart to Finish? We can help you develop a social marketing strategy to add to your other marketing efforts and increase your bottom line.