Social media has become an indispensable tool for businesses of any size to connect, increase brand awareness and drive sales. For small businesses especially, it creates huge opportunities to reach large numbers of people at almost no cost and levels the playing field so they can compete with larger companies.
However, social media marketing can be incredibly daunting for beginners especially if there are already some established small businesses occupying the space.
In this guide, we’ll break down everything you need to know when it comes to starting out on social media and provide you with tangible tips and confidence-building insights so you can get started with ease.
1. Who is your audience?
Before creating a social media account, it’s crucial to have a clear understanding of your target audience. Do you know who your customer is? Do you know what their interests, pain points, and preferences are? If you don’t know, before you do anything else, spend some time thinking in detail about this. Defining this at the beginning will ensure you are creating content on social media that resonates directly with your customer from the start.
2. Which platforms
Now you know who your audience is it’s time to choose your social media platforms. It’s essential to choose the ones that align with your business goals and where your target audience is going to be hanging out.
Less is often more when it comes to choosing social media platforms, so only choose the number of platforms that you feel you can consistently post and engage on. It’s better to only be on one platform and manage it well, rather than on all of them and not be able to keep up with the work that’s required. A good starting point is to think about the age of your target audience and which one they are most likely to be on based on this, then continue to narrow it down from there.
So go on, choose your platform and open your first account – exciting!
3. Optimise your profile
You’ve nailed your target audience and opened your first account on your chosen platform – now you need to optimise it.
Your social media profile, along with your website, serves as your shop window or the face of your brand. Therefore, before you post your first bit of content it’s essential to fill in as much information about you and your business as possible. You need a high-quality picture of you and/or your logo, a clear and compelling bio, a link in your bio to a relevant page, keywords and contact details.
Once you’ve done all this you’re ready to start creating and posting content.
4. Create engaging content
The first thing you need to do before you create and post any content is put together a content plan. This might feel like an additional time-consuming step when all you want to do it start posting and growing your audience but I promise it really is worth taking the time at the start to pad out exactly what your audience not only wants to see but needs to see as well. If you can identify what your audience is attracted to before you start posting, this will provide you with focus and structure, help you to not feel overwhelmed and really support you in remaining consistent on your platform.
You want to aim to create content that is informative, entertaining, and relevant to your audience. Think videos, lives, images and written posts – experiment with different types of content to see what resonates.
5. Must-do after posting
You’ve posted your first bit of content, but now what? As much as we’d like to think we’ll be showered in a plethora of likes, unfortunately things don’t tend to work like that.
The first thing you can do to increase the success of your post is to share it to your stories. It sounds simple but is often overlooked. This tells your current followers you have a new post for them to see and highlights your account at the top of the app. You can also post exclusive content to your stories to help build that relationship, for example, add in additional information about your posts subject, ask your audience a question about it or just share some behind-the-scenes pictures.
It’s also very important that you see social media as a two-way street. Engagement is crucial after posting for building meaningful relationships and growing your audience. Make sure you are responding to all comments and DMs and engaging on other relevant accounts.
6. Keep an eye on analytics
The last thing you need to do is monitor the performance of your post so you know if it worked and whether it resonated with your audience. The key metrics you want to look at and track on a regular basis are reach, engagement, and conversion rates. You can use this data to refine your strategy over time – keep what’s working and throw away anything that isn’t. Experiment with different approaches, and don’t be afraid to pivot if something isn’t working.
In conclusion, social media marketing can be a powerful tool used by small businesses to reach their target audience, build brand loyalty, and drive business growth.
By following these steps, staying consistent and committed to providing value to your audience, your social media will grow and you will build an engaged and loyal community.
If you need any additional help and advice on getting started, writing a strategy or content plan then you can book in a call to find out more about how Red Robin Digital can help your business.
