Small Business Social Media Tips: Strategies to Improve Your Marketing in 2023

Posted November 30, 2022

Did you know that out of the 7.8 billion people in the world, 4.7 billion are active social media users? That’s more than 59% of the world’s population! Since social media marketing boomed in the past few years, people have collected many interesting statistics that prove just how big the impact of this relatively young marketing and advertising platform is. It’s not surprising to see just how many entrepreneurs are looking more closely into social media marketing strategies for small businesses.

Check out these key statistics about social media curated by Oberlo:

The biggest demographic of social media users in the US are adults ages 18-29
Social media marketing is seen as effective by brands when reaching their target customers
More than 70% of internet users have social media accounts, and more than 90% of these users access their platforms through their mobile devices

These show how deeply social media has become embedded in people’s daily lives. Currently, the biggest social media channels are Facebook and Instagram, with 2.9 billion and 1.4 billion users, respectively, in 2022. And there are dozens of other social media platforms whose users are growing steadily in number. As a business owner, failure to take advantage of this would be a major oversight.

For small to medium businesses (SMBs), social media helps level the playing field. Since social media marketing is very cost-effective, startups and SMBs can use it almost to the same degree of effectiveness as Fortune 500 companies. There is also a practically limitless supply of online resources that will provide you with successful social media marketing ideas for small businesses that have already proven effective. This means that you’ll have plenty of small business social media marketing tips and ideas to help you get started.

If you’re a small business owner looking for a way to market your way to success in such a competitive industry, using various social networks is definitely the way to do it.

Contrary to what most people believe, social media for business isn’t just about marketing a company or brand. Using social media can also help with facilitating sales, improving brand reputation, and providing better customer service.

How does having a social media presence benefit small businesses?

Here’s how businesses of all sizes can benefit from following some social media management tips.

Advertising
This one is pretty straightforward. Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube already have integrated advertising platforms within their networks, and other social media channels are bound to follow.With the sheer volume of users on any given social platform and the level of engagement these users exhibit, advertising on social media networks is definitely a must. Brand awareness and effective social media presence should be crucial to your team’s marketing efforts.

Influencer marketing
Social media paved the way for a new type of marketing: influencer marketing. Now, you don’t need to pay thousands of dollars for celebrities to endorse your products or services. You can just check out local influencers in your niche and form a mutually beneficial partnership with them at a lower cost to you.

Customer engagement
Social media has made it easier for brands to hear from their customers and show them that they actually care about what consumers think. Replying to suggestions and feedback in posts is an excellent way to create customer interest and keep them engaged. Social media marketing is all about connecting with potential, current, and former customers. You can also use this social media marketing strategy to drive traffic to your website.

Customer service
Social media platforms usually have integrated private messaging features too. Direct messages on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook Messenger have allowed brands to resolve customer concerns more efficiently.

Reputation management
Social media has allowed brands to clear up misconceptions and respond to negative feedback about them more quickly than when they had to issue press releases in print or formally arrange press conferences. This is a welcome development for small businesses that barely have the budget or opportunity for more formal statements on the media.

Lead generation and nurturing
By looking at who people followed or what they liked on social media, companies can reach out to new leads and raise better brand awareness. Corresponding with a target audience through social media posts, replies, and messages on social networks also made it easier to nurture these leads and convert them into actual paying customers.

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18 SOCIAL MEDIA TIPS FOR SMALL BUSINESS

Now that you know just how important social media marketing is for business, it’s time to learn about the best social media tips that you can include in your social media marketing plan.

Here are essential digital and social media marketing tips for small businesses that every entrepreneur needs to know.

1. Know your audience.

Identifying and knowing your target audience by heart is essential in social media marketing because it allows you to know how to connect with them. It helps you formulate a social media strategy that will work well with your audience’s habits and interests, and it will help you know what type of content will resonate with them.

Knowing your target audience will help you improve the targeting of your social media ads. With better targeting, you can raise the ROI of your ads and get more bang for your buck.

2. Choose one or two platforms to focus on.

It’s tempting to maintain several social media pages to ensure that you’ve covered all your bases. However, trying to maintain so many channels is exhausting. Besides, not all of these social channels will give you the same value.

It is better to produce high-quality content to make the most of your digital marketing efforts. Your social media posts will definitely be better received by followers when they provide value and entertainment. To help you pick the best social media platform for your business, consider your target audience and the type of content that you’re planning to create. A small tip when starting out: Facebook page is great for creating blog posts with visual content, while Twitter and Instagram are more suitable for short text snippets and visual posts.

3. Create a social media calendar and schedule your posts.

Creating a social media content calendar and scheduling your posts in advance not only helps you organize your social media feeds but also leaves you more time to engage with your audience. Having a social media calendar and using scheduling tools also help you keep up with trends and ensure that your content is timely and not repetitive.

4. Look at what your competitors are doing.

It’s always important to check out your competitors’ business pages and learn from them. Your most successful competitors must be doing something right if they are getting a lot of likes, follows, and comments, right?

When scoping out the competition’s social posts, make sure to keep an open mind. Learn from relevant content strategy mistakes and accomplishments. Take inspiration from their social media content on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Instagram but never copy them. Copying competitors rarely, if ever, yields the same results for the one who copied. It also makes them look pitiful in case someone notices that they’re copying someone else.

5. Follow and engage with customers, brands, and influencers.

Posting content regularly isn’t enough to maintain a great social media channel. Engagement is important too. Follow back influencers, brands, and maybe some customers who followed you and engage with their channels. Like their comments on your posts and comment on their posts too. This makes your brand image more likable and relatable and encourages your audience to keep interacting with you.

6. Tailor your content to the platform.

Some social media platforms are better suited for specific types of content. Short-form announcements and clever quips are great for Twitter. Stunning images and video content are perfect for Instagram and Tumblr. And general posts enhanced with photos and videos work well for Facebook.

When creating content for your business and followers, make sure to consider the different social media platforms it will be posted on. You don’t need to create unique content every time, but it’s useful to alter the presentation of your content to make it better suited to the platform.

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7. Use the right tools to maximize efficiency.

There are many tools out there that can help you improve efficiency in social media management. Take the time to test out different tools to find out which ones can really improve your process.

8. Monitor brand mentions, comments, and relevant tags.

Have you heard of social listening? Social listening pertains to the monitoring of conversations about your brand on social media.

To do social listening, always check for mentions, tags, and comments related to your brand on any social media platform. Social media is one of the greatest tools that allows you to monitor, help you find new leads, manage your reputation, and get new ideas for your products and services. Also, take the time to respond to relevant comments and posts.

9. Use compelling visuals as much as possible.

No matter what platform you’ve chosen to focus on, great imagery will always yield better engagement. Create beautiful graphics and video content to go along with your posts to frame the kind of content that your followers want to see more often

10. Optimize, track, and test.

Like any digital marketing strategy, tracking and analytics are important to running a successful social media strategy. Data analytics and A/B testing will help you measure the success of your strategies and optimize your campaigns for better results. With this, you can create a better content calendar and adjust your social media strategy to reach your target audience.

11. Get creative with social ads.

Social media advertising for businesses has become a great way to reach more people and get better results from your campaigns. Ads on social media platforms are very effective, as they are integrated within the platform itself and offer great targeting abilities that let you reach exactly who you want. Ensure that your posts are quality content that your audience will like to increase the chances of getting better engagement.

12. Have a social media crisis plan.

Mistakes will inevitably happen, and you may have to deal with social media disasters at some point. It’s always better to be prepared for such situations. Have a social media marketing plan in place, so you know exactly what steps to take when faced with a crisis. This should include a plan of action and a social media responses team.

13. Have a social media policy.

It’s important to have a social media policy in place that governs the use of social media for your business. This policy should include guidelines on what employees can and cannot say or do on social media when representing the company. It should also cover using social media during work hours, as well as any social media-related posting issues that employees may encounter.

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14. Leverage social trends.

Always keep your eyes open for social trends and use them creatively in your social media platform campaigns. Try to jump on a trending hashtag or topic whenever it’s relevant to your brand, as it will help you engage with more people and make your content stand out.

15. Collaborate with social influencers.

Influencer marketing has become increasingly popular in recent years, and it’s a great social media marketing strategy to adopt for your campaigns. Find relevant social influencers you can collaborate with, as this will help you extend your audience reach on different social platforms and get more exposure for your brand.

16. Celebrate social media wins.

Celebrating social media successes and recognizing those who contributed to them is always a good idea. This will help keep your team motivated and excited about social media, which will lead to better results for your platform campaigns.

17. Humanize your brand by making it more personable.

People are more likely to engage with social media accounts that feel like a person talking. Try to be friendly, relatable, and make your social presence more human. This will help you create better relationships with your followers and even attract more people to your social media platforms.

18. Don’t forget social customer service.

Social media isn’t just about running campaigns and marketing your business – it should also be used for social customer service. Use social media as a tool to address customers’ questions and complaints quickly, so that you can provide quality support to those who need it, especially your followers.

Other Social Media Marketing Strategy Tips to Know

Now that you know the social media marketing tips you need to start implementing for your small business, there are a few more things to consider. Remember to:

Measure your social media performance and track key metrics to determine the success of your posts and platform campaigns.
Integrate social media with other marketing channels, such as email and search engine optimization (SEO).
Monitor social media mentions and stay active in relevant conversations to keep up with what people say about your brand.
Engage with social media influencers to increase your visibility and gain more followers.
Utilize social media automation tools.
Take advantage of social media stories.
Share and use social media user-generated content.
Ask questions to engage with your audience.
Make use of social listening and sentiment analysis.
Post at the right times for maximum impact.
Experiment with social advertising.
Keep an eye out for social media trends, so you can capitalize on them quickly.
Regularly review your social media strategy and adjust it as needed.
Stay active on social platforms by creating quality content and posting consistently.
Be patient — social media takes time to be effective, so don’t expect overnight success.

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Challenges of Social Media Marketing for SMBs

A social media marketing strategy is a powerful tool for small businesses, but there are some challenges to consider. It requires time, effort, and dedication to make social media marketing campaigns successful. You also need to remain consistent and be willing to invest in tools and technology if you want to maximize your returns.

Additionally, social media constantly evolves and changes, so you must stay on top of trends and adjust your strategy accordingly. Finally, social media campaigns can be challenging to measure accurately and track the ROI of your efforts

In summary

One last thing to remember about social media: it evolves rapidly. What could be considered the best social media tips for 2022 might be considered obsolete in 2023. Make sure you regularly brush up on the best social media marketing tips to ensure that your strategy will yield the best results.

Although it’s important to learn about social media as a business owner, you will still definitely need some help when it comes to implementing your strategy. However, hiring an in-house social media specialist or outsourcing to a social media marketing firm can be expensive. Consider social media automation tools, such as Buffer or Hootsuite, to help you manage social networks and optimize your social campaigns.

These social media tips for small business owners should give you a great start on your social marketing journey. However, social media is more than just a tool – it’s an essential part of modern business. If you want your business to succeed, social media must be at the forefront of your marketing strategy. With a little bit of effort and planning, social media can help you get more visibility, build relationships with prospects and customers, and even boost your bottom line.

For small business owners who need a hand with social media management, hiring a social media virtual assistant is the way to go. Here’s what a social media VA can help you with.

social media tips