Social media has become an essential tool for businesses of all sizes including entrepreneurs and one-man bands. For small businesses social media can be a cost-effective way to increase your online visibility, engage with customers and more importantly, drive sales. With so many platforms to choose from, it can be overwhelming for business owners to plan and manage their social media marketing effectively. But by creating a strong presence on social media, you can attract potential customers and drive traffic to your website or your store.
Here are the top three problems business owners face:
Problem number 1: You want to post on all your social media channels every day
It simply is not possible to post 7 days a week, 365 days of the year. Firstly, trying to come up with engaging, interesting and colourful content would be more than a full time job and that would be impossible to do when also running your own business. The cost of outsourcing this to a third party would make a very big hole in your budget and for most, if not all small businesses, this is just not an option.
Think about the minimum number of days you want to post; try thinking of a weekly pattern to follow that your audience will get used to and look forward to. Posting every day can be off-putting for some and could lose you potential sales and followers. Think of the hours you could save from posting daily and use that time wisely in other areas of your business.
Problem number 2: Not planning your content
Not planning your posts can lead to poor quality and inconsistency. We have mentioned time and time again that consistency is key when it comes to social media. By creating a content calendar, you can plan and schedule your posts in advance, ensuring a consistent flow for your audience. A content calendar can also help you stay organised and ensure that you are covering a variety of topics and formats to keep your audience engaged.
Planning keeps you organised! Batching your content is way more efficient than trying to come up with a post on the fly every day, or for a specific campaign. Batching means you’re taking the time to specifically write a bunch of social media content at once. Besides being a more efficient way to write content, you’ll get more out of it. As you write each piece of content, extract pieces of it to repurpose. One post can quickly become five or more without much extra time.
There are also many options for content calendar apps that you use and most of them are free to use. Research first and then choose the best option that suits you and your needs or simply use a spreadsheet for each month of the year and pop your ideas on there including dates, ideas for artwork and hashtags you may want to use. Scheduling apps are also available in many forms and again you should do your research to see what works for you. Scheduling tools give you the option to select the date, time, platform and whether you are using pictures or videos to support the post. It really is a simple and effective way of working and can give you peace of mind that you are doing your best to promote your business or service.
We have a FREE content calendar on our website that you can use time and time again. Click the link below to receive it.
Problem 3: Driving traffic to your website
Once you have planned and created you need to make sure that you give a call to action (CTA) to convert social media followers into leads or customers. A call to action is a statement that encourages people to take a specific action which then re-routes them to your website and therefore they can see what you can offer. The best call to action is to drive people to your website or landing page where you can collect people’s contact details.
Some examples of call to actions are:
Incorporating links in your posts. For example: For information on this product click the link below. Simply copy and paste the link you want them to use. Most scheduling tools help you to track traffic to your website, helping you to discover what works and what doesn’t.
You can use CTA’s for email sign ups. Using the correct wording is very important. For example: For exclusive pre-sale dates, sign up to our email.
Another CTA is: Mark your calendars with the date of our FREE webinar.
If you want to increase your followers you can add: ‘Follow us on social media’. Ensure you list all your platform names and links which then could lead to more followers, shares, engagement and sales.
Keep CTA’s simple, don’t overthink them. You want people to come to you and people to follow you. Use words of encouragement and keep it upbeat.
Social media marketing can be a valuable tool for small businesses but it is also essential to have it well-managed and planned to see success. Set clear goals, understand your target audience and utilise the right tools for the job. Following these simple steps can help promote your business and there is no end to what could happen.
Remember to stay consistent, monitor your traffic and always always be consistent.
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