<\/p>\n
Do:<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n
Build a reputation<\/h3>\n
Social media is one of the cheapest and easiest ways to inform people about your business and brand without even having to mention anything related to sales. People will learn about your business based on how you present it on your social media profiles, the types of things you share, and who you interact with online, so take advantage of this opportunity to build a reputation for yourself.<\/p>\n
Think about it as being at a trade show or a networking event. You show up to these events to present yourself and your business a certain way so that customers can be attracted to you and know what to expect when working with you. It\u2019s the exact same thing online, except in this case you can reach a much bigger audience, and you don\u2019t have to actually go anywhere.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.clearbooks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/fivestarreputation-300x142.jpg\")
Use social media to give yourself a 5 star reputation<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
Play your strengths<\/h3>\n
It might be tempting to think that because you\u2019re a small business, you can\u2019t compete with bigger businesses in the social media space, but this just isn\u2019t true. In fact, smaller businesses have a lot of advantages that bigger businesses don\u2019t when it comes to social media, especially flexibility. The conversation moves fast in social media circles, and not having to run everything you post through a marketing agency or legal department means that you can respond faster and more personally than bigger businesses, which plays really well in this space.<\/p>\n
Remember, regardless of advertising and changing trends, social media is, at its core, personal. People like to be able to talk to real people in real businesses quickly, so if you can respond to them and give them the chance to actually have a dialogue with your business, you\u2019ll have done a lot for brand recognition, not to mention leading them along the know, like, trust, buy journey. As long as you keep things consistent and on-brand, you can make a big impact with relatively little effort.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Content marketing<\/h3>\n
We know, we know, you can\u2019t go online these days without someone shouting at you about content marketing. And while some of the hype is over the top, really good content can be an excellent medium for marketing. The key is to make sure that you\u2019re consistently providing your target market with content they\u2019ll find useful, enjoy, or ideally both. You don\u2019t have to reinvent the wheel \u2014 as long as you\u2019ve got some blog content coming out fairly regularly, posting that can already go a long way towards educating people about your business and getting them excited about your brand.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Paid Advertising<\/h3>\n
We deliberately left paid advertisements to the end, because you can do so much on social media without really spending anything. If you do have the budget though (and it really doesn\u2019t have to be a large one), you can social media advertising can be extremely effective.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s much cheaper than traditional advertising, you can target your customers with incredibly specific demographic markers and preferences, and you can know that your ads are ending up in spaces that people actually pay attention to. After all, with everyone staring at their phones nowadays, who\u2019s even looking at billboards or flyers? And remember, you don\u2019t have to only stick to strictly sales-based advertisements. You can promote products, events, your business in general, opt-ins for your email list, or even your content.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t:<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n
Only market.<\/h3>\n
This is one of the most common mistakes small businesses make in social media. It\u2019s so important to remember that social media is all about having a conversation with your customers and potential customers, not just advertising \u2014 and that if you do only use it to advertise, people are going to tune you out really quickly.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ignore people.<\/h3>\n
Again, pretty common, and very destructive. So many businesses see their social media platforms as simply being channels to advertise from, when they can be a great way to provide customer service and learn about your target market in general. So if people are talking about your business, make sure you reply. If they\u2019re talking directly to you or your business \u2014 whether by posting on your wall, Tweeting at you, or in some other way \u2014 then reply ASAP. It might seem like a little thing, but it can make a huge difference.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.clearbooks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/ignore-9-300x200.jpg\")
Don’t ignore your customers, even if the feedback is negative<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
Be inconsistent.<\/h3>\n
This includes both being inconsistent in your social media usage and having inconsistencies between your branding and your social media. Although social media is spontaneous, it still needs to be in line with the general tenets of your business. Otherwise, you\u2019ll be sending conflicting messaging to your target market, which will dilute your branding and make attracting the right customers that much harder.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ignore the culture of the channels.<\/h3>\n
Finally, make sure that you\u2019re not just posting the same thing across every single one of your social media platforms. It will be very obvious to the people who are seeing your posts, and it will look like you\u2019re just phoning it in. Each social media platform has a different feel to it, so make sure that you get a sense of how people post on that platform and the general tone of the conversation before you start posting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We\u2019ve worked with a lot of small business owners over the years, and we\u2019ve found that they tend to fall into two camps: those who love social media and can\u2019t imagine running their businesses without it, and those who just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145,"featured_media":27870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\n