Small business owners tend to wear a lot of hats. With far less resources and a smaller marketing budget than global brands, local small businesses and contractors often DIY much of their social media marketing. And while every social media post doesn’t lead directly to a sale, social media comments, likes, follows and shares / re-posts are key to brand visibility, reach, customer service and brand loyalty.
It’s more important, now more then ever, that small businesses focus on a social media marketing strategy to improve their online visibility and social media presence.
If there’s no room currently in your budget for dedicated social media manager, don’t fret! You can still up your social media engagement by taking a few minutes a day to do these 3 (free!) strategies!
3 (Free) Strategies For Increasing Social Media Engagement:
- ASK – It’s not taboo to promote your latest sale or product on social media. But if you really want to see a spike in engagement, ask lots of questions of your audience to get the conversation going. Whether a simple poll or a query about what aspect of the shopping experience matters most to your customers, spark a conversation by asking genuine questions. (Bonus: you’ll also gain valuable customer insights!)
- LISTEN – What are your customers talking about on social media? What do they seem to care about and engage with? What concerns them? By following/liking and listening to relevant social voices, you’ll learn what, how and when to better engage. You will also be able to head off potential customer service issues before they escalate. Everyone loves a good listener!
- OPTIMIZE – Not all social platforms are alike, so avoid identical content or schedules. For instance, Instagram is built for curated, visually vibrant posts and relatively short captions, whereas Twitter allows for more frequent, text-driven posts (though visuals are always a nice additional boost for engagement). By optimizing your content and schedule for each platform, you will reach more followers and increase the opportunity for engagement.
Don’t know what or when to post on social media? Don’t have the time to post and engage with your audience on a regular basis? We can help by managing your social media marketing for you — so you can get back to business. Get started now!
