Are you among the estimated 27.9 million U.S. small business owners? If so, you should leverage the power of social media to attract new customers and generate more sales. Networks like Facebook have revolutionized digital marketing, allowing small business owners such as yourself to attract targeted prospects at little-to-no cost. But where to start? Follow these marketing tips to get on the right track.
Use Brand Elements
When creating social media profiles and pages, it’s important that small business owners use their brand elements throughout each and every account. This includes their name, tagline, logo, color scheme, etc. Doing so will create a cleaner, more professional looking account, which should have a positive impact on your followers.
Post Content During the Right Time of Day
Don’t make the mistake of posting new content to your social media accounts when followers are asleep or otherwise away from their computers/smartphones. Posting content during times such as this will likely result in few-to-no people actually seeing it.
The good news is that you don’t have to log into Facebook at 6 PM to post content every evening. You can schedule posts in advance by using the built-in scheduling tool, or you can use a third-party social media scheduling service, such as HootSuite.
Photo attribution to Sean MacEntee via Flickr Creative Commons.
Be Professional
It’s important for small business owners to remain professional on social media. If a past customer isn’t happy with his or her product/service, keep your emotions in check when responding back. Going off a tantrum with aggression looks unprofessional and will likely cost you customers. Remember, anything you post online stays online. You can always delete your social media posts, but another user may have already copied and posted it elsewhere.
Encourage Customer Reviews
Certain social media networks allow users to submit comments about a business. Unfortunately, many small business owners struggle to find these features. To enable customer reviews on Google My Business (formerly known as Google Places), you’ll need to set up a Page and then verify your business via a phone or SMS text message. Only after your business has been verified can users submit reviews.
To enable reviews on your Facebook Page, you must choose “local business” for your Page’s category. If you choose a different category, customers will not be able to post reviews (note: you can go back and change your Page’s category from the main settings menu).
I liked what you had to say about how posting online content during the right time of day can help small businesses market their company. It seems like there are certain times of the day when people are more likely to look at social media. Carefully scheduling posts that would attract a lot of peoples attention would help them know more about your company when going online. Thanks for the tips!
Thanks, Judy! You can use Facebook Insights to see when your target market is online and post updates during those peak times.
Good post you’re shared o really need this post thank you.