Blog| Benefits of Social Media Marketing for Local Small Businesses
You populate your social media accounts with pictures of your family, important events of your life, new experiences you want to share, and a few funny jokes here and there! They are all ways we connect and how we connect with our friends and family. It only makes sense that your business's social media accounts should connect with their customers and potential customers. With such widespread usage and versatility, social media is one of the most effective channels for marketing your business today.
Here are some of the specific benefits of social media marketing:
Social Media Marketing Humanizes your Business: Social media enables you to show that you are an active business and participating in your industry, and local community and a solid resource for your customers. Through every post, picture, profile, video, and interaction, your audience becomes familiar with your brand and comes to trust.
Social Media Marketing Drives Traffic: Drives traffic to the beautiful website you built for visitors to learn more about your products and services and why they should buy from you and not the competition. Between your profile links, blog post links, posts, and your ads, social media is a top channel for increasing traffic to your website where you can convert visitors into customers.
Social Media Marketing Generates leads and customers: With apps like Facebook and Instagram, you can also generate leads and conversions directly on these platforms. They have features like shops, direct messaging, call-to-action buttons on profiles, swipe-ups to add links, and appointment booking capabilities.
Social Media Marketing Increases brand awareness: Visually, social media platforms allow you to build your brand with a visual identity across vast audiences. And better brand awareness means better results with all your other campaigns.
Social Media Marketing Build relationships: These platforms provide both direct and indirect streams of communication with your followers so they can instantly get in touch with you. It will also help networking, gather feedback, hold discussions, and connect directly with individuals.
Social Media Marketing Comparatively less expensive than traditional advertising. Social media is cheaper than any form of advertising available today. It is one of the only forms of media that can expose you to over 1,000 people for less than $3. And it is free to set up your business on them.
Social Media Platforms for Small Businesses
One of the most common questions we are asked by clients is: “Which social media platform should I be active on to market my small business?” Unfortunately, the answer to that is not a simple one. Why? Because it depends on several factors:
1. Who (and, more importantly, how old) is your target audience?
2. Are you B2B or B2C?
3. What type of business are your (retail, restaurant, virtual, brick & mortar, etc.)
4. Are you creating original content?
5. Are you able to take well-framed and high-resolution photos?
6. How much time are you able to dedicate to social media?
Below are a few of the best social media platforms for
local small businesses.
Facebook:
Why Facebook ads are good for small businesses?
Facebook ads can be a powerful marketing tool for your small business. With simple measurement and unparalleled ability to target based on interests and custom audiences, Facebook ads can be the difference maker—to help you cut through the noise, reach your customers, and grow your business.
With Facebook ads for small businesses, you can target people based on:
Language: The languages they speak
Age: Their age
Location: Based on country, city, state, or zip code
Interests: Listed interests, pages they like, topics related to interests,
even pages their friends like
Retargeting: Using a tracking pixel to target people you have taken
activity on your website
Device: The device they access Facebook from, including mobile, tablet, and desktop
Custom Audiences: Email addresses that you upload to use for targeting
Facebook is usually best for middle-aged audiences who are comfortable with technology, but the platform is typically not so popular with younger crowds.
Instagram:
The Lowdown on Instagram Ads
80% of Instagram users follow a business, proving that it’s an excellent platform for your small business to be active on. Posting pictures and videos gives your audience a glimpse into your work culture, how your products work, or the faces behind your brand.
This is the best platform to build your Brand Identity, but not the best platform to communicate directly with your customers.
LinkedIn:
LinkedIn is the perfect place for business-minded who want to connect through content. With content marketing playing such an important role in driving traffic and leading to businesses, it makes sense that small businesses would be attracted to a social media audience that is the most receptive to it.
The LinkedIn platform is the largest professional network with more than 500 million users in more than 200 countries. Unlike the other social media platforms, it is geared solely around creating professional and business connections.
Nextdoor:
Nextdoor provides businesses the opportunity to advertise locally via social media.
For businesses, this provides a unique opportunity from an advertising perspective, giving them access to a local audience that is present and engaged in the goings-on around the area. More specifically, here are a few key benefits for businesses that Nextdoor can provide:
Reach a local audience
Build customer relationships
Foster word-of-mouth interest
Network with other local businesses
YouTube:
YouTube, is a great platform for small businesses looking to market with video content.
YouTube is more than just a video-sharing platform, It’s the second most popular website after Google with over 2 billion users and 30 million daily visitors. YouTube is owned by Google and Google search is how people find things on the internet.
Here are some ideas to consider as you’re making videos:
Listicles: In any format, lists are popular content that can be entertaining and informational.
How-tos: Instructional, step-by-step video guides detailing how to use a product or solve a common problem can be very effective.
Behind the scenes: Offering a behind-the-scenes look at your operations or staff can help humanize your brand and give customers insight into your business.
Product videos: Video allows customers to get up close and personal with your products without having to enter the store or make a purchase.
Testimonials: As effective as you may be at marketing and talking about your products, consumers will often place more trust in the opinions and sentiments of other customers.
Once you’ve considered the different social media platforms to use that best reach your target audience, be very clear about your marketing goals and what messaging you want to engage your audience with.
Content is still king when it comes to social media, so make sure to create content that is relevant to your target audience. The following are a few practical tips for small businesses to use while creating their social media marketing content:
Post compelling, engaging content consistently.
Create trustworthy, helpful, and relevant posts
Focusing on consistent, relevant content
Keep your branding cohesive throughout all social media platforms and posts.
Social media marketing can seem daunting, but with the right preparation, your business can benefit greatly from these platforms. If done correctly, social media marketing can prove to be a cost-effective, long-term solution.
How Warp & Woof can help:
Set up your Social Media accounts and branding on all platforms.
Create and design regular posts for your accounts.
Manage paid social media ads.
Respond and interact with your followers.
Schedule your posts and ads.
Help with engagement, audience growth, and online reputation management.
Plan content and keep your brand consistent across platforms.
Contact us today and let us take care of everything! Start by setting up all your social media platforms; post relevant and effective content; and start engaging your business with an online community. Warp & Woof will create an effective Social Media Marketing Strategy that works best for your small business!
Let’s Build Something Together!
Patty Carter
678-471-8811