More and more Indians are starting their own business. Entrepreneurship is booming in the country as startups aim to solve problems for consumers. However, the path between starting a small business and becoming successful has many obstacles. Perhaps the biggest is how does a small organization successfully market itself?
In a world where multi-nationals and major corporations can spend millions of dollars on marketing, how can small startups compete? Well, social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram have become a great leveler for small businesses, allowing them to reach customers at little cost.
However, becoming good at social media marketing takes some trial and error. Many small business owners make the mistake of thinking simply being on social media is enough. It’s not, and you need a clear strategy if you want to get noticed.
Imagine you are starting a new online casino. You are entering one of the most competitive markets on the internet, so you will need to reach out to customers. Social media can help, but it will only allow you to compete with the best online casino venues if you are clever. The same applies to any other type of small business you operate.
To get the most from social media marketing, follow these helpful tips:
Plan Your Marketing Strategy
One of the best things about marketing your small business on social media is it is affordable, and you have as much chance of people seeing your content as major organizations. However, like any other type of marketing, you need to have a concise plan of action.
Creativity and organic content will do a lot for your reputation, but a plan will help you maximize your potential. If you just start posting random pieces of content, your social media marketing will likely lead to no results.
- Set Goals: Understand what your goals are and what you hope to achieve from social media. Do you want to drive customers to your website and convert to sales? Do you simply want more people to know about your company? Perhaps you want to give back to your existing customers by engaging with them. Either way, when setting goals, use the SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, timely) framework.
- Understand Competition: You can be sure you are not the first small business owner with the idea to market themselves on social media. In other words, you won’t be alone. Check how your main and successful competitors are leveraging social media to get results.
- Where do you stand today? If you are seeking advice on social media, you have probably already tried to market your small business and are not seeing desirable results. Now is the time for reflection, so look over your current strategy and look for areas that worked and others that didn’t.
Selecting a Social Media Platfrom
This is arguably the most contradictive part of social media marketing. Here’s the thing… you need your small business to be on all the major social media networks, but you don’t want to focus on all of them.
You want your customers to be able to find you across as many services as possible. Because of this, it makes sense to have a presence on all the major networks. However, if you dedicate lots of time to each platform, you will find you either have no time for other areas of your business, or you dilute the power of your content… probably both.
It takes time to run a social media marketing strategy, so don’t overburden yourself and instead focus on one or two networks. This means you need to be clear about what your goals are and how each network can help to best deliver them. Twitter is good for short bites of information, Instagram will help visualize your company, LinkedIn is perfect for business connections, and Facebook mashes them all together.
Pick one or two from these services to be your main area of social media marketing. Remember, still maintain a presence on the other networks, but consider them your secondary focus.
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