1. Offer Exclusive Deals
Everyone loves a good deal, and your social media followers are likely to respond well to discounts, promotions, and deals. “You can develop a larger audience if you give your social media followers exclusive deals and promotions,” said A. J. Agrawal in an Inc Magazine article. When possible deals are available, your clients are more inclined to stay connected with you. A bonus is to make them feel like an “insider” or a VIP and receive unique promotions and discounts.
2. Get Analytical
Are your messages reaching the right clientele? The most effective way to make the most of your social media efforts is to target the people who are most likely to become your clients. Fortunately, there are numerous methods and tools for tracking the reach of your messages. The folks over at Sprout Social have an excellent round-up of 10 social media analytics tools that can help you track your social presence. Check it out here. You can use these tools to ensure your campaign’s success. By diving into this data, you can create an actionable plan to reach your target audience and make social media work for you!
3. Connect More Than Sell
While making every post about your product or service may be tempting, constant advertising could turn off some clients. Therefore, your primary goal should be to serve your audience with helpful and engaging content, which will naturally promote your business.
This involves publishing content with a purposeful blend. The 70-20-10 rule applies here. Your posts should be:
- 70% informational: Selflessly benefit your clients and followers with advice, education, news, updates, and insights.
- 20% emotional: Connect with your followers by expressing your core values, company culture, fun or funny content, or inspirational content.
- 10% promotional: Directly promote your business, goods, or services.
This will help keep your audience interested without exhausting their patience, resulting in their long-term loyalty to your business. For example, if you are a pest control company, providing helpful tips and advice about keeping bushes trimmed, gutter cleaned, and wood or debris piles away from your home could be a terrific approach to keep your potential clients interested.
4. Make Comments
Many small businesses often forget the social part of social media, which is arguably the most crucial, and they would do well to jump in the conversation. As Gary Vaynerchuk said, “Listening is the point. That’s why I took off. I answered people’s questions, created context, etc. Then they would click on my profile and see who I was and what I did, and that’s how I built it, slow and steady.” (Source: NY Times; Alt Source: Google WebCache) You can follow Gary V’s lead and interact with your clients online as much as possible.
5. Create Repost-able Content
You don’t have to make every post, tweet, or video don’t have to be worthy of a Pulitzer Prize, but you should put time and care into your posts. Susan Gunelius wrote, “The more amazing content that you publish online through your social media profiles and branded destinations, the more people will want to share it with their audiences” (Source: Business Insider). If your posts are insightful, funny, or otherwise exciting, there’s a better chance of your work getting shared, which is free exposure for your local small business. While you may not be able to write a post that goes viral (hint, you can’t), using thoughtful content and attention-grabbing headlines can help your posts stand out from the crowd.
6. Post Properly
Understanding the fundamentals of the social media platform you post to and doing it correctly can go a long way toward producing professional content. “Understand how to use social content on each unique channel in order to maximize results,” noted Michelle Crawley in a Business 2 Community article. She went on to say knowing “the appropriate sizes for images across social media channels… [and remembering] that you can achieve better responses on Facebook if you put your video directly on the Facebook video player rather than linking from YouTube.”
Additionally, a lengthy post may do better on Facebook than Twitter, whereas a brief video may be suited for YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok. Learning the fundamentals of posting might help you keep your audience pleased.
7. Listen More Than You Speak
In this instance, you should read more than you write. Susan Gunelius said that social media marketers should “read your target audience’s online content and join discussions to learn what’s important to them.” (Source: Entrepreneur) Whether you own a home remodeling business or an event venue, keeping up with industry news is a terrific way to remain on top of the topics that will pique your readers’ interest. Only then can you generate content and ignite conversations that add value to their lives rather than clutter them.
Final Thoughts
There you have it, the top seven social media marketing rules for local small businesses. If you take one thing away from this list, it is that social media isn’t perfect, and you always have to keep the social in social media.
If you need help utilizing social media and balancing, bringing in new clients, and retaining your current ones, then reach out to me. I am here to help you with all your social media marketing needs in Asheville, NC.
