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Effective Social Media for Small Business

Over the last decade, social media has changed nearly every aspect of our society from the way that we stay in touch with friends to the way we find a date. Perhaps just as importantly, social media has had a huge influence on the business world, and it has revolutionized marketing for small business owners. The main social media platforms have essentially leveled the playing field, allowing small to midsize business the capabilities to reach just as large and diverse of an audience as any major corporations.

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Over the last decade, social media has changed nearly every aspect of our society from the way that we stay in touch with friends to the way we find a date. Perhaps just as importantly, social media has had a huge influence on the business world, and it has revolutionized marketing for small business owners. The main social media platforms have essentially leveled the playing field, allowing small to midsize business the capabilities to reach just as large and diverse of an audience as any major corporations.

Now every entrepreneur has a unique tool to reach a nearly unlimited number of potential customers or clients from his or her smartphone in an instant. Not only does this kind of marketing provide an instantaneous way of reaching millions, it allows savvy small business owners to do it for free or nearly free, compared to what marketing budgets used to look like.

This guide is designed to go over a few of the most important steps for efficient social media marketing and how your company can use this unique medium to reach a new level.

Know Your Audience

Your social media will be the first impression of your company to potentially thousands of new people every day. This means that you need to think accordingly, planning each post carefully and trying to tailor it to the needs and interests of the type of consumer you wish to reach. But before you can even begin to plan your post, it is important to know ahead of time the kind of individual you want to draw in with your social media engagement.

The easiest way to do this is by putting yourself into the shoes of the potential client or customer and posting what your think that they would want to see. For instance, if you own a web design firm in Seattle people who may use your service would probably want to see tips to increase web engagement, information about Seattle small business, West Coast blog themes, etc.

Optimize Your Profile

Your posts are the most important element of social media marketing for grabbing potential customers’ attention, but your profile is what will tell them who you are once they have clicked on a post. Choose a crisp, simple profile image – ideally your company logo – and type up a bio that includes searchable relevant terms and links to your website and other social media profiles.

Stay Active

This should be obvious, but to get the most out of social media marketing, you will need to be active on social media. Post frequently and participate with other users. If you see someone liked your post, start a conversation with them. Every social media outlet is, by definition, about social interaction, and it is always a good idea to become friendly with potential customers.

Use Available Tools

Every major social media platform now has some level of business level profile with available tools for maximizing your marketing efforts. Facebook is one of the best in this with Facebook Ads, but the Twitter Dashboard and other similar resources can be just as handy. Take take advantage of all available tools and resources to measure and tweak your profile and posts as your marketing efforts grow.

Get Everyone Involved

Most likely, everyone on your staff already has at least social media profile, and this brings with it many different perspectives and lots of experience. Many of them will be able to provide valuable input and come up with ideas that you would not have thought of on your own or with only a small team on marketing. In addition to making everyone feel more involved in the company, team members will be much more likely to share your company posts when their ideas are included in them.

HubSpot