Social Media Marketing for Small Business: 10 Ways to Increase Your Market Reach

Looking for fresh ideas to make sure your social media voice brings in new customers and reaches more people? Focus on these rules to build your company’s social personality through simple techniques designed for social media marketing for small business.  

How to bring in new customers with Social Media Marketing 

1. 1.) Share Your Story.

Treat your social media accounts like amazing opportunities to share your story with the world. Tell your audience why you opened your business and what need you were trying to fill. Talk about specific milestones that pushed you forward or made you want to work harder.

Sharing your business’s personality on social media allows new people to discover and get to know your company. The more your story is shared, the more brand trust and consumer loyalty you’ll build.  

1. 2.) Post Photos Not Pitches.

Think about your own personal social media habits. When you’re checking your Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, do you enjoy businesses that blow up your newsfeed with sales pitches? No, you don’t. When unwinding from work or checking to see what your friends are up to, you don’t want to feel like you’re being sold.

Your goal is to post a photo that is so engaging, your ideal customer’s thumb is inspired to stop while scrolling through their feed. If you can get their attention and earn their likes/shares/mentions, you can consistently expand your brand to new markets.       

1. 3.) Get Your Audience Excited.

Have you ever been in the presence of someone that is extremely exciting and enthusiastic? Their positive energy lifts you up and you somehow match their larger than life mood. People like to surround themselves with these kinds of personalities because it gives them a fresh perspective.        

What makes your ideal customer excited and inspired? Do a little market research and start sharing posts that get your audience feeling fantastic about their day. Strive to always leave them with a great feeling about your company.  

1. 4.)  Spread Your Expertise.

Use social media as a platform to voice your experience and expert knowledge with the world.

Your goal is to have your followers tag you when someone in their network needs your product or service. For example, look at this referral stream:

• • You share a post that gives your readers highly valuable and useful information. Mary, a follower of your Facebook page, “likes” the post.

• • Mary is friends on Facebook with her co-worker, Tom. Tom posts that he’s looking for a *specific product or service* and asks his friends for referrals. 

• • Mary reads Tom’s post and comments with a link to your page. Tom “likes” her comment and checks out your Facebook page. All of Tom’s friends will always be able to see your business was referred in that post as well.  

This is just one example of how your expert opinion can help you grow your network on social media and reach new markets.

1. 5.) Challenge Your Audience.

Using social media marketing for small business means that you have to be creative in order to compete with all the online noise. Try to find ways to challenge your current and future followers. Post content that helps your audience think and encourages them to grow.  

• • Pose questions to your audience and encourage their participation.
• • Share research articles that challenge well-known theories or practices.
• • Include word games, riddles and trivia that engages your target market.

1. 6.) Interact With Your Followers.     

As a business owner, you know the importance of getting the attention of new markets. If you were networking and you ran into your ideal customer on the street, you’d take the moment to introduce yourself. Play by the same rules online that you do while trying to network in the real world. If someone says hello, make sure to say hello back.    

Start treating your social media profiles like little communities dedicated to your industry. If someone posts on your wall, sends you a message or speaks @ your company, acknowledge them and continue the conversation.

1. 7.) Create Giveaway Opportunities.

Many consumers follow their favorite brands online because they want to be alerted with valuable announcements. Give your followers an incentive to tune into your social media presence by including giveaways, contests and coupons in your marketing plan.     

Attract new followers with valuable offerings and well-thought out giveaways. Here are a few articles that’ll help inspire your next contest or giveaway.

• • 5 Awesome Social Media Contests
• • What to Know Before Launching a Facebook Coupon
• • Social Media Giveaways: 5 Brands That Got it Right

1. 8.) Deliver a “Behind the Scenes” Look.

As social media became more prevalent, businesses started to see their Behind the Scenes marketing efforts pay off. Your customers will like and appreciate the opportunity to look behind the curtain to get to know your business better.   

Show your audience your ongoing projects, unique processes, work environment and hardworking team. Post photos of your office on Instagram; short production line videos on YouTube; articles spotlighting your processes on Facebook; or employee quotes on Twitter.    

Focus on creating a personal connection with your audience to develop trust and transparency.    

1. 9.) Post Regularly and Be Reliable.   

It’s all a numbers game. The more you post valuable content to your page, the more chances you get at increasing your audience. Strangers follow your business on social media because they want to hear from you. If you stop communicating with them, they’ll forget about you or even worse, unfollow your page.  

Don’t let your profiles be silent. Treat your social media business accounts like customers; visit with them often to build strong relationships.

1. 10.) Monitor and Discuss Social Activity.    

Look at social media marketing for small business like a living, breathing department within your company. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube… these are all the names of your internal client relation managers. Designate a supervisor to monitor this “client relations team” and carry out performance reviews regularly.

For instance, have your Social Media Supervisor:

• • See how many people Facebook reached out to last week.
• • Make a note of how many visitors Twitter referred to the company website.
• • Research which video YouTube made popular last month.

Treat your social media accounts like members of the team and designate someone to supervise the posting and review the activity. Have weekly conferences with your staff to discuss the analytics and get ideas of what to post next.

We hope these social media marketing tips for small businesses help! 

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