Did you know that the average person spends 147 minutes on social media platforms every day? That’s almost 2.5 hours every day that you could be getting your business in front of a potential customer. So, what are you waiting for?
Whether you’re working towards your first sale, or have been in business for years, you can find new ways to market yourself on social media and widen your customer base.
Why Use Social Media to Promote Your Business?
Social media has become an integral part of modern society and has revolutionized the way people communicate, share information, and interact with each other. The growth of social media has also had a significant impact on the way businesses promote their products and services. In today’s digital work, social media platforms provide an excellent opportunity for businesses, particularly local businesses, to reach out to their target audience and increase their visibility.
Using social media to promote local business can be a cost-effective and efficient way to reach out to potential customers, build brand awareness, and drive traffic to your business. With over 4.6 billion people using social media worldwide, it is an opportunity that businesses cannot afford to miss.
Social Media Tips for Local Businesses
- Identify the right social media platforms
- Create a social media strategy
- Build a strong online presence
- Create and share high-quality content
- Measure your results
Step 1: Identifying the Right Social Media Platforms
The first step in using social media to promote a local business is to identify the right platforms to reach out to your target audience. There are several popular social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
Each platform has its own unique features, user demographic, and communication style, so its important to choose the ones that are most relevant to your business and target audience.
For example, if you own a local restaurant, Instagram may be a better choice as it is a highly visual platform that is perfect for showcasing your food and drinks. On the other hand, if you own a local consulting firm, LinkedIn may be a more appropriate platform as it is a professional networking site that is suited to B2B marketing.
We’ve created a list of some of the most popular social media platforms going over what they’re used for, how many active monthly users they have, and the general audience of people that uses that platform.
Use this information to see which platforms will work the best with your brand, and which ones may not be a good fit.
Facebook is a social networking site where people can post updates, share photos, and send messages. You can create a Facebook page to share images and video content with fans. You can also run ads, livestream, and create short-form videos to promote your business to followers.
Monthly Active Users: 2.96 billion
Average Audience Profile: Men and women aged 25-44
Instagram is a highly visual platform that makes it perfect for promoting products. Additionally, a quarter of Instagram’s users are on the app every single day. Any brand would do well sharing their products on this network.
There are several ways you can use Instagram to promote your business. You can share stunning images of your products, share videos of your product or service in action, run a content, and even reach out to Instagram influencers and ask them to share your product.
Monthly Active Users: 2 billion
Average Audience Profile: Millennials and Gen Z
TikTok
TikTok has acquired a massive global following in recent years, and its users are highly engaged. Users spend an average of 52 minutes per day on the app, and roughly 50% of users say that they’ve made a purchase after seeing a product on TikTok. This engaged and highly receptive audience makes TikTok an ideal platform for businesses to generate sales and drive conversions.
TikTok is all about creative and engaging content, so if you don’t have the time or resources to produce this type of content, TikTok may not be the right platform for you. When planning a TikTok strategy it’s also important to think long term. TikTok isn’t a platform where you can just post a few videos and hope for the best. Relevancy comes and goes very quickly with TikTok, so in order to get your content in front of users you’ll need to be producing frequent, high quality content and engaging with your audience on a regular basis.
It’s clear that TikTok can be very beneficial when used correctly. However, if you’re looking for something a little less time intensive, another platform may be better for you.
Monthly Active Users: 1 billion
Average Audience Profile: Ages 18-24
LinkedIn is a great way to connect with other professionals and potential customers. This platform is most effective with B2B transactions, or to connect with other professionals and influencers within your industry. Creating a company page and sharing relevant content lets you reach a wide audience of people.
Monthly Active Users: 310 million
Average Audience Profile: Business professionals
YouTube
YouTube has become one of the world’s largest search engines for finding content. Even better, YouTube videos can also rank in organic search results on search engines like Google. This two-for-one deal is a huge traffic opportunity.
You don’t need to create viral videos to get results on YouTube. You can still promote your products or services with informative and helpful videos. “How To” videos are a great way to do this. Especially if users are already looking for your products or brand, creating a branded channel with your own videos allows you to control the narrative and keeps traffic coming back to you.
Monthly Active Users: 2.6 billion
Average Audience Profile: 18-25 year olds
Pinterest is the place to be if you want to sell your products online. 83% of Pinterest’s weekly users make purchases based on what they see from brands on the platform. Many people also use Pinterest to build wishlists, making it a great place to promote products.
What’s even better is that pins tend to stick around for a long time before becoming irrelevant. This means that unlike some platforms, you can get away with posting regular, high-quality content less frequently. It’s not uncommon for pins to get viewed months after they’ve been posted. Make sure to optimize your pins with captivating images, strategic keywords, and by posting when the most people are online. Pinterest also allows you to run contests, which can further extend your reach.
Monthly Active Users: 450 million
Average Audience Profile: Mostly female audience; median age of 40
Snapchat
Snapchat is a popular messaging app that allows people to send and receive images, videos, or text messages. The app is also known for it’s wide range of full video filters and photo editing tools that allow people to add text or drawings to their “snaps”.
You can use Snapchat to market your business by creating snaps that promote your products or services. Many businesses choose to use Snapchat to give customers a behind-the-scenes look at their brand by creating videos that show how products are made or highlighting features of the product.
Monthly Active Users: 363 million
Average Audience Profile: 18-35 year olds
Step 2: Creating a Social Media Strategy
Once you’ve identified the right platforms, it’s time to create a social media strategy. This involves setting specific goals and objectives, determining your target audience, and defining the content and message you want to communicate.
Your social media strategy should align with your overall business goals and should include the frequency of posting, types of content you’ll share, and the tone of your communications.
Having a well-defined social media strategy helps you to stay focused, increase engagement, and achieve better results.
Tips for Creating your Social Media Strategy
- Set specific and measurable goals. You can have one, or multiple objectives that are relevant to you. It’s best to set one larger goal for all of your social media accounts, and smaller goals for individual campaigns or activities.
- Understand your target audience. Start by creating an audience profile that describes everything about your typical customer. Include their gender, age group, geographical location, occupation, spending behavior, and anything else that helps you understand who your audience is.
- Optimize your social media profiles. Your social media platforms help customers learn more about you. When customers visit your pages, you want to ensure that they’re finding the right information.
- Create compelling content. To do this, you need to understand that each platform functions differently and you will need a distinctive strategy for each one. Most people go to Instagram or Pinterest for stunning images and visual engagement, so a text post is unlikely to perform as well.
- Create a social media marketing calendar. Creating a calendar ensures that you’re consistent with your posting schedule. Depending on how often you’re planning on posting content, a monthly calendar outlining what will be posted and when can help you stay on track.
Step 3: Building a Strong Online Presence
Creating a strong online presence is vital for promoting your local business on social media. This involves creating a well-designed and professional looking website, using consistent branding across all platforms, and providing clear and concise information about your business. Having a strong online presence helps build trust and credibility with your target audience, and makes it easier for them to find and connect with your business.
Tips for How to Build a Strong Online Presence
- Build a professional website. Websites are no longer optional for your business. If you already have a website, look it over and make sure it’s clean, professional, and easy to navigate. If you don’t have a website, you can attempt to build one yourself, or you can hire a professional to build it for you. If you need help building a new website, or making improvements to an existing site, contact us today to get started.
- Retain and target customers on social media. Social media usage is prevalent and widespread. Being active on social media and connecting with your customers increases your brand awareness and builds trust. Users that are already familiar with your brand are more likely to find you trustworthy, and will be less hesitant to make a purchase.
- Utilize customer reviews. Collecting quality reviews for your business can be difficult when first starting out. It’s no secret that having good reviews, and lots of them, is a guaranteed way to increase your brand’s reputation. Encouraging your customers to leave a review in exchange for a coupon or free gift can be a very effective way to increase your reviews.
- Use content to build awareness. Content creation is an essential element in building an online presence. The more content you create, the more opportunities you have to reach new customers.
Step 4: Create and Share High-Quality Content
Content is king when it comes to social media marketing. High-quality and relevant content will help you engage with your target audience and drive traffic to your business. This can include blog posts, videos, images, and infographics.
When creating content, focus on what your target audience is interested in, and then provide valuable information that is relevant to their needs. This will help you establish yourself as an expert in your field.
When we say high quality content, we’re not talking about filming in a professional studio or only using the best equipment. Of course, you don’t want blurry images and static-filled sound. But, relevance and value are more important than the quality of your camera or microphone. Producing high quality content has everything to do with creating something that is relevant and valuable to your audience.
Step 5: Measure Your Results
Finally, it’s important that you measure the results of your social media efforts to see what’s working and what’s not. This will help you make informed decisions about how to adjust your strategy and optimize your performance.
Most social media platforms have built-in analytics tools that allow you to track metrics like engagement, reach, and conversions. You can use this data to make informed decisions about what types of content to share, when to post, and how to engage with your audience.
Social media is a powerful tool for local business looking to reach a large and engaged audience. By following the steps outlined here, you can effectively promote your business on social media and achieve your marketing goals.
Whether your goal is to increase brand awareness, drive sales, or build relationships with your customers, social media provides a cost effective way to reach your target audience and achieve success.
The author generated this text in part with GPT-3, OpenAI’s large-scale language-generation model. Upon generating draft language, the author reviewed, edited, and revised the language to their own liking and takes ultimate responsibility for the content of this publication.
