According to a recent study conducted by LinkedIn, 94% of businesses use social media to market their business. Of those, 75% report that they’ve successfully gained new customers through social media outlets.
With such impressive statistics, it’s impossible to ignore social media marketing for your small business concerns.
To zero-in on social media marketing for better business, try these helpful hints.
Be Focused
There are many social media outlets that may claim your company attention when it comes to marketing. But only one or two can really drive paying customers to your door.
Evaluate the social media outlets as compared to the kind of business you run, and the type of customer you want to attract. There is lots of data available regarding what demographic visits which social media outlets.
For example, a simple keyword search for Pinterest demographics will yield lots of data about their site visitors. Once you’ve found a match between a certain social media’s visitors and your target customer, you can begin to focus your efforts on that site. That’s not to say that you should ignore the other outlets; only that you should focus your primary efforts on that one site.
Be Engaged
Many businesses make the mistake of failing to engage with their followers on social media. Don’t let this be you.
When you post something and receive comments, make sure you comment back every once in a while to let them know you’re reading their comments. Better yet, post things that ask a question or require involvement with your company website.
These types of postings will bring people in and get them involved, especially if they’re fun postings like quizzes, contests, or things that ask their opinion on topics related to your business.
Integrate Text Messages with Social
Text messaging is increasingly popular among users of mobile devices. If you can start to integrate text messages with your social media marketing campaign, you’ll be riding the train of innovation.
As the following article looks at, the 5 benefits of integrating your text message and social media marketing whether you’re running a nightclub, restaurant or other such business, are that you can reach more people, bring in bigger crowds for events, have attendees check-in, engage invitees at the even itself, and grow your overall subscriber list.
That’s pretty powerful stuff for an application that started out with such humble beginnings.
Advertise Your Brand
Don’t neglect to get your brand and company logo out there as much as possible.
Every time you post, it should be preceded by your logo or company name.
People don’t tire of seeing a company name, but they can easily forget where a post originated from if you don’t claim it as part of your brand.
Social media is well-suited for small business marketing that it’s almost like it was invented just for that purpose.
If you’re part of the 94% that’s already using it, keep on doing so.
But even you can do better, by using the tips above.
About the Author: Kate Supino writes about the marketing challenges that small businesses face today.