10 Reasons to Use Social Media for Small Businesses

According to recent studies, Social Media is on the rise and business owners are beginning to take notice. Companies of all sizes are now looking at ways they can utilize Social Media such as Facebook and Twitter for their businesses.

Why You Should Use Social Media-

A few reasons that you might want to consider using social media include:

1) It’s free marketing

2) It gets your company name out there

3) It has very little risk involved with it

4) You stay closely connected with your customers and fans

5) Allows you access to a broader market than just who is in your community or geography

6) Can be used for customer support purposes if needed.

7) It’s a great way to keep up with the latest news

8) Makes it easier for others to find you

9) Can be used as an email outreach tool

10) Helps spread word of mouth about your company or products.

Keep Visitor Engagement-

Once you have started using social media, one thing that is important is to make sure that visitors stay engaged.

There are different ways that this can be done however here are 5 tips that should help you achieve website visitor engagement:

1) Talk about current events and trending topics –

There’s nothing like throwing in something related to what everyone else is talking about at the moment.

2) Write engaging click bait content –

Something that people will want to click on and read.

3) Use videos –

There are several websites such as YouTube which allow you to upload your own videos. This allows for further engagement because viewers can comment, tweet out your link or share it with their friends.

4) Create polls and lists –

 This is a way that you can find out exactly what your audience wants and needs. People like to feel like they’re heard and sometimes allowing them to voice their opinion and create their own list of things are exactly the kind of thing they want. You can also use polls to see if people would prefer 1 item over another or if they agree with an idea you’ve had for an upcoming project.

5) Give away freebies –

 If you’re known for giving away free stuff, it encourages people to visit your page regularly.

How to Be Consistent-

• Another important factor is consistency. You should strive to be at least somewhat consistent with what you post. Studies show that posting every few hours is best for small businesses however the number of times will vary based on how big your company is and whether or not your business can support multiple employees using social media sites throughout the day.
• Something else that’s important to remember when using Social Media is that you shouldn’t post too much all at once. It’s ok to spread out your posts over time because this allows you to give each one more attention than if they were posted all at once.

Here are some FAQs recently asked by SMB owners on social media use:

1) What is the best platform for my business?  

The most popular platforms include Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, and Instagram. Each of these sites has its own pros and cons however if you are just starting out with social media it’s best to go with one that has a larger following. For example, if your company does landscaping services then using Pinterest is not really going to help you because there are not too many people in the market for landscaping on Pinterest. That being said, this doesn’t mean that your company can’t or shouldn’t be on multiple platforms- in fact; this is highly advisable so long as you have enough employees to handle things.  

2) How much should I post?

It’s best to stick to a schedule and not post too often because it may seem like you’re spamming them. If you want people to remember your posts, they need time in between. The general rule of thumb is one per day- this may increase if you have multiple employees posting for you at once however this is common so long as the other workers are simply reposting things that you have already published rather than creating new content on their own.  

3) Can I cross-promote my social media sites?

Yes, however, be sure that when you post something like this you are not posting it too often. It’s nice to remind people about your other platforms but the last thing you want to do is spam them by reposting this information all of the time. There are tools for this that will allow you to schedule posts in advance so that they don’t all go up at once and end up looking like spam.

Conclusion:

To conclude, social media can have a positive impact on your business if used correctly particularly because of the fact that it puts your company’s name out there for people who might not have heard of you before. It’s important to present yourself as a professional and always be ready to engage with people who comment on your page or ask questions about your services. If you keep these things in mind, you should have no problem succeeding with social media marketing for small businesses.

No matter what your business, you should be using at least one of these social media sites to help reach a wider audience and spread more word about you and your brand. If your company is already active on some of these sites then that’s great however if it isn’t then now is the perfect time to start!