Queen Nwabueze
As a preface for this post, let’s do some questioning: What’s the first thing you do whenever you hear about a brand? While you rack your brains for some answer, what you should do is Google it! The second would be to race off to social media to see if the brand is present there.
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Honestly, in this age, it will be difficult to take brands seriously if they are not on social media. In fact, any serious brand now MUST have a website.
Okay. Let’s go straight to business: How to Use Social Media Marketing to Grow Your Small Business
According to Hootsuite, social media platforms reached 4.6 billion users in 2021, with 13.5 people joining social media every single second! Long story short, social media marketing should play a big role in your brand strategy and success.
Therefore, here are a few ways to use social media marketing to grow your small business.
- Ensure To Choose The Right Platforms
If you’re interested in using social media marketing to grow your business, know that not all platforms are created equally. Each one serves its own purpose and they all have strengths and weaknesses. The social media sites you choose to use should be determined by your industry and audience.
For many small businesses, the right networks to invest in are Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Facebook is a great way to connect with local community groups and your personal network. Engage with them by commenting on posts related to housing or local events.
You can also spread the word about your open houses and other in-person and virtual events.
Consider sharing news from key neighborhoods to establish yourself as a thought leader.
A purely visual medium, Instagram is the place for sharing your most interesting photos and video. This makes the platform a great opportunity to build authenticity for your brand.
Target specific groups of buyers by tagging high-value points of interest near or around your listings. Use Instagram Live to tour properties and answer questions in real time.
While you can share photos and videos here too, LinkedIn is at its best when used for networking and building your industry reputation.
Make sure you’re joining and participating in groups relevant to your industry and connecting with VIPs. You can also post professional tips, share interesting thought leaders and any info that your audience would enjoy.
If you’re unsure what platforms are right for your business, look up your competitors. If they all seem to be using Twitter or Twitter or even TikTok, include those in your arsenals.
- Set Realistic Goals
This can be tricky. Sure, you’d like to have 100,000 followers on your Instagram account within the next one year. In short, you want the followers organically especially now Zuckerberg charges a cut-throat for sponsored posts. But is that really possible?
You might slave away creating a valuable piece of content that only gets a share or two. But keep at it. Don’t spend too much time and energy on worrying about your follower count.
Ridiculously, many social media managers go the short cut way because of pressure from their bosses. Speaking of bots, or “fake followers,” buying followers to boost your numbers is a quick fix to see a larger number, but it’s not a long-term solution. It’s a bad way to grow. Have you even noticed that when that particular social media person leaves the company, the followers leave with them? Haha.
Smart recommendation here: Grow at your own pace. Let your brand organically grow and gain the right kind of followers WHO will stay even if you change hands.
3. Place Sponsored Ads: PLEASE, don’t forget to do sponsored ads from time time. This is because you can’t be smarter than the founders of the social platforms. Still wondering but ads are the key ways, they earn too. But hey! let’s not even sound like a preacher here. If you don’t advertise, you will discover that Zuckerberg will just stop sending your updates to all your FOLLOWERS. Haha. Noticed that you may have 3,000 followers but your updates only reached 30 people? That’s the game plan for you! The socials are also smart. If you don’t give them money from time to time, they will even stop sending your updates to your existing followers! Infact, they will CUT the number of followers with time. Whoa??? Yes, true! A popular blogger friend of mine slided into my DM the other day, panicky…asking me to help, help, help…that Facebook suddenly reduced her 1.2m followers to 1m. She queried and queried, asking for solutions. Then I asked: When last did you place sponsored ads?
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