How can your small business make the most out of

social media?

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Social media can be a controversial topic for small businesses. Some business owners swear by it, while others fail to see the return on investment it brings. 

According to leading social media website Sprout Social; 74% of adults use social networking sites and three in five SMB’s say they’ve gained new customers by using social media.

So is social media something you can really ignore?

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All types of business are now able to use social media as an effective tool for marketing and brand awareness.

Social networks can be used to keep potential and current customers up to date with your brand, build relationships and expand your market reach.

Ask yourself whether your business can afford to steer clear of social media? Or do you need to take the first steps to building an effective social media presence.

Discover our 6 tips to help your small business make the most of using social media…

There are numerous social media platforms. Some of you may have heard of; Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and others you may not.

What is important to understand is that your business doesn’t have to be present on all of them.

1. Know the right platforms to reach your target audience

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If you know your audience and their demographics through access to data then you can choose the social media sites that are most likely to work for your business.

Check out these 8 questions from HubSpot to determine if a certain social network is right for your company.

Facebook:• One of most popular platforms used in

business• Boasts a massive 1.49 billion active users• Drives almost 25% of social referral traffic• Likely to be a mix of organic and paid• Good place to start for B2B & B2C

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Twitter:• 3rd most popular social media network worldwide• Fast paced businesses who often have relevant updates• Great to connect with customers & build relationships

YouTube:• 2nd most popular network• Worth having a presence on if you have the

right resources• Involves more work due to video creation &

editing • Over 1 billion users & watch time up 60%

year on year

2. Use your brand voice when posting

A brand voice is how you express the personality of your brand through certain words and phrases.

For example, if you’re an accountancy you’ll probably have a very different brand voice to a clothing retail company.

If you’re not sure what your brands voice is try these 5 steps to defining your brand voice from Content Marketing Institute.

When using social media it can be very easy to slip into a casual tone and tweet about anything that interests you personally. If this sounds like you… stop and ask yourself whether this is relevant to your target audience.

Think about the voice your brand portrays in other areas of your business, is it relaxed and friendly or more professional and informative?

Base your profiles and updates around this so your brand has a consistent tone and voice which is more likely to be well received by your customers.

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3. Create a strategy and stick to it

Many businesses under value having a good social media strategy.

Every action you take on social media should be underpinned by a pre-defined goal, whether this be to create better relationships or market a new product.

Make sure every tweet or post is in line with your brand voice and objectives.

It’s important when creating a strategy to determine where your accounts are today, you might just be starting out or want to grow the 1000 followers you already have.

Create SMART goals for where you want them to be in a few months’ time. Make sure you set realistic and achievable goals in your strategy. The most important thing is to stick to it and monitor and evaluate its success.

Use this guide to creating a social media marketing plan from Hootsuite.

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5. Use a social media scheduling tool

Time is precious, so spending hours scanning social media or creating new tweets and posts is not realistic.

Meet the social media scheduling tools also known as ‘social media managers’ that are invaluable to small businesses!

These allow you to create multiple posts and schedule them to go live on various social media profiles.

You choose the days and times you want them to be posted and your ‘social media manager’ will do the rest. Ensuring you have a constant stream of social communications without having to spend hours creating them.

There are lots to choose from with some great free social media tools allowing you to post away.

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With a clear social media schedule, you should know how many times you are aiming to tweet or post a day.  You can spend half an hour a week setting up your posts and scheduling those at the most relevant times for your target audience.

However, it’s still important to check your accounts throughout the week for engagement and questions from customers. Consider setting these up on your phone and enabling push notifications, so you can still be reactive. 

Unsure of which times to post at? Check out this infographic from HubSpot.

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6. Manage and monitor your brands reputation

Using social media for business increases brand awareness and reach, however it is great for reputation management and relationship building as well.

When a customer has a bad experience or complaint with your brand they usually take to social media to vent their frustrations.

By monitoring what customers are saying about you, you can respond appropriately in front of a public audience, building your brands relationship with current and potential customers whilst controlling any negativity about your brand.

Social media is a great way to listen to your customers and find out what they want. Don’t be afraid to try and create a conversation. Use direct messages to send personalised messages, not just promotional ones.

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Ask questions to improve engagement and also to find out more about your customers, their wants and needs.

For more tips on how to engage with your customers on social media check out this post from Hootsuite.

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Switching to social media can be a daunting prospect for many small businesses. The thought of trying something new that you may not fully understand may worry you. Know

that you are not alone.

There are plenty of free courses, YouTube tutorials and information online to help you understand at least the basics.

Click here to visit our blog for more interesting articles and trends in business admin and accounting.

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www.dataclarity.uk.com

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