Small businesses and social media: How to get started

Is social media really worth all the effort if your business is just getting off the ground? Not always. But also, it's not that simple.

Social media can be a great tool to spread awareness, build trust, generate interest and to help form a brand identity. But, you have to know which platforms to use and how. Not every platform will bring you value - and that's normal. So you have to know where to start - because we all start somewhere, right?

Here's what you need to do to get going.

1. Research your audience

Your target audience will be unique to your brand, and not all people frequent all social media platforms.

This means you'll have to look into your goal audience - finding out their demographics, platform preferences, and content wants and needs. For example, if your audience will want visual references of your products, you'd go for Instagram or Pinterest. If your audience is more about debating and having conversations, then you should head to Twitter.

In sum, researching your audience gives you insight into two things: which platforms to use, and what type of content to post.

2. Make a content plan

Once you've chosen your platforms (to start with, two platforms are good) you should plan what you're going to post.

Your posts will have to be frequent and varied. As a result, taking it post-by-post won't work. You'll simply get overwhelmed - coming up with something every day is not realistic.

This is where a content plan comes in. It is most common to work on a month-by-month basis, planning at least three posts per week. On top of that, each post needs to be different, changing between educational, fun, informative, and so on.

Be sure to include both platforms on the plan - and ensure you don't just duplicate posts across platforms

3. Use all platform features

Go live, use polls, post stories, and everything in between!

To get full value from the platform, you need to use all its features - especially the newer ones. When platforms roll out new features, they push the profiles that are using them. So use that knowledge to your advantage and stay on top of the trends.

While your main feed should all be planned out, the posts using stories and the lives you do, do not necessarily need to be planned. They could be “in the moment” behind-the-scenes posts to show your audience the faces behind your brand. Be creative with it!

4. Schedule posts in advance

Similar to content planning, remembering to post every day (or every other day) can be unrealistic. So, it helps to schedule them in advance with a tool like HootSuite.

From there, you can add all planned posts and set a date and time for them to automatically go live. This will save you so much time and thinking power.

Start socialising!

74% of consumers rely on social media to guide purchasing decisions. So putting off stating your social media accounts might be causing you to lose out. Get started with your content asap! If you need assistance with content creation, don't hesitate to contact me.