How to Use Social Media Marketing As A Small Business in 2021

It’s estimated that, globally, over 4.2 billion people are social media users. This number has nearly doubled in the last four years, which is a huge opportunity for small business owners.
Social media marketing can:

• Build greater awareness for your brand
• Develop long-lasting customer relationships
• Boost web traffic and increase sales
• Help your business reach a larger audience

If you’re new to social media marketing or need to update your strategy in 2021, here’s how you can start:

1. Make a plan

Before you dive into social media marketing, remember, you need to start with a solid action plan. Starting a social media page is easy enough, but if you don’t have clear objectives and actionable ways to achieve them, you won’t get far.
First, take the time to set goals that support your business. These goals should be based on metrics that will have a real impact on your business, such as increasing conversion rates, acquiring new customers, getting people to sign up for a consultation, or getting more engagement.
If you also have a social media presence, the next step is to evaluate your current efforts. Think about what you’re trying to achieve and look for inspiration on how to achieve it.
Last, it’s a good idea to create a social media calendar. This will help you plan out your content in advance to ensure you’re posting high-quality content consistently.
Most marketers recommend following the 80-20 rule, which means 80% of your content should be for information or entertainment purposes, while the other 20% should be used to promote your brand or sell your products or services.

2. Choose the right platforms

A lot of small businesses make assumptions about which platform is popular with their target audience but, this is a big mistake. It’s very important to research the best platforms beforehand, as this will give you the best return on your time, effort, and investment.
For example, if you’re targeting older adults, Facebook and Pinterest are the top social media networks, and Facebook’s fastest growing audience is people over 65 years old.
If you’re you are looking for a younger demographic you should also consider newer platforms, like TikTok, which is one of the fastest growing social media platforms, particularly for Gen Z. This social network had 56 million new downloads of its app in December 2020, and its audience size is continuing to grow.
Make sure you carry out enough of your own research, as this will maximize your social media marketing efforts and make your strategy effective.
If you decide to use more than one platform for your business, remember to remain consistent across all of them with your content and branding. This includes using the same logo, which you can build for free using an online app like LogoCreator.

3. Build relationships

The most powerful marketing strategy on social media is building relationships with your customers, followers, and other businesses. Being able to build these relationships over time, rather than just selling, is a benefit that’s unique to social media marketing.
Many people use social networking platforms to research brands and decide on their next purchase. This is a great opportunity to tell people about your brand, provide them with testimonials, and express your brand/company values.
With social media, you can get a lot of engagement using organic content, like blog posts, videos, images, infographics, or short text posts. You can also build rapport with your followers by interacting with them and starting interesting conversations using questions or polls.
By establishing and nurturing these relationships, you can build a loyal community which can help you acquire new customers and referrals that lead to ongoing sales.

Written by: Marie Patton