6 Tips to grow your social media for your business
Growing your small business can be time consuming. We all know that. With our limited time, we need to make sure we’re doing everything we can to make the most of it. Social media is a wonderful way to grow your business online, but are you sure what you’re doing is actually growing your business?
Here are 6 tips to grow your social media and in turn, grow your business- all without paying for ads.
6 Ways to grow your social media and grow your small business
Know your niche and brand identity
When you’re building your small business, you’ll usually hear “niche down” and “find you niche” over and over again. There’s a reason for that. When it comes to marketing, knowing who your target customer and audience is will make it that much easier to develop your business’ identity and marketing. Mom’s tend to have “mom lingo,” teenagers have their lingo, various demographics have their own way of speaking. Know who you’re talking to and build your brand accordingly.
Many new business owners think their product or service is for “everyone!” Believe me, it’s not. McDonalds may have a huge group of people they sell to, but they don’t sell to everyone. Target may have a massive audience, but they don’t sell to everyone. Your business isn’t selling to everyone. Find your dream customer and clients and build your niche and identity to speak directly to them.
2. Stop following everyone
When you first start a new social media account, they often give you suggested accounts to follow to get started. The usual response is to follow people and topics you personally are interested in.
Don’t do that.
Your business account is not your personal account. Be strategic about who your business is following online. Follow accounts you’d like to do business or collaborations with. Follow businesses and accounts that your dream customers and clients are following. Actively engage with them. This is a fairly easy way for potential customers to find you. For example, if you are a yoga studio, you should follow local chiropractors, health food stores and restaurants, local outdoor groups, bike shops, etc. Local bookstores would do well interacting with local coffee shops, local boutiques, restaurants near by, and so on.
You know your ideal customer. You see their personalities. Take some time to brainstorm and make a list of where else they may frequent. Still not sure? Ask! Ask your customers about their favorite local shops and such. That will give you a great list of who you should be engaging with online.
(Side note: Do not feel like you need to follow everyone who follows you online. Only follow accounts you will and that it makes sense for you to engage with. If you’re following thousands of accounts, you’ll get stretched too thin.)
3. Engage with your followers
While I said above that you don’t need to follow everyone who follows you, it’s still a good idea to go engage with those following you every now and then. This is a great way to make your current customers, as well as those who maybe haven’t actually purchased yet but are obviously interested, feel seen. People want to buy from people, not robots. Make their experience with your business more personal.
With all that said, ONLY engage naturally. Don’t just leave a “great pic!” comment or a generic emoji that doesn’t necessarily make sense with their captions. Be authentic.
4. Create posts with “shareability” in mind
Posts that get shared more get seen more. Period.
Things like quotes, memes, and motivational posts tend to get shared a lot. Pro-local business posts do really well if you’re a local business as well. If you need some help or ideas on what kind of posts to create, take a look at what kind of things your followers are already sharing. To keep going with the yoga studio example, you’ll see a lot of affirmation and motivational posts being shared. A local business store would do well sharing book quotes and beautiful pictures of “book nooks,” whether is beautiful libraries or cozy corners to curl up with a book.
Not every post needs to be created with sharing in mind, but keeping those in the mix will help get new engagement and potential followers. “Contagious” by Jonah Berger is a great book that will help you understand the idea behind “shareability” in greater depth.
5. Engage where your dream clients hang out
Don’t just follow those other accounts that your dream customer is following. Take it another step on Instagram specifically. Let’s keep going with the yoga studio example.
As a yoga studio, you’re following the local health food store and actively engaging with their account. On Instagram, click on the store’s followers list. Click on a follower and like or comment on one post. Hit the back button and go to the next follower and do it again. Only comment if it’s an authentic comment. Don’t take a lot of time on each account.
I HIGHLY recommend setting a timer for this. If you do too many at one sitting, IG will think you’re being spammy and lock your account for 24 hours, sometimes more. I usually set my timer for 10 to 15 minutes.
A lot of the accounts may be set to private. No problem, just go back and go to the next person in the list.
Believe it or not, I’ve been able to get a LOT of leads for my business using this method. It’s always fun when someone reaches out to you for your services and starts with “I don’t know how I found you, but…” and you know it is because you liked a couple of their posts the week before. This is just getting your name out there. People can’t buy from you if they’ve never heard of you.
6. Create a Content Bank and Calendar
Having a content calendar will help you stay consistent in your posting on social media. The algorithm prefers consistency. Grab a blank calendar and think about upcoming holidays, sales or events you are planning, new products or services coming out, local events you want to share, or products you want to push. I really dig into this in Fearless Marketing.
I’m a big believer of Excel spreadsheets. I use one as my “content bank.” I’ve created various tabs covering “big topics” I want to talk about in my business and then break it down in each tab.
Let’s keep going with that yoga studio.
They may have tabs labeled Classes, Special Events and Holidays, Pose Tips, Health Tips, Quotes, etc. In each of those tabs, they’ve written out their class schedule, any events or holidays coming up, detailed “how to’s” on various poses, their favorite health tips, and their favorite quotes and affirmations. With just an hour or two, they have created enough posts for the next 3 months.
Put these 6 tips to work to grow your social media and you are sure to see a difference in your small business. Remember that social media is not an overnight fix or growth strategy. It takes time and there will be ups and downs, but stick with it and you will see the difference in the long run. Follow me on IG for more tips!
Pin it for later!