Social media marketing is no longer the new kid on the block. As a small business owner, leveraging social media can be an effective marketing resource. Keeping up with what's working and taking advantage of the latest trends on social platforms can deliver results for your local business.
Here are a few things you can do to level up your social media efforts:
Poll Your Followers
Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram all allow users to create polls for the followers to respond to. In most cases, we’re talking about simple polls with just two or three potential responses.
A poll is a great way to collect feedback from your followers while simultaneously creating ‘engagement’ for your account, which in turn helps you rank higher on a user's feed.
Polls can also be used to measure the effectiveness of your campaign. Because polls are interactive, they encourage engagement. In many cases, respondents won’t even need to leave their feed and they can respond by clicking their choice right within your poll!
You can also try using polls to split test and leverage your audience to get invaluable insight. This method works by asking people to vote on which version of your website they prefer or eliciting feedback on variations of your creatives.
Engage in Social Listening
Social Listening can help your business tap into trending conversations by getting the gist of what your audience is talking about and the general consensus around the topic.
You probably saw a brand respond to a news story in a tone-deaf way. That’s not a good look for your brand.
Does that mean you should never respond to anything topical? No – but it does mean you need to be careful.
The best way to avoid missteps is to engage in social listening.
Before you post, scroll through relevant hashtags, and get a feeling for what people are saying and how it might relate to your brand, products, or services. Then, you’ll be able to craft a response that is equal to the moment and will speak to the concerns and needs of the people who follow you.
Fine-Tune Your Twitter Voice
Having a consistent brand voice is also very important on Twitter, where you only have 288 characters to get your point across. You can expand a thought over two or more Tweets (sometimes known as a Tweetstorm) but you still need to fine-tune your voice.
Your voice might be authoritative, funny, snarky, or highbrow. Whatever it is, you should learn how to get it across in a single Tweet. There’s nothing wrong with a bit of experimentation and trying a couple of different options will help you to get it right.
Deploying social listening and engaging on Twitter can be huge for your business.
Vary Your Instagram Content
Because Instagram got its start as an app where people could share mobile photography, it’s common for business owners to get stuck in a rut, posting only high-quality photographs and never taking any chances.
Instagram’s options have expanded and it’s time for you to get on board with the changes. You can try any of the following to diversify your content.
Create short videos to share with your followers
Do an Instagram Live video
Create one or more GIFs from your videos or other sources
Get creative and make some memes that are relevant to your brand
Take advantage of micro-blogging and share your thoughts
There’s a lot you can do with Instagram and as users become increasingly sophisticated, they expect more from the brands they follow.
Start an IGTV Show (Instagram TV)
Speaking of expanded content on Instagram, did you know you can create long-form television shows using IGTV? Content creators use IGTV to do Q & A sessions, live stream events, interview experts, share reviews and testimonials and much more.
You don’t have to be an expert in video production or sound technology to start creating your own IGTV show.
The key is to get started.
By creating long form content that is compelling and an insight into your business, it’s personality and culture, your fans and customers will likely get a better feel and deepen their affinity.
Use Custom Retargeting to Increase Conversions
When you are marketing your products or services to a “cold” audience, it can be nearly impossible to make any money from your Facebook ads. That said, there’s a way you can increase your ROI without spending a lot more money: retargeting.
For example, you might run a video ad to people in your area featuring your product. You don’t need to run it for long – just a few days or a week. Then, you can create a custom audience of people who watched at least half of your video and show them a new ad designed to pique their interest and encourage them to buy your product or fill out your lead form.
Retargeting is a good idea to help leverage recency and recognition of your local business’ brand.
Find Micro-Influencers to Share Your Content
Another great way to leverage social media is through influencer marketing.
Few local businesses have the money to hire nationally recognizable influencers. For that reason, unfortunately, some business owners have written off influencer marketing as something that’s a waste of time.
However, the rise of micro-influencer marketing has delivered substantial results for many small – medium-sized and local businesses.
A small business that's considering influencer marketing should focus on micro-influencers: people who have authority with the (relatively) small audience of people who are in the market for products like yours.
Micro-influencers may be industry superstars or popular local figures. In other words, they have influence over an audience who might also be interested in your business. Focusing on them means spending far less money than you would on a celebrity influencer for a higher rate of return. You can find influencers by searching for relevant hashtags and looking for people who are sharing content to your target audience.
Another great way to discover micro-influencers in your local area is to search under the geo-location tab on Instagram. There you will discover accounts that show up locally. Digging a bit deeper into these accounts might yield who commands the attention and engagement of an ideal local audience!
Optimize for Mobile
Our final tip cuts across all formats and social media sites. At this point in our digital history, you should assume that everybody accessing your content is doing so via a mobile device. There’s no excuse for not optimizing your social media content for mobile users.
On Pinterest and Instagram, use rectangular pictures with a 2:3 aspect ratio. This method works great on mobile platforms.
Social media marketing has come a long way! It’s time to get caught up and try some new things. As we head into the second rest of the year, take advantage of the updates to increase your ROI and profits.
