Social media management for a small business can be frustrating and seem like a waste of time.
You take a photo of a product, person, or even yourself and post it only to receive a handful of likes and a comment from your mother who is one of only like 97 fans of your page.
Yet, putting an effort into your social media seems to be the advice of every piece of marketing help you can find. Why?
Because a concerted, educated focus will be worth it.
There’s some really obvious stuff like contests and giveaways that can drive up your followers and likes. However, we’re going to talk about things we haven’t seen a lot of small businesses try.
Post more video on social media
You likely know that video is more likely to show up at the top of Facebook but did you know that they can take up more screen space too?
Buffer found out that square videos take up 78% more space on mobile devices than on desktop. However, they also learned square videos outperform landscape videos in terms of average engagement, views, and reach.
Obviously, this is going to help you build your social following but it will also help you generate more leads to your business.
You can turn your videos into ads and are said to increase conversions by 20-30% and click-through rates by 2-3x.
While video production can be a little expensive, focus on clear audio and tight editing first. A fancy camera isn’t all that necessary and lighting isn’t all that important as long as it doesn’t look like garbage to you.
Use your phone, a semi-reliable stand (if necessary), and get free or cheap video editing software.
Plan out your content a couple weeks to a month at a time so you don’t stress over what to post and have a cleaner finished product.
Not sure what your followers want to see? Here’s a few ideas for your social media videos:
- Do you make your products that you sell? Make videos showing how they are made.
- Is there a current social issue in which you hold a firm belief? Speak out about it. For an example, check out this Ben & Jerry’s video about 420.
- Do you or any of your employees volunteer for any nonprofits? Shoot a video of your team helping out and post it on your profiles! It’ll raise awareness for the cause you care about and show you care about your local community.
Just remember that your social content isn’t meant to be entirely sales-focused. Your content is viewable by anyone so they may not know what you are about. And your followers don’t want to be sold all the time.
Make something that is enjoyable to watch, on-brand, and engages your audience.
Toy around with going live as well. Don’t just go live for the sake of it or off-the-cuff but find some good reasons for it like a product release, a Q&A session, or if you’re attending a community event. That’s not a complete list of course, but should give you a better idea of appropriate times to utilize live video.
Post special offers on social media
One sure way to get people to connect with you on social is to occasionally drop social-only offers. You can easily post an offer on Facebook.
To drive up more excitement, make them limited-time-only offers and in limited quantities. Don’t do it all the time though or your followers will get burnt out and not trust they have to take action now.
Try putting offers only on one platform and use that to build up the profiles in which you are lacking a following.
Get your customers posting about your small business
Offer a small discount on a product or service that you can stomach if your customer tags you in a post, checks in, or gives you a review.
All of those things are invaluable for your business even beyond brand awareness, so maybe rotate between those three things from time to time.
It doesn’t have to be a one-time discount either. Think about it: if your customer’s friends keep seeing them post that they are at your business, they’re going to wonder what all the buzz is about.
Well, that’s the three ideas we have for you. If you don’t have someone managing your social media and you’d rather keep your focus on what you do best, give us a shot.
To get more information, you can fill out the form on this page or give us a call at 417-986-6332.
