I’m sure like many you’ve experienced challenges starting your small business. Social media is another challenge if you haven’t done it before. The most common question is: what do you post on your business’ new social media accounts?
You can’t set up your profile, start posting promotional messages about products or your business. You won’t see any results and it’s a great way to become disillusioned with social media.
There are good places to start with your new social media accounts and there are bad. The goal with this post is to help you start on the right foot. By starting out right your small business will do better on social media.
Before you start doing anything with posts or even setting up your accounts, you’ll want to know your audience.
Figure Out Your Audience
This is an essential part of starting your small business for almost everything you do.
If you don’t know who your audience is then life in business won’t be easy.
You may not have thought about your audience or haven’t had time to think about it which is understandable. There’s a lot to figure out and learn when you’re starting a new business.
Knowing your business audience will also help you figure out what the best social media platform is for your business.
Look at the demographics of major social platforms and you’ll see where you can be the most effective.
Once you know your audience then your life will get a lot easier.
Set Up Social Media Accounts
Knowing your audience makes it easier for you to decide what social media networks to focus on. Setting up social media accounts is a lot of work so you don’t want to do it unless you’re sure it’ll be helpful.
Major social media networks like Facebook and Twitter will make sense for a large number of businesses, but not all.
If you’re selling a food item to consumers then LinkedIn might not make as much sense as Facebook or Instagram. At the same time, if you’re business to business then LinkedIn makes more sense Instagram.
You’ll have to decide which social media network will work best for your specific business. By targeting the right social media network, you’ll save time and be more likely to reach your target audience.
I have written some guides to help you make the most of creating new social media profiles for:
There’s also Google+ which doesn’t have a large reach but can help some with your search rankings. How much it helps search is debatable. It’s not worth your time unless it doesn’t take you much time.
Now that you have some social media profiles set up, what are you supposed to post to them?
Posting On Your New Social Media Accounts
You finally have your social media profiles all set up and you’re ready to start growing your audience. Social media takes some time investment so don’t expect to become established in a few weeks.
The best way to make a name or your business on social media is to be present. Get ready to join some groups on Facebook and LinkedIn.
You’ll also want to seek relevant Twitter chats where you can get to know people in your target audience or other people in your industry.
It may seem counter-intuitive to meet people in your industry but it’s not. They don’t have to be direct competitors. Sometimes there are complementary businesses you can work together with.
Seek out complementary businesses so you can help promote each-other. Share on XA graphic designer might work well with a web designer because the skills complement each-other.
With a properly formed social media post and a regular schedule, you’ll start seeing results on social media.
The following sections will give you some ideas on what to share on your business’ new social media accounts.
Introduce Yourself
People don’t know much about you or your small business if you’re just starting. Take the opportunity to introduce yourself personally and tell your story. Try to connect with your target on a personal level.
You can share your personal story and your personal self. People connect with people which is why introducing yourself is always a great idea.
What makes you great at what you do? The story of you and your brand are important to people. Everyone wants to know who they’re supporting.
Tell about your brand story; the past, present, and even the future. Many social media groups allow you to introduce yourself, who you are, and what your business does. Take the opportunity but always read the rules of groups you post in before you start posting.
There’s nothing worse than starting your relationship seen as a spammer.
Entertain
Your social media profiles can’t always be about you so why not add some entertainment in there? People love to laugh. A good laugh will help connect you with the people you’re trying to reach.
There are a lot of entertaining things you can post and of course visuals are always appreciated more than text.
You can post any mix of these or all of them:
- Infographic
- Quote
- Funny pictures
- Inspiring posts
It depends what industry you’re in but there’s always room for some of the above elements in every industry. Mix it up now and again but never let your social media presence become only about you.
Ask Questions
People love to talk about themselves. Give them that opportunity. If you ask some questions with your new social media accounts then you’ll start engaging people. If you ask a good question that piques people’s interest then you may even get some discussion.
Don’t focus on a goal you have ,though. Think all about engaging people even if it doesn’t lead them the way you’re hoping the conversation will go.
Behind the Scenes
If you make a product, people would LOVE to see how you make it. Document the process you went through to make it. If each product is unique, document each one and show the finished product.
It will help give others ideas on what’s possible with your product. To take it to another level you could even put together a behind the scenes video.
Videos and pictures do amazing on social media so they’re a perfect way to start out your business’ new social media accounts.
Videos
I already mentioned video above in the behind the scenes section but you can go beyond that. It doesn’t have to be behind the scenes to be a video.
A few years ago explainer videos became extremely popular. They are still just as popular but just not talked about as much.
An explainer video is a great way to explain to people how your business works if it’s too complex for words. You can do any type of video, though.
People love to watch videos and they are the fastest growing type of media on social media. YouTube has grown for years and now Facebook video is also popular. Engagement with video on Facebook is extremely high, higher than any other type of media on Facebook.
Video has 135% better organic reach than photos on Facebook. Share on XAccording to a study by Social Baker, video has a 135% better organic reach than photos on Facebook.
Start Somewhere
The biggest challenge with establishing your small business social media profile is getting started. That’s why you have to put together a few ideas and do it. Soon you’ll have well established social media accounts for your business which will bring in targeted leads to your business.
Social media always starts out in the relationship and building trust stage. Eventually that gives way to the inquiry stage which increases the chance a customer will do business with you.
Get Help
If you’re just not sure about some of these steps, you’re not alone. Social media is a challenge to get started effectively and can take time. Your best bet is to keep trying, keep posting valuable content from others, and also throw in some of your own content.
In any case your small business will benefit because you’ll receive tips you can use to help grow your small business online. One of the best ways to get content to share on your blog is to produce high quality content. You can do that if you have a good website with custom blog pages that look good and make it easy for you to post valuable content that your potential customers could be searching for.