Over the past decade, social media platforms have been popping up and evolving at a skyrocketing rate. This has made it increasingly important for businesses to take advantage of the platforms in order to stay connected with customers.
This change in culture is forcing many small business owners who are not familiar with having an online presence to adapt and learn new things.
1. Decide the Platforms that are Best for You
There is a wide variety of platforms to choose from when making the decision of where you would like to connect with customers. It’s important to consider a variety of different factors when choosing what is best for your brand. The demographics of your customers are important to know, as different genders and age ranges are more prevalent on certain platforms. Recognizing these trends will help you make the decision that is best for your small business.
2. Understand Your Audience
Knowing who your business’s audience is and what they are interested in is essential for using your social media presence to your benefit. Therefore, you should take the time to understand the demographics and interests of your audience. This will help you in your quest for choosing the best platforms to use in order to connect and it will also help you understand what content will be most engaging.
3. Get Creative
Once you have an idea of who your audience is and what they find engaging, you can begin to create content that will keep them interested in your brand. It’s important to remember that a lot of businesses are using social media these days, so in order to keep people engaged you want your content to not just try to sell them something but to be creative and interesting. Keeping your customers up to date with employees and ways that you are engaging in your local communities is also important for local small businesses.
4. Interact with Your Fans
Social media is a great way to not only let your customers know what’s going on, but also to connect with them directly. Make sure that when fans of your social pages are commenting/messaging you that you reply back in a timely manner. This shows them that you care about them and your social platforms are not just a means to promote monetary gain but also to connect directly.
5. Stay Engaged
Staying consistently engaged on your social platforms is important. With people’s access to a wide variety of different people and brands on social, you posting once every other week will not be enough to stay relevant. You want to try to post multiple times a week and use a variety of different tools the platforms offer you, like stories, in order to stay engaged on a daily basis.
In Conclusion
Social media platforms are one of the easiest and most effective ways to stay in constant contact with customers in this day and age, especially for local small businesses. Learning the best practices to keep your content engaging and geared towards your target audience is essential if you want to see your interactions on social convert into results!