Social media can be a great way to help your small business stand out. However, it has to do be done with a smart strategy. In this blog post, we take a look at the ins and outs of how small businesses can leverage the power of social media.
Branding Helps Your Small Business Connect
Marketing is all about getting the right message to the right audience, so you can achieve as many conversions as possible and spread awareness of your brand. Through social branding, you can foster important connections and generate sales.
Social media branding is all about using the right strategies consistently to keep an engaged community talking about you. You want to build an enthusiastic network of fans who are loyal to your brand and happy to make purchases from you.
When your social branding is strong, your entire sales process will become more efficient. But, how do you cultivate this eager community of fans?
How To Improve The Social Media Branding Of Your Small Business
There are four key areas that you want to focus on. If you are lacking in even one, it may have big impacts on the efficacy of your social media presence.
1. Identity
You cannot sell or promote something if you don’t understand, down to the very core, what exactly it is. So, before successfully promoting your brand online and building a strong social media presence, you have to be able to answer some key questions about it. These include:
- What defines your brand?
- What makes it different?
- Who is its ideal audience?
- What are its voice and personality like?
- What are your brand’s values?
The clearer you are about your brand’s identity, the easier it will be to give it a recognizable social media personality and presence.
2. Audience
While it is important to know your brand, you cannot forget about your audience. Ultimately, you want to connect with and entice real people online. If your social media content sparks discussions and engagement, then it is effective. However, in order to do this, it needs to be made with an audience in mind.
What does your audience want? What do they need? Which problems are they trying to solve?
Demographics Are Key
Also, consider demographics. Are you trying to reach teenagers? Do you want to sell a product or service to established professionals? Is your ideal customer group new fathers, college students, or city dwellers?
Make sure you can answer these questions.
SEE ALSO: How Consumers Want Brands to Act on Social Media
3. Content
The type of content you share on social media is largely how people will define, perceive, and interact with your digital brand. So, you want to share the right kinds of content on the right networks to connect with the right audience.
After all, you have seconds to capture someone’s attention. So, you have to be smart about it. If your content is not effective, it will fail to get the engagement you want and it will not raise brand awareness. You will essentially be talking to yourself.
4. Design
Visual elements are key to social media branding. So, whether it’s the logos you use on your profile pages, your video content, or your images, everything has to look pristine and be consistent with your brand.
It is important to note that due to the way the human brain works, your visual content needs to be absolutely incredible. The brain processes visual content 60,000 times faster than written content. Humans are visual creatures who process and recall visuals better than written text.
This is why you need an effective design that really gets your points across in a compelling way.
SEE ALSO: Digital Branding Checklist for Small Businesses
Deconstructing Social Media Myths
Now that we have explored some of the most important do’s of creating a social media presence for small businesses, let’s take a look at some of the most common misconceptions. You don’t want to fall into these traps while trying to build a powerhouse social media presence for your small business.
If It’s Not Viral, It’s Not Worthwhile for Small Business
Would everyone like to have their first-ever Twitter or Instagram post become a viral sensation that slams them with engagement? Absolutely! That would be amazing.
However, expecting that right out of the gate is not realistic. While anyone can purchase likes or followers and have vanity metrics that make their social media look great on the surface, this is ultimately pointless.
Good Things Take Time
You are trying to use social media to build brand awareness and boost conversions. An army of bot followers will not be aware of your brand and also will never purchase anything from you.
Building genuine relationships takes time. So, do not be discouraged if it takes time to build that with your audience.
You Have To Be On Every Network
There are many social media networks out there. It seems like a no-brainer that they way to social media success is casting as wide of a net as possible, and being on all of them.
This is not true, especially if you are doing your social media yourself. Remember, the whole point of social media is being social. It’s not just about making a dozen social media accounts and forgetting them. After you create the accounts, you also have to be active on the platforms.
Less Is More
So, if you don’t have the time to be on a dozen social media platforms, don’t be. It’s that simple. Building a strong presence on one or two will do way more for your brand.
Also, different demographics hang out on different platforms. Only use the platforms where it is likely your audience will be.
If you want to learn more about how to effectively invest time in social media, check out our blog post on the topic here.
Final Thoughts on Social Media and Small Business
Ultimately, social media branding for small businesses is all about making connections with your audience. Once you understand your brand and your audience, you want to make great content that will draw them in and also turn them into customers and fans!
As every brand and audience is different, there is no quick and easy overnight fix to fostering these connections and building this community. It takes a lot of hard, clever, and consistent work.
However, once you build an enthusiastic community around your brand, you will see overall success!
Which businesses do you think have really succeeded in building strong digital brands? Comment below…
