ESSENTIAL social media tips for business owners
Did you know that social media is now regarded as one of the most important aspects to marketing your business? It makes sense, it’s where your customers spend the majority of their time online as there are nearly 2.7 billion social media users across the globe. Known for its effectiveness for finding and growing the perfect audience, it’s also super easy to get to grips with and a great way to begin to promote your business online.
Know your audience.
One of the unwritten secrets to business success on social media is utilising the perfect platform(s) for your industry and your customers, not necessarily just because you prefer it.
For example, major clothing brands such as Primark and TopShop, have a strong focus on Instagram, a platform where the key demographic is mostly (68%) female and where 78% of users are aged 18-44.
Once you’ve found your audience, you can begin to build your authority where they can see it, and with consistency, your following and overall brand presence will grow.
Be committed.
Growing your following and connecting with your perfect audience won’t happen overnight, just like growing your business, it takes time, commitment and consistency. If you’re planning on posting a specific number of times a day, week or month, then try your best to stick to that religiously!
Consistency = results; for both follower growth and follower engagement. Only posting every other Thursday makes your brand look inconsistent and unreliable, and therefore your audience are less likely to feel confident buying from you.
Did you know that your social media profiles can also help with your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)? Your profiles will also pop up in search engine results alongside your official website, taking up valuable real estate in the listings and potentially outperform competitors, alongside helping to boost your local SEO.
Ensuring your business information such as location, phone number and opening times match across all of your profiles and website, tells search engines of their importance to increase your ranking in the search listing, as well as including you in local search listings.
Be real.
There’s a large stigma surrounding social media, that content (especially from business accounts) should be perfectly polished and brand oriented. But this isn’t necessarily true. Audiences are actually more inclined to interact with you and your brand as your most authentic self, warts and all. Showcase what goes on behind the scenes, and allow your followers to feel involved in the brand - after all, creating a community is what social media is all about.
Plan, plan and plan some more…
A great way to keep the quality and quantity of your posting at its absolute maximum is to create a content calendar. We’d recommend working around 4 weeks in advance to ensure that you always have a plan and something to talk about! Take the time to plan your messaging, blogs (yes, you SHOULD be writing them regularly!) and any visual elements that you want to include on your accounts over the next month. A structured calendar will keep you accountable for posting to a schedule as well as ensuring that your content is interesting, educational and relevant, with no duplicate messaging.
Of course, live posting and ad hoc messaging can’t be planned in advance, so any content like this will simply be an added bonus to what’s already in the calendar.
Include photos, videos and graphics
As a very visual generation, internet users (and social media users in particular) are drawn to image, video or graphic-based content, compared to text-based messages. Try your best to include as many different types of content as you can across all your social accounts, to see what works best and where.
Discover peak posting times
A big secret to social media success is about finding the peak times to post, when your ideal audience is online and actively using social media.
For the best reach and engagement, use your social analytics/insights to identify when your followers are online and schedule your posts to hit these times. More often than not, peak time is between 6pm and 9pm during the week - but this can vary from one industry to the next.
Take inspiration from everywhere
Disclaimer: This doesn’t mean you’re allowed to completely rip off your competitors...
Inspiration is a great thing, it can make you look, read and understand something a completely new way, and as you become more involved in the social media world, there will inevitably be posts, stories, messaging and graphics that will inspire your future content calendar. Do your best to utilise whatever has inspired you to create something new, as inevitably, it will inspire someone else.
For example, last Christmas season saw supermarket Aldi remake the beloved Coca-Cola advert featuring Kevin the Carrot. Fans and foes alike have taken to social media to share either their love or loathing of the remake - resulting in huge amounts of brand visibility. What do you think? A good marketing move by Aldi, or ‘not cool Kevin’?
Using social media as a business owner doesn’t have to be scary. Even if social media is an alien concept to you, these top tips will help to get you started! Discover more of our top tips by signing up for our newsletter and get them direct to your inbox, or speak to our team of experts and find out how we can help you to grow your social media, through both organic and paid activity.
Let us know how you get on via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram using @ecrubox.
About Ecrubox Digital:
01386 576 109
Established in 2017 by co-founders Heather and Sebastian Horton, Ecrubox have grown from strength to strength, servicing clients throughout the UK and employing seven full-time staff members (as well as a handful of freelancers and subcontractors).
Starting off as a freelance sole trader, Heather created Ecrubox and began to grow their ever-expanding client list. With the company quickly gaining momentum, the office “HQ” was relocated to Deer Park Hall and Business Centre, just outside of Eckington, and the company began to welcome full-time staff members to the Ecrubox team.
The Ecrubox team getting social
Working as an extension of their clients’ in-house teams, as opposed to a ‘third party agency’, Ecrubox help businesses to grow and enhance their online presence by formulating strategic digital marketing solutions.
Successful business owner, mum of three children and MBA student, Heather was named the winner of Young Business Owner of the Year award at the Wonderful Worcestershire Awards in 2018.
