Once you've found the right platforms for your social media marketing, you can start posting on social media. Below, we've gathered some tips to help your business get started.
1. Plan your content
The number one mistake small businesses make on social media is posting content on the fly. While it may seem easier to spend a little time each day finding something to post, this approach could actually be more time-consuming (and stressful) in the long run.
Using a social media content calendar can help you plan your content and avoid leaving everything to the last minute. It's also easier to come up with a range of content (blog posts, images, infographics, etc.) when you have a little time to think about it.
When developing your content calendar, be sure to include:
The type of content you will be publishing (e.g., blog post, image, infographic, etc.)
The date you will publish it
The social network on which you will publish it
A link to the content (if applicable)
A brief description of the contents
The text to include in the body of the message
Campaigns, holidays or important dates not to forget
Any links, tags, or hashtags you want to include in the post
Sample Social Media Content Calendar
If you're not sure where to start, check out our free content morocco phone number data calendar templates . To learn more, be sure to check out our video:
2. Schedule your posts to be published
Once you have this schedule in place, you can write your posts in advance and use scheduling tools like Hootsuite to automatically publish them at the best times.
Scheduled posts in Hootsuite's scheduling tool
Scheduling posts allows you to dedicate daily or even weekly time slots to creating social media content. This approach is much more efficient because it allows you to focus on your daily tasks without getting distracted.
Automation tools like chatbots and AI -powered content creation tools can also help you reduce the time spent on your social media marketing.
3. Adopt effective community management
Of course, posting creative content is important. But when it comes to social media marketing for small businesses, you also need to implement effective community management.
Community management is the process of leveraging customer interactions to build an online community . This includes responding to user comments or questions and engaging with users on social media.
Think of it as an extension of your customer service. You need to interact with your audience as much as they interact with you. This will allow you to build a network of customers who feel connected to your brand and are more likely to buy regularly.
Community management is also a key element of social media ranking algorithms . Social media platforms reward active and engaged users , so the more you interact with your followers, the more likely you are to appear in their feeds.
Feel free to use Hootsuite streams to like, comment, reply, and engage with your target audience. You can also use the Hootsuite Inbox to keep track of all the conversations you should be participating in, so you don't miss anything important.
Messages saved in Hootsuite inbox
4. Follow the trends
We're not telling you to jump on every meme that's trending. In fact, it's quite the opposite: avoid jumping on every meme that's trending!
However, it can be a good idea to follow social media trends to understand what people are looking for when they log into their favorite platforms. This will help you create relevant content that will resonate with your customers .
If you have the time to dedicate to it, social listening allows you to gather extremely valuable information to understand what your audience (current and potential) expects from your business. With Hootsuite, it's a breeze.
Simply set up a dedicated feed for your brand mentions across social channels so you can immediately respond to comments (positive or negative) and track how sentiment toward your business is changing.
Twitter Mentions Stream on Hootsuite
5. Sell your products on social media
In recent years, social media marketing has evolved to include social commerce , the ability to sell your products directly from social media platforms. The results are clear , with the global market expected to reach $492 billion in 2022 .
Most social platforms today allow users to engage in social selling . Examples include Facebook and Instagram Shops , Pinterest Buyable Pins , TikTok Shops , and more.
Social commerce is especially useful for small businesses in e-commerce or retail. It reduces many of the friction points associated with online sales . Your potential customers are already on social media, so they don't need to visit your website and browse your product pages. And because you're meeting them where they already are, your chances of making a sale are much higher.
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