3 Successful Social Media Marketing Strategies For Small To Medium-Sized Businesses
Small to medium-sized businesses (SMB) are relying on social media marketing more than ever and there's plenty of statistics to back up that claim. For example, almost 90% of marketers report their efforts on social media platforms have increased exposure for their business while over half of them have experienced higher sales. When it comes to internet users, over one-third of online consumers use social media networks to learn more about a brand or product.
We already know how important the use of imagery is on these networks accounting for 75 to 90% of an ad's performance on Facebook, the most widely used social media platform. In this light, here are three more tips for successfully using social media marketing strategies.
#1 - Giving Advice Before Sales
Instead of going after a hard sell online, start off by giving advice and suggestions to build a following and trust among potential customers. While you'll certainly want to advise consumers about special rates or sales of your products or services, it's more important to come off as a friendly advisor rather than a pushy salesperson. For the sake of argument, let's say your company sells widgets and you'll be having a big clearance sale at the end of the year. Instead of simply posting these rates, publish relative articles about similar subjects like:
- Best Ways To Clean & Maintain Widgets
- Top 10 Widgets On The Market
- How Widgets Help Your Business (or family)
- 8 Overlooked Uses For Widgets
- Why Widget A Outshines Widget B
After offering this type of helpful and useful information to viewers, slip in a link to your product or services at the end of the piece or strategically scatter a few throughout the post.
#2 - Using The Best Engagement Techniques
One of the best ways to operate on social media is by using successful engagement techniques to interact with users on these platforms. After using images, another popular way to attract attention online is through the use of humor. Like what's the difference between a widget and a salad? Widgets break when they're tossed. A brand's ability to laugh at itself is humanizing and goes a long way in building a rapport with your audience. Other successful techniques include:
- Ask directly for reviews, feedback, comments or suggestions
- Share trivia, fun facts and statistics
- Sponsor a contest or giveaway
- Take a poll on Facebook
- Ask specifically for the actions you're seeking, share, like, follow, retweet, etc.
Be sure to regularly monitor these platforms to respond in a timely, friendly and professional manner to all online interactions for the best results.
#3 - Take Advantage Of Seasonal Sensations
One of the best tools for social media marketing strategies is the use of a calendar when planning posts. Look ahead a couple weeks for upcoming holidays, anniversaries and other events to plan posts accordingly. For example, set a reminder in the middle of December to publish a piece that ties into New Year's Day in some way like resolutions for the future including the use of widgets in one case.
Also look for unusual, bizarre, and unique red-letter days to share with users on social media. You can find obscure dates like National Nothing Day on January 16th, Letter Writing Week, and Hot Tea Month during January on websites like Holiday Insights. Or make up your own industry-specific celebrations for Toledo Widget Day, Ohio Widget Week or maybe National Widget Appreciation Month.
Power Your Socials With Buckeye
Just like how social media powers digital customer communication, the Internet powers social media use. For the best Internet service for your SMB, choose our business-class high-speed Internet package to meet the demands of your growing business needs.