Today, more than ever, small and medium-sized businesses simply can’t afford to ignore the opportunity to build an audience online because the facts speak for themselves;
As of January 2020, 3.81 billion social media users worldwide
80% of all Internet users have social media accounts
Internet users on social media have an average of 8 accounts and spend up 2 hours and 29 minutes a day on social media
People between the ages of 55 and 64 are more than twice as likely to engage with a brand’s content
Engagement rates are always 18% higher on Thursdays and Fridays.
Of the top four social media platforms; Facebook has 2.6 billion active users a month, Twitter has 330 million active users per month, Instagram 1 billion active users per month, and LinkedIn has over 690 million users.
So with all this going on, how, do, entrepreneurs, and small business owners leverage social media to get their business massive amounts of attention, well they can start by considering our game-changing tips.
Thinking like a media company means putting out all types of content such as informational videos, articles, quotes, and audio clips that will inform or entertain your audience across all the major social media platforms.
Far too often small business owners make the mistake of only posting when they think they have something to offer, but by thinking like a media company and creating content that is both creative and relevant it lets you engage with your audience at any time without being overly promotional.
As a small business owner you are often incredibly busy, so taking the time to create quality content can sometimes be difficult, but, by repurposing material into smaller pieces of social media content or by adding in relevant hyperlinks, to like-minded sites you can not only save both time and effort, you can also easily increase your brand, product or service customer reach.
A great way for a small or medium-sized business to engage with their customers, and to build trust on social media is to regularly give away FREE added-value content without asking for anything in return. This doesn’t have to be monetary-based, it could be as simple as posting 5 tips of the day that are relevant to your customers, sharing unique recipes or guides, in fact, anything that can be perceived as adding value to your customers daily life.
The pressure on small businesses to compete on social media is enormous, hence why there are a million people all screaming look at me, look at what I’ve got, or how much I earned in the last ten minutes, anything to make it look like they have it all. And, while there have been some fabulous social media success stories, there’s been far more failures. So it’s vital that as a small business owner on social media you stay true to yourself and your brand, by doing so this gives you the chance to display what makes you and your business different from the rest.
As a small business, brand, product or service not everyone is going to like what you have to say or offer, and as such, social media gives people the perfect platform to tell you this, but you shouldn’t be afraid of any negative comments. Take the positive out of the situation, if somebody has taken the time to comment on what you have to say it means they have taken the time to visit your page. So instead of shying away from their comments – treat them as a form of high-quality customer service. So reply to as many comments as possible and do it with a smile on your face.
There are so many factors that small business owners simply cannot control, but the one thing that you are completely responsible for is the work that you put in. Many business owners don’t or won’t put in the time and effort necessary to become influential online. We know it takes a significant amount of work to create content, distribute that content across multiple platforms and engage with other social media users every day, but for those of you who are willing to do it you will succeed.
With 81% of all small and medium businesses having social media accounts and 77% of all businesses use social media to promote their business. If you’re not constantly creating and sharing, engaging content that has real-time value to your customers, you can bet your life that your competitor is doing so. But, remember building a brand on social media takes time, patience, and consistency. If you haven’t already, start growing your business with social media today using these game-changing tips.
Source; Social Media Benchmark Report 2020 – https://www.omnicoreagency.com/social-media-statistics/
