Small businesses have been prone to over spending when it comes to advertising and outlandish PR stunts. So they face the challenge of building brand awareness at a low cost.
That’s where social media comes in. Social media can be used strategically by specifically targeting your intended audiences. The key here is strategic planning, the use of social media is ultimately to help grow a business, but must do so by supporting the business objectives. Therefore, further understanding into the core processes that can be achieved through social media can minimize time and energy spent on various sites.
In order to generate results there are few things to remember. First, who are you trying to reach? It easy to get caught up in the informal facet of social media and something businesses need to remind themselves of is that laying down the groundwork of what you trying to achieve is important. The social aspect of social media can be platform for formal business transactions. Establish clearly your primary customer and your target audience.
Depending on the nature of your business, whether you are a B2B or B2C, choosing the right channel to reach out to your audience is crucial. Differentiating the identities in each platform can save a lot time. Meaning, if you run a B2B company, then LinkedIn would be a better choice as opposed to Facebook. Delivering the right content is your way to advertise. Therefore, producing the right content that your audience will respond to will generate more engagement and traffic to your business account.
It takes time and the proper resources to optimize the results you want. Communicating with your audience on a regular basis will help gain followers. Delivery of scheduled content, gives your business the value it deserves. After all your efforts, the final step is to analyze your methods to ensure your social media strategies are successful. Quality metrics will guide you to make any improvements on your engagement and relevance on social media.
Disclaimer: Based on the article Capitalising on social media to grow your business http://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2014/feb/28/capitalising-social-media-grow-business
