TIPS ON MAXIMIZING THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA FOR SMEs

Dear SME owner,

Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, and Snapchat; what comes to mind when you think of the several social media platforms prominent in the digital age?

More likes? Pictures? More followers? Captions? More pictures?

Certainly, we all agree on the importance of utulising social media for business, as the digital age runs an economy based mostly on information technology. Businesses and individuals transmit, store and receive relevant information using systems, and most of this data can be accessed online. With increasing access to the internet is a simultaneous increase in the number of social media users. Research by Statistica shows there are presently about 2.77 billion social media users, and projects an increase to 3.02 billion by 2021. To you, these 2.77 billion users are more than just netizens, they are your potential market.

Maximizing the use of social media for your business guarantees a creation of awareness for your brand, and an established communication with potential customers. Social media marketing is a budget friendly means of engaging your targeted consumers. What’s more? Social media utilisation also presents platforms to advance the reach of your enterprise beyond physical borders and interest potential customers other than your target audience.

Here are some tips to help you derive maximum utility from your business’s social media accounts:

1. Start with Goals

Create SMART goals, and then have a plan that translates them to actual results in your physical business. Don’t set goals like, ‘Get 1000 new followers for February 2019’. Instead, try goals like ‘Increase sales by 5% in February’; and then work on ensuring that you achieve it employing strategies like a Valentine’s sales promo. Be specific, make your goals measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound.

2. Content quality over quantity

Don’t make the number of posts you can create, and the number of likes they get, your focus. Be more interested in the value you upload through your content. To ensure this, try:

• Planning ahead with a ‘Content Calendar/Timetable’
• Using the ‘One-third Social Media Content Rule’ which suggests that one-third of your social media content should be for business promotion and profit generation, one-third of your content should project ideas and stories from similar businesses and thought leaders in your industry, and the last third of your content should focus on building personal interactions and your brand. For more information on this rule, see this post by @digimartsolutions on Instagram; https://www.instagram.com/p/Bs75GB3nXnO/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=1tre8wb3jf7mb

3. Have a predetermined frequency for your online posts

After proper research, pick the best time of the day to upload your content. It should be a time when most of your viewers are usually online. Making use of your content calendar, create series of themed posts like, ‘Monday motivation’, ‘Tuesday tips’, ‘Friday reviews’, e.t.c. With a consistent frequency, viewers start anticipating your next posts.

If you have a business account on Instagram, Instagram insights is a good feature that can help your research.

4. Find out where your potential customers are, and make it your online forte!

‘Everyone is on Instagram’, ‘Facebook is becoming obsolete’, ‘No one watches YouTube vlogs’. These are costly assumptions, and they are most likely wrong. Don’t assume, do your homework! Search for demographic reports on the users of various social media platforms, then create a niche for your business where most of your clients socialize online. Build relationships with your viewers so they understand that you are online for them and not yourself. Create and maximise opportunities to engage them in conversations and sales follow-up.

Here’s a link to an article on the demographics of users of various social media platforms by Hootsuite;

https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-demographics/

5. Use compelling visuals and catchy phrases.

Don’t bore your audience (to death…lol!), with belabored sermons. Keep it as short, simple, and sweet as possible. Compelling visuals and catchy phrases will keep your audience spellbound and wanting more. Pass accross your message with phrases and pictures that arrest their attention. When preparing online posts, always remember the Content Golden Rule which states that your content shouldn’t be all about sales every time. Let your content inform, educate, advise, and entertain.

6. Expand your audience

First, learn from the ‘media lifestyle’ of other businesses. Observe their market strategies and think of innovative ways to adapt these strategies in achieving your goals. One very good way of attracting more potential customers, is by creating a unique selling point for your brand. Give them something that other businesses in your industry doesn’t. A good example of this is offering free delivery services, or free installment of your products. Then, you should collaborate with other brands from time to time. This creates opportunities for your respective audiences to mix and mingle with the other brand. For example, a make-up artist can collaborate with a hair stylist/vendor to create special offers for brides that patronise both businesses for a given period.

Lastly, invent ways to convince a population with different demographics from your target customers. An example of this is a male fashion line hinting that ladies can buy their clothes as gifts for men.

Remember, ‘everyone is a potential customer online’.

7. Make use of available resources to manage your social media accounts. Some of these resources:

• Help you keep up with conversations accross social media platforms with notifications of comments on your posts or related to your brand, and they allow you reply in ‘real time’.
• Connect all your social media accounts for easy linking in case a viewer wants to access your brand on another platform, or needs a direct link to a site where they can make purchases.
• Help you post already prepared content online at scheduled times; so, instead of spending snippets of your time online working on or uploading content, you can dedicate specific times for creating quality content and give these tools the task of uploading them when due.

Some examples of these tools are Hootsuite, SparkCentral, and WebiMax. Get more information about social media marketing tools from this article by Saige Driver on Business News Daily;

https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/5782-social-media-marketing.html

8. Get a Google Digital Skills (GDS) Training and/or Certification

GDS trainings give you skills that improve your ability to manage your online accounts, and give you insight on how to make informed decisions that improve your online presence. The GDS program aims to Help SME owners make the most out of the web, teaches them how to get their business listed on Google for free, and how to take advantage of opportunities available online. The GDS online course is highly comprehensive and easy to understand; it is also free and can be accessed on bit.ly/freegoogleskills

Participants are given a certificate on digital marketing directly from Google upon completion of the course.

I hope you get busy with making the best use of your social media accounts; and that while you’re at it, you have fun and more funds.

Your potential client,

Esieboma .O. Joy

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