Marketing a small business can often be difficult when funds and resources are limited. However, building a social following can be an invaluable way of marketing your product, as well as connecting and building customer loyalty. Here we provide some useful links and resources to help kick start your social media. Don’t forget to download our social media calendar to help plan out your posts!

Why do you need Social Media?

Social media can be a highly affordable marketing technique for a small business. It allows you to share your product directly with the consumer. Your content shouldn’t be about the hard sell, but rather interacting with a potential customer and gaining brand awareness. It can also be a great way of connecting with your customers and really allowing your brand identity to shine, developing a loyal customer base. Social media can also be a great tool for evaluating your competitors. You can grow your own social media by determining the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors.

Dao Nguyen’s TED talk explains the phenomenon of something going viral. She discusses how people consume content and how to understand what the consumer wants. Using the analytical tools on each platform will allow you to determine who is your main audience.

Useful Links:

• 3 Reasons Why Small Businesses Still Need a Social Media Presence

• Why Small Businesses And Startups Should Invest In Social Media Marketing

• How to Conduct a Social Media Competitive Analysis

Getting started

One of the first things you will need to do is decide which platforms will be most useful to your brand. To do this, you need to put yourself in the customer’s shoes, consider which platforms they’d use and spend the most time on. Each platform has something slightly different to offer so this should be taken into account too.

Posting regularly by creating a social media schedule will ensure you’re delivering regular content to your audience, this will help with engagement. Additionally, making a social media strategy will allow you to measure how you perform on each platform by defining metrics for success.

Useful Links:

• 13 Top Tips For Choosing The Right Social Media Platform For Your Business

• 8 Steps to a Social Media Plan for Your Small Business

• Building your social media marketing strategy for 2021

Managing your social media

There are many options for managing your social media to meet everyone’s budget. Initially, you may want to just manage it yourself without any management software. Download our free social media calendar to plan out your monthly goals and content. Check out the different software below to help manage and improve your social media.

Useful software:

• Sprout Social - scheduling and analytics

• Hootsuite - scheduling and analytics

• Canva - designing social media content

• Hubspot - all-rounder for marketing, sales and customer service

Looking to start your social media strategy? Then check out our post on 5 Ways to Create a Productive Work Environment to help kick start your social media plans! Follow us on social media for more small business tips and resources using the links below.