5 Strategies for Marketing Your Small Business on Social Media in 2020

As we leave a decade of social media hysteria behind, it’s a good time to start thinking about how to best use your scarce marketing dollars in the new year.

From all the data accumulated in the 2010’s, it is clear that social media users regularly interact with companies they already or plan to do business with. Your customers and prospects are on social media, so how can your business take advantage of using it in a cost-effective manner to grow your audience, sales and revenue?

Here are a few tips for using social media to grow your small business in 2020:

1. Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy

As we’ve talked about on this blog and you’ve read elsewhere, creating and curating valuable content that ranks well on the SERP’s (Search Engine Results Pages) is important, but using that content to get the right people back to your site is the ultimate challenge. Without a strategy, you will just be shooting in the dark.

A social media marketing strategy is a summary of everything you plan to do  on social media.  Every post, ad, like or comment should serve a purpose.

Small business owners should keep their strategy simple and concise. Most important, it needs to be consistently measured to determine its success.

2. Diversify Your Content 

What are the formats you can use? Blogs, videos, vlogs, infographics and podcasts all engage your audience in different yet interactive ways. 

Have your content creator adjust your core content based on platform i.e. visual imagery for Instagram, compelling articles for your blog and professionally edited videos for YouTube. Add hashtags that are topic based and audience appropriate. 

3. Watch Your Competition 

Small business owners are usually so focused on the daily operations of their business, they forget to monitor their competitors which, on social media, is easier than ever. Your social media marketing agency can use a variety of tools to follow the activity of your competitors as well as your industry.  They should provide you with a report to help guide your marketing dollars to target the right audience on the  relevant social platforms you are using.

If your competition is focusing on certain platforms, it is imperative that you monitor their activity in addition to your own to ensure you meet and exceed them to remain on top of your respective market and audience. 

4. Follow The 80-20 Rule When Promoting Your Business

This rule is where only one of every 7 or 8 posts clearly promotes your business. The remaining posts should be focused on sharing valuable content, including relevant “curated” posts from the internet. 

This doesn’t mean you can’t promote your business in those other posts – just be sure you pair it with great content that is interesting and relevant to your target audience. Doing this also helps build what Google refers to as “EAT” (Expertise – Authority- Trust). Without it, your posts may just annoy (at best) or drive away (at worst) potential customers. 

5. Use Video Content When Possible

Video offers entertaining, engaging, and easily digestible information that can be shared across multiple social platforms. Since social media platforms are designed for people to connect and share content, video is perfectly suited for most audiences. 

While the cost of producing, editing and publishing video is higher than other content, it’s higher reach and engagement levels will more than likely justify the increased expense, leading to more leads, higher sales and greater revenue.

Summary:

As a small business, you need to focus on reaching new prospects and retaining existing customers, especially local customers. Most consumers have an inherent desire to support their local businesses to keep their local economy strong and show pride in their town or city. 

Following the above strategies will ensure you remain competitive in an increasingly competitive marketplace. Social media marketing can be used in every business that wants to remain relevant and engaged with their customers and prospects. 

Creating and maintaining a properly designed and branded website that supports your  social media activities will be more critical than ever in the coming year. Your small business should spend time on evaluating your marketing plan going into 2020 to give you the best opportunity to engage with customers on a more personal level, build your brand identity and increase your sales and revenue.