Leveraging Social Media Channels for Business Success

By Guest Author | social media tips | October 22, 2020

Are you keen to boost your business by incorporating social media into your marketing strategy? It is essential to connect your local business and start promoting it on social media since the platforms account for an enormous number of consumer purchases today.

By DAVID MILSONT

Reach out to your potential new customers with also retaining your existing customers. Social platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc. are not only used for socializing but to connect and build your connections and even to increase the potential value of their brands.

Which Platforms Should Local Businesses Use?

Selecting the right social media platforms can be a challenge as this can end up backfiring on your business if you don’t have the time or resources to maintain the accounts consistently. 

Research and consider the social media platform where your audience is most active, use the content that resonates best with your audience and influences their buying decisions and check the presence of peer competitor businesses. Also, consider your budget when planning to utilize Local SEO attributes and features on diverse platforms –

Facebook – The most popular social media site that every local business is utilizing for connecting with customers and sharing valuable content. It is an invaluable asset for all local masses.

YouTube – This platform has a visually creative and educative setup that one can utilize for creating tutorials. You can post videos on services available from your company, including product models, updates of any launches, troubleshooting, maintenance, or common problems.

Instagram – This platform is gaining rapid and steady growth because users are using this platform to share images and videos of their services or businesses.

Twitter – With a wide reach and fast-paced social media platform, Twitter has several attributes that can help in providing micro-information to intended users and even deliver prompt customer service in terms of attendance of queries.

LinkedIn – For professional growth and reach, LinkedIn works incredibly well. The channel includes vendors, businesses, professionals, and entrepreneurs that can connect and grow their network.

How to decide which Social Media Platforms Are Best for Your Business?

Type of Content

You need to be sure of the content you would like to share with your users or followers. Depending on the type of your business, you need to post a few photos per day from images and videos to written content. Instagram won’t reach for each local business, but Facebook is the right platform where you can locate a potential customer and provide them with your necessary details.

Check where Is Your Audience Most Active

Having a background check on the whereabouts of your targeted audience can help you to decide your future customers. After finding the right platform where your current and potential customers are actively engaged, you can post statuses to keep your audience engaged with your activity.

Post relevant content consistently.

Choose to post the most relatable content and viral topics

Share the content that resonates best with your audience.

Post those images or videos that influence their buying decisions.

Check Your Budget

Before considering any platform, consider the number of hours invested in the effort and the overall budget you can allocate. Some successful businesses hire and spend on social media managers or outsource social media activity and engagement to third-party agencies. Conversations and engagement are the main keys to social media success as it will help your community to grow.

Connect with Offline Customers too

After selecting the right Social Media platforms, you need to connect with those clients who are not a part of the social media community. Try to communicate with them through an offline activity where they can help you to grow your presence and leave positive reviews for your local business.

Here are a few ideas on how to connect them to your online platforms –

— Share visiting cards with online details for communication
— Organize a contest for their participation and put winners in the spotlight, online
— Create a giveaway periodically for participating in online polls and contests
— Give people a discount on their current purchase/ bill if they join your online community
— Invite them to a special sale that will be running exclusively for your organization through an online medium.

Takeaways

Whether you are a startup or scaling marketing efforts on a local level, Local SEO citations can help your business rank highly on sites for a local audience. All businesses can benefit from going local because people are now consulting multiple channels before availing products or services.

Social media marketing can be an effective, fairly low-cost way to create greater visibility for your local business as most of your search engine optimization efforts will be of local efforts. It locates by the things that a user likes and the things that they do or search.

Social Media channels are valuable for businesses of any size or industry, and finding online customers has a direct impact on sales. Locals like their news feed to find info on their local geographies, so you can leverage it to see the impact of word of mouth suggestions, Google searches, and social media reviews, all at a time.