Small business owners are always looking for new ways to build their authority and get ahead of the competition. Luckily, social media provides a great opportunity to do just that.
By creating and implementing a good social media strategy, you can reach new audiences, engage with potential customers, and establish yourself as an expert in your field. Not sure where to start?
Rise Local has been in the game for a long time, and we’ve compiled some of our best advice for you below. Follow these six steps to creating a social media strategy that will help you build your authority and grow your small business.
1. Define Your Goals
Before you can start putting together a social media strategy, you need to know what you want to achieve. Do you want to increase brand awareness? Drive more traffic to your website? Generate leads?
Once you\’ve defined your goals, you can start thinking about which social media platforms will be the best fit for your business. Choose ones that you’re comfortable with at first. You’re going to notice some similarities in design and user experience as you expand, but a lot of differences as well.
Some platforms are image-driven, some video-driven, and some rely more on written content. It helps to have a good approach for all three.
2. Research Your Audience
Once you know what you want to achieve with social media, it\’s time to start thinking about who you want to reach. What are the demographics of your target audience?
What are their interests? What platforms are they most active on? Answering these questions will help you determine which platforms to focus your efforts on.
3. Create Engaging Content
Once you know who you want to reach and where they\’re hanging out online, it\’s time to start creating content that will resonate with them. Post blog articles, infographics, images, and other types of content that are relevant to your audience and that will help you achieve your goals.
Be sure to mix things up from time to time so that your content doesn\’t get stale. And don\’t forget to include calls-to-action (CTAs) throughout your content so that people know what you want them to do next (e.g., visit your website, sign up for your newsletter, etc.).
Not every content has to result in sales and revenue. But you should be thinking about funneling your audience onto your own platform using the power of social media.
4. Promote Your Content
Once you have some great content created, it\’s time to start promoting it on social media. Post each new piece of content on all of the relevant social media platforms and encourage people to share it with their followers.
You can also use paid advertising on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to reach even more people with your content. Rise Local has experience setting up and managing these campaigns for you.
5. Monitor Your Progress
It\’s important to keep track of how well your social media strategy is performing so that you can make adjustments as needed. Use Google Analytics or another similar tool to track things like website traffic, leads generated, and conversions completed.
This data will help you determine whether or not your strategy is working and where there is room for improvement.
6. Keep Up With The Latest Trends
Social media is always changing—new networks are created, new features are added, new algorithms are implemented—so it\’s important to stay up-to-date on the latest trends if you want your strategy to be successful.
Set aside some time each week or month to read articles or watch webinars about the latest social media trends so that you can adjust your strategy accordingly. Also, talk to your agency about ideas that you can implement to be timely and relevant to your audience.
Social Media Is an Important Tool in Your Digital Marketing Toolbox
By following these six steps, you\’ll be well on your way to creating a social media strategy that will help build your authority and grow your small business. Just remember to keep track of your progress along the way so that you can make necessary adjustments along the way. And don\’t forget to stay up-to-date on the latest trends—social media changes quickly so it\’s important to stay ahead of the curve!
Are you social media savvy but don’t have the time to juggle all of it with the daily operations of your business? Perhaps you are talented at what you do but don’t have the time or the patience to wade into the huge distractions of social media.
Either way, Rise Local is here to help. We have a talented and knowledgeable team of professionals, who can help manage your social portfolio with an eye toward generating leads and gaining customers. Contact us today to learn more.