If 2020 was the motivation you needed to set up your own small business, you might not know where to start when it comes to social media. Social media has an important role to play in marketing your business, but how do you take the first steps? It begins with a plan.

Create a plan

Before you get started with using social media for your new business, spend some time setting goals and considering what you want to achieve. During this period it’s also useful to research the competition and see how other businesses are using social media to market their brands. There’s lots to learn from what other businesses are doing well and not so well with their own accounts.

It’s important to remember that social media is just one part of your marketing tool kit, so be realistic in your expectations. Used effectively, social media can complement your other marketing activities to boost brand awareness and drive sales or enquiries, but it’s not the magic bullet some marketers would have you believe.

Pick your platforms

When it comes to your personal social media activity, you might have a profile on every platform, but that doesn’t mean your business needs to be on every platform too. Delve into the data to understand who uses which platforms and how your business could benefit.

Depending on the demographic of your target market, you might see more success from LinkedIn than Instagram, or Facebook over Twitter. Instead of signing up for every platform, make an informed decision about where your brand belongs and where your potential customers are likely to find you.

Understand your audience

As well as informing your choice of platform, your target market should also have a big influence on the type of content you create for social media. Get to know the people who are following your brand on social media and understand the content that they are more likely to engage with.

A receptive audience is one of the first things you need to establish before you can begin to effectively use social media to market your business.

Focus on quality over quantity

It can be tempting to share as much content as possible so that your followers can’t help but notice your business when they go online, but this approach can be counterintuitive. Focus on creating timely, engaging content that appeals to your audience and avoid bombarding followers with information.

Remember that many people head to a brand’s social media pages for customer service queries or to get in touch, so as well as sharing fresh content, your brand’s social profiles should also offer a professional point of contact for customers.

The prospect of using social media to market your small business might be daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. Unity Online has a team of social specialists who can take care of every aspect of your social media marketing – including setting up new accounts and creating regular content. Get in touch to find out more.