Social media platforms are a great way to gain attention for brands, especially for smaller businesses with limited budgets. Unlike traditional media which costs a lot of money, there is a lot of cost-effective marketing campaigns you can do on social media to connect with your audience.
Here are some easy ideas that small businesses with a limited budget could try to maximize their online social business.
Use Hashtags
If you’re in most social media platforms such as such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, you might already be aware of hashtags. Hashtags are unavoidable on most posts on social media platforms, especially Instagram. Since it’s so simple and efficient, even the least tech-savvy businesses could use it.
Popular unbranded hashtags are a simpler method you can use to grab the attention of the new audience. You can latch on these types of hashtags to grow your business. This can encourage people to engage with your brand as a lot of people like being part of something huge which hashtags can make you feel.
Meanwhile, you can start your own branded hashtag to make it easier for customers to locate your business and all your social networks. Instagram currently offers a feature where you can link accounts and hashtags to your bio which can be branded specifically to your company, allowing your followers to be directed to your account easily.
When including hashtags, it’s important not to go overboard with the pound sign. While hashtags can be fun, you do not need to use every word you can think of as it can be overwhelming to the eyes of the readers. You need to have a healthy balance of general hashtags and niche hashtags that are meaningful to your business or your post.
Create Instructional Videos
Videos are an excellent format for sharing your knowledge and expertise as well as differentiate your product and services from your competition. You can use it to create demonstrations, assembly instructions, or customer testimonials which is currently a huge trend online.
Video tutorials or “how-to” videos are especially popular across social platforms for its engaging and attractive form of content. Since 2015, “How to” video searches on YouTube and Google had increased for over 70%, and until today it’s still a popular type of video especially on home-improvement, beauty, and cooking.
This type of content provides a visual learning experience for its eye-catching way of breaking down information to something that’s easy to digest. Instructional videos are also extremely sharable which offers an opportunity to sell more stuff than promotions as this will get your content in front of new audiences.
While video content is really valuable, a lot of small business owners might avoid this, as producing professional videos often requires a huge budget and a specific skill set. However, even amateurs these days can create high-quality videos even with just a camera phone and a basic video editing software.
You don’t even need to be a video editing expert to do this. Since there are YouTube tutorials for everything, you can use the platform to help you learn the basics of video editing, but if you still find videos to be too much of a challenge, you can try making slide decks and share them on SlideShare.
Online Contests
Despite the fast movement of trends these days, online contests are still relevant. Customers nowadays search for deeper connections with a brand. They mostly get tired of traditional advertising strategies so something as fun and exciting as a contest would be a great way to connect with your customers.
However, it still has to be done with caution. For a better experience, contests need to be more than just a competition with a plug. Social media contests can be enhanced through events that are relevant to your brand and catering to your current customers, not just potential prospects.
It’s also fun to experiment with websites and apps like Snapchat or Tiktok especially when you have a younger audience.
Of course, you should also think about the type of contests that you want to host. Socially active customers don’t come in a one-size-fits-all box. The internet offers different varieties of activities for everyone that your audience might not enjoy the same ones.
You might have an audience that only posts updates on Twitter or just enjoy watching YouTube, but if your average audience is more of the creative types, the ones who make memes, upload vlogs or create fan arts you’ll have an easier time choosing campaigns for them.
The most common ones are video-based campaigns where you can ask your audience to submit clips doing challenges related to your product or services. This would be a fun way not only to increase social awareness but get your customers further involved within the community.
Post a relevant image
People these days have a shorter attention span, so when you present a person with pictures or text, their eyes would be more likely to be drawn to images. You should be able to take advantage of that by posting photos, GIFs, infographics, and other image types. It’s a simpler way to post content efficiently and consistently.
While posting high-quality images can help you reach out a large number of people, being an expert graphic designer isn’t really necessary to do it as there are cost-efficient tools available online that can help you produce the high-quality images that you need.
Livestream Events
Livestreams have become a part of internet culture as it can be used to reach more audience and potential clients. While it’s more common in sports and entertainment industries, businesses can now livestream events that they host or just share updates from events that you’re attending your business with social media.
Websites such as Facebook, Snapchat, and Periscope made live stream an important game changer for social media marketing as it helped increase awareness for a brand and improve conversations and engagement with your audience. The best part is that live streams are very cost efficient and simple that small businesses would benefit from it.
Any event is fair game when it comes to livestreaming whether it’s a rush hour in a restaurant’s kitchen or a wedding planner working behind the scenes of a great wedding. A daycare can even stream the first day of school to ease the parents’ minds.
You can stream anything relevant to your brand as long as it wouldn’t bore your audience. However, live streaming is still a new concept so small business owners should proceed cautiously. There might still be issues with live streams, but its benefits do outweigh it.
No method can be an automatic ticket to social media success. There is seemingly a never-ending content ideas for your social media accounts especially with more and more platforms being created out there.
However, it doesn’t mean that every tactic should be used. It’s better to test different types of content, but don’t force things when it doesn’t seem to work. It’s better to focus on what works and keeping an eye on the analytics as you improve and test those types of posts. As social media is an ever-changing platform, continuous content growth is essential to keep up with its pace.
Find a business coach who wants your success as much as you do in Business Coaches Sydney. Contact us at 1300-833-574 or send an email to info@businesscoachessydney.com.au
Garret Norris
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