Experts have said it. Top brands have said it. Even blogs have said it. Social media marketing is a powerful avenue that allows business owners to define their target market, engage with potential customers and be up to date with customers via brand engagement. No matter the size of the business, social media — when used right — can place you right at the radar of your target audience.

As a business, especially small to medium ones, utilising social media offers a huge advantage over big companies through social engagement.

Before, social media was mainly used for communication. If you have a relative on the other side of the pond or looking for an old friend you haven’t spoken to in years, social media was the perfect platform to reignite the connection. The introduction of social media has definitely become an eye opener on how to become connected with friends, family, peers, and more, through exchanges faster than snail mail.

Now, social media is one of the tools recommended by experts and even your competitors. If you’re a small business and you’re starting to build your visibility on ground and online, social media will be able to help you with that. Starting with a social media plan for the business, the next step is integration. For starters, here are social media marketing tips that will benefit small businesses.

As a business owner, you can’t just use social media to post random content using your business profile. This will only hurt your reputation. You need to come up with objectives in order to know what you want to do with this tool. Are you going to use it as an announcement page? Are you planning to use it as an interactive tool with customers? There are many things to do with social media. It’s important to align your activities with your social media marketing goals and objectives to guide you in your activities.

Having clear goals and objectives helps guide the business in social media. If you’re using the page to make announcements, then your business page will post offers and promotions from time to time. If your business will use the chat function of social media to answer customer queries quicker, then the business should be vigilant and watch out for incoming private messages.

You need a reason. Here are examples to help you:

• To announce the latest products
• To update customers on what the business is up to
• To post teasers
• To spread offers and promotions
• To prove the business is real
• To identify how customers view the business through feedbacks and reviews
• To look for influencers and bloggers

There can be hundreds or even thousands of reasons. It’s up to you and your team to come up with viable goals and objectives in order to formulate activities aligned with it.

After coming up with goals and objectives, it’s time to choose what social media platforms to use in order to start marketing the business. There are many social media platforms available that you can use. But, if you’re new to this, you may stay restricted to the popular ones, which are Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. As a business, you can use LinkedIn, SnapChat and more to be able to reach out to your customers.

But, with all the choices available, you might take the chance to use every single social media platform available out there. As a small business, please don’t make this mistake. In starting your social media campaign, you will only need to choose based on your business.

First, the business should choose social media platforms that are aligned with your branding. If you sell clothes online, then you should focus on establishing yourself on Facebook and Instagram.

Second, the content you’re planning to post must be fit for your social media platforms. If you offer advice on telecommunications through blogs, you should focus on LinkedIn and Facebook.

Third, use the platform your target market uses. If your audience uses Twitter more often than others, then you should start making a presence there instead of prioritising other social media platforms. As a business owner, you should understand your customers. You should know what they need and want in order to produce content that is aligned with what they’re looking for.

Lastly, keep a close check on what social media platforms your competitors are using. This will help you identify mistakes and what strategies are effective for them, giving you an idea on how to engage your customers.

No matter what your content is, you should be able to produce high-quality content. Producing low-quality, rush content will only produce a negative effect on your customers. They will see your business as fake. So, if you see your business not performing well on social media, better check your content strategy.

We are living in the age of information. When customers visit the World Wide Web, they rummage for answers, looking for information they want and need. As for you, it’s your purpose to provide that an answer, which is through posts on social media with high-quality content.

Producing content takes time, effort, and, of course, consistency. Being consistent is also part of the formula to customer engagement. It adds credibility and makes your business active online.

However, content creation is not as easy as counting numbers; it’s a process, not magic. If you’re lost on how to create outstanding content, always remember that your content has to tell a story. Your brand has a story; therefore, your content should be aligned with your brand’s voice. If you’re selling bread, then your content should revolve around bread — you can write topics on the different types of flour or how these flour affect the proofing and rise of bread.

Just like any other type of marketing, social media also has tools that help users to measure and analyse data gathered from posts and customers in a quicker, proficient manner, especially if the business has little time on their hands or financial resources is an issue.

There are a lot of tools available that will make it easier for you to handle your social media presence. There are some that focus on design, while others in content curation and automated posting. You can also get tools mainly for tracking and analysis for data gathering and tracking.

One of the best ways to understand social media marketing is to learn from the experts. They can teach you about techniques, strategies, and critical thinking that is essential for digital marketers. If you want to learn more about social media marketing and its tools, you can take social media marketing courses from MCIE, premier institution that will help you reach your career goals through career-focused training and curriculum.

For enquiries, contact MCIE today: Call: 1300 737 004 from Monday to Friday at 9:00 am to 5:00 pm or Email: email info@mcie.edu.au or visit the Contact Us Page: https://www.mcie.edu.au/contact/