3 Tips on How Small Businesses Should Engage with Social Media

As a small business owner, you may think that building an audience and engaging with social media is a daunting task but it doesn’t have to be that hard with the right tools and tips! In this article, we cover a few best practices to help you become a social media guru for your business. These key tips will help you understand and engage with social media to help build your following and your clientele.

3 Social Media Tips For Small Business Engagement

1. Social Media is Not Your Website

Social media is a lighthearted and fun place to engage with your patients and followers. Instead of posting content that directly relates to your area of expertise, such as lengthy industry-specific articles or academic literature, include content such as quotes, factoids, funny videos, and memes that are broadly related to your practice. You can definitely include PSAs and information related to your practice, but limit self-promotion by following the rule of thirds.

Rule of Thirds: 1/3 of your social content promotes your business, 1/3 shares ideas and stories from thought leaders in your industry, 1/3 is based on personal interactions and builds your personal brand

The goal of implementing best practices is to have your followers look forward to your posts and want to like, tweet, comment, or share your post. This way you can communicate important events, specials, and general information about your practice and actually receive engagement on these shares!

2. Once You Post, Keep Engaging

When you post to one of your social media pages, make sure to check back regularly to see if anyone commented. Or you can set up notifications for your page or specific posts to be alerted with any activity. When visitors to your social media sites post a comment, this is the perfect opportunity for you to promote more conversation and engagement about that post or link to your own resources should they have questions. Many times, businesses will post and not check back, leaving potential clients waiting for answers.

When you engage with your audience, it shows them that you value those interactions and will actually respond when your followers like or comment on the content you are creating. That constant interaction between you and your followers keeps them coming back because they know that you will reply and keep the discussion going.

Plus, the more engagement you get on your posts, the more that the social media platform algorithms will see that your content is relevant and valuable to them and you will appear more and more in your followers’ news feeds. Then, when your followers share your content with other people in their news feed it will draw them to your page if they found it useful or entertaining. This brings in even more page likes, which will lead to a larger following and possible clientele.

3. Keep Going

Once you start posting, don’t stop! Make it a regular habit to post on each of your social media pages at least once a week. A best practice is to post two to three times a week on each platform and create a social media schedule to keep you going. Utilize Facebook Insights to find out the best time to post on your Facebook page and schedule your posts in advance to make it easier for you.

Consistency is key when it comes to your schedule. Research the best and most popular times to post on each social platform and try to organize your posts around or exactly at that time. Facebook, for example, has the highest click-through-rate, which is the number of people who click on your posts, between the hours of 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Now, you should utilize that information to create your social media schedule to reach your target audience with maximum exposure.

Consistent Social Presence is Key

Your social media platforms and how you utilize them to engage with your targeted audience is all part of your online brand. Once you realize the importance of consistency and creating useful and shareable content that encourages discussions with your followers, these methods should all be included in your social media execution plan.

If you’re a small business owner looking for help to manage your social accounts or need more insight about online marketing services, give iMatrix a call at 800.943.6423 and talk to one of our knowledgeable internet marketing consultants to take your brand to the next level.

Looking to Expand Your Social Presence?

These articles should help dive into different social platforms.
How to Create A Social Media Schedule
How to Build Your Business Facebook Profile
What We Can Learn From The Best Twitter Accounts

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