Promoting your business on social media is an effective way to increase brand awareness, generate leads, and boost sales. With billions of people using social media platforms, they have become fantastic marketing tools for all businesses — whether you own a roofing company, sell cupcakes, or you’re a lawyer — Posting regularly to your social media platforms helps increase brand awareness, reaching a wider audience with the right strategy in place.
However, with so much noise and competition on social media, it can be challenging to make your business stand out. In this guide, we will explore effective ways to promote your business on social media so that you can reach your target audience. Our goal is to provide you with actionable tips to help you create a successful social media marketing campaign that fuels your business success.
Know where your audience is.
Are they on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, or LinkedIn?
Why bother putting time and energy into a social media platform your target audience probably isn’t on? Different social media platforms attract different types of users, and your target audience may be more active on certain platforms more than others. For example, if you’re selling walkers and your target audience is ages 65 and up, it might not make sense to put all your creative juices towards creating content on TikTok as it has a younger audience. Facebook will most likely be your top platform of choice in that age demographic. Or, if your business targets professionals, LinkedIn may be the best platform for you to focus on.
To determine specifically where your audience is hanging out online, you can use market research tools and analytics to track social media usage among your target demographic or ask good old Google where your audience is most likely to hang out. You can also use customer surveys or polls to gather data on the social media habits of your existing customers so that you can find more like them. Once you have identified the platforms where your audience is most active, you can tailor your social media strategy accordingly to reach them effectively.
Think about WHY your followers would follow you.
WHY are your customers on this specific social media platform? WHY would your target audience care about your content?
This is the perfect topic to brainstorm before you create anything. Ask yourself and your team why someone would follow and have a goal as to what you want to achieve when it comes to your social media efforts. This will allow you to have something to work towards and help you keep your eyes on the prize, whether that’s brand awareness, sales, or building a community of like-minded people.
These are a few common social media goals to get your mental wheels turning:
- Increase brand awareness
- Improve brand image
- Promote products
- Generate website traffic
- Expand your audience
- Provide customer service
- Educate your audience
Whatever your goals might be, make sure you track the progress of your results and measure the outcome of your efforts… If you can’t measure your results perhaps you need a more focused goal. For example, if your goal is to increase brand awareness, you can measure how many people engage with your posts. If your goal is to promote products, you can measure how many sales you made in that month looking at the numbers of the specific products you promoted. If your goal is to generate website traffic, you can measure how many people clicked your links and went to your landing page.
By understanding the “why” behind your social media presence, you can create a more focused and effective social media strategy that resonates with your target audience and helps you achieve your business goals.
Determine how you will provide value to your customers
It’s time to turn on that creative mindset. Think of your goals you outlined, and brainstorm all the ways you will provide your audience with a reason to follow you. Maybe you will create engaging videos on industry trends in the real estate market. Perhaps you’ll provide aesthetically pleasing photos of the desserts you’re creating, or is it possible to create behind the scene content as you clean someone’s car if you’re an automotive detailer? Regardless of the service you provide or the product you sell, you need to brainstorm ideas around what you will promote and how you will promote it on social media to attract your target audience.
Even if you have a very serious profession, like being a funeral director or lawyer, you can still find ways to create engaging, interesting content to educate and inform your customers on social media.
Your social media content should aim to educate, inspire, entertain, or inform your audience in a way that is relevant and valuable to them.
How can you provide value to your customers? Let’s count the ways…
- Share helpful tips and advice related to your industry or niche.
- Create engaging and informative content such as tutorials, how-to guides, and explainer videos.
- Provide exclusive promotions or discounts to your social media followers.
- Showcase user-generated content and customer reviews to build social proof and credibility.
- Offer behind-the-scenes insights into your business or industry.
- Host contests, quizzes, or polls to encourage user participation and engagement.
- Provide timely and relevant news updates related to your business or industry.
Create a content calendar to save time
Keep up with the consistency of your posts, and organize how often you’re posting
It’s important to post consistently to reach a wider audience and to gain more insights from your viewers about what topics they respond to the most. Having a content calendar will help you visually see what style of posts you will be creating and what topics you’ll be talking about for the week or month ahead. In planning your content calendar decide how many posts you would like to post per week. Even 3 posts a week will significantly help your presence on social media.
Top tip: Keep a couple of empty spaces in your content calendar for any trends that pop up. Especially on TikTok.
Don’t overthink it
You’re going to get better as you go. No one is an expert when they try something new. Your confidence will build. We promise!
Remember, when it comes to promoting your business on social media, it’s essential to take action and get started. Don’t overthink it or wait for the perfect moment to begin. The key is to experiment, learn, and adapt as you go. As you become more familiar with your audience and social media platforms, you’ll develop a better understanding of what works and what doesn’t.
Creating a successful social media strategy takes time and effort, but with persistence and patience, you can achieve your goals. So, start small, focus on providing value to your customers, and don’t be afraid to try new things. With each post, you’ll learn! And, as you learn you’ll create better content. And, as you create better content, your following will build…
So, go ahead and get started, and remember, the most important thing is to keep moving forward. If you need help, our team is here to help you. Let’s do a coaching session together to get you started with a game plan or we can take care of your social media content creation and posting for you altogether. All you have to do is book a consultation to get started!
