5 Social Media Strategies for Small Businesses

Womenlines takes pleasure to welcome  Neha Dhingra Saraf, head of Business Development APAC in Singapore, as a guest writer. She is sharing her expert knowledge related to social media selling-

 

As a small business owner, do you ever see a successful marketing campaign and wonder what if you could do the same? Want to run your own business and don’t have the budget to spend on paid marketing? Here are a few things you can do with minimal resources:

Be where your customers are

Define your target audience and build your presence on the social channels most relevant to your product or offering. You don’t need to be present everywhere. E.g., if you sell cupcakes or handmade costume jewellery, build a presence on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter etc. LinkedIn would not be relevant.

Bonus Tip: Once you select the most relevant social channels to build your presence, use the same username across all social platforms for brand consistency

Tell your story

“People like to feel they are buying – not being sold” – Dale Carnegie

Storytelling is the best way to explain your product and services to your customers and connect with them. It goes beyond the traditional buy-sell relationship. You want repeat customers and brand advocates who can amplify your brand’s message and vision. Use consistent visuals to communicate your message across all your social channels.

Bonus tip: use free tools like Canva to design high-quality website banner, social media posts, infographics etc.

Engage your audience

Consistently share meaningful content with your audience. It is not essential to only share content about your brand. Mix some topics, which are relevant to your industry and can resonate with your audience. E.g. If you own a beauty salon, besides sharing your services, share home remedies on glowing skin and beauty tips on your social media channels.

Bonus tip: Be consistent in delivering your message on social channels by building a content calendar to post regularly. You can use free scheduling tools like Hootsuite and Buffer to save some time.

Use Hashtags

Hashtags started with Twitter but now are applicable to all major social channels. Add relevant hashtags to your post to make it searchable.  Check out what hashtags are being used by similar business to yours and start using them to increase your visibility. Eg if you sell clothes or jewelry using hashtags like #style #fashion would get you in front of a wider audience. For Twitter and Facebook use no more than 3 hashtags per post but for Instagram 11+ hashtags per post have shown increased engagement.

Bonus Tip: Check out Hashtagify.me to analyze popularity and identify related hashtags

Customer Care using Social Media

Listen to your prospects and customers. You can get some feedback and reviews by listening to what your customers are mentioning on social media about your brand. Set up your social listening stream using google alerts of more sophisticated social media monitoring tools like Hootsuite and Mention. It would be easier to address questions and handle positive and negative feedback.

Bonus Tip: Listen to what people are talking about your competitors to identify their unhappy customers. Those could be your target customers.

About the Author:

Neha was born and raised in India and now calls Singapore home. She leads a team of business development professionals across the Asia Pacific at Oracle. Neha designs and delivers workshops, virtual training, webinars and initiatives to educate sales professionals and small businesses on how to use social tools to engage via various social channels.

Intertwined in this activity, she loves to travel, make friends, drink wine and collect and upcycle glass bottles – normally empty!

 

** Views expressed are my own and do not represent views of my employer**

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