Nearly three-quarters of American adults use social media to interact with family, friends, and brands. For businesses, social media is a great tool to both connect with people who already love your business and reach new customers. Whether you’re already active online or are starting from scratch, here’s everything you need to know to get the most from social media for your business. 

1. Pick Your Platforms

No one has time to manage profiles on every single social media platform, so it’s important to understand your target audience and where they are spending their time online, and then focus your efforts there.

Facebook

Best for consumer-based businesses, lead generation & building relationships.

• Daily active users: 1.623 billion
• 69% of U.S. adults now report that they are Facebook users, of which 74% use Facebook daily

Instagram

 Best for visual businesses & consumer-based businesses.

• Daily active users: 500 million users
• 37% of American adults use Instagram, an increase from 35% in 2018

TikTok

Best to express creativity in short videos.

• Launched in September 2016, TikTok has 800 million active users worldwide and growing
• 26% of U.S. TikTok users are between 20 – 29 years old
• Just 4% of U.S. social media marketers use the platform

Don’t make assumptions about where your audience spends their time online. Your instinct might tell you that if you’re targeting millennials, you should skip Facebook and focus on Instagram. But the data shows that 84% of millennials still use Facebook. (Hootsuite, 2020)

2. Work On a Plan

Research Your Competition

• How are your competitors using social media? 
• Learn from them, identify what’s working, and what’s not
• Take note of how many times they post and the hours that work best

Consider a Social Media Audit

If you are already on social media, you need to evaluate your past efforts. Make sure everything is on-brand: covers, profile pictures, handles, bios, etc. You’ll also want to identify your best-performing posts.

Find Inspiration

Inspiration can come from anywhere.

• Businesses that are not your competitors
• Success stories and case studies
• Ask your customers what they want, as they might have cool ideas

Create a Social Media Calendar

Create a schedule for posting across your social media channels and stick to it:

• Determine topics based on the platform
• Pick regular days and times to post
• Write compelling copy and add attractive visuals, including photos, videos, and animated GIFs. Add a link, if necessary.

• Post consistently.
• Include holidays and special days. Take advantage of relevant moments and make them your own.
• Add video content, as it continues to be one of the most important trends in the social media world.

3. Know Your Audience

Look into your social media analytics to learn more about your audience. Analytics allow you to conduct quick market research to learn about the location, age, and interests, as well as the types of posts with outstanding performance.

4. Expand Your Audience

It can be challenging for small businesses to gain new audiences organically, but once you know more about your demographics, it’s easier to implement paid ads, which:

• Generate conversations
• Reach a wider targeted audience
• Allow access to a detailed summary of the performance

5. Nurture Relationships

Engagement is all about nurturing your relationship with your audience. Answer questions, reply to all the comments, and have conversations whenever you have the opportunity. It shows that you care.

71% of consumers who have had a positive experience with a brand on social media are likely to recommend the brand to their friends and family. (Lyfe Marketing, 2019)

6. Use the Right Tools

When you own a small business, it’s important to take advantage of the tools that help you simplify tasks.

• SpotOn’s review monitoring software sends you an alert whenever you have a new review on Facebook, as well as other review sites like Yelp.
• Connect with your customers with SpotOn Marketing. Our campaign wizards and professional templates enable you to send marketing campaigns to Facebook in seconds.

Sources: 

1. https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-tips-for-small-business-owners/
2. https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-demographics/
3. https://coschedule.com/blog/benefits-of-social-media-marketing-for-business/
4. https://www.oberlo.com/blog/social-media-marketing-statistics
5. https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/21-secrets-to-social-media-marketing-for-small-business-infographic/551463/
6. https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/343863
7. https://upserve.com/restaurant-insider/what-we-learned-creating-restaurant-facebook-ads/
8. https://www.omnicoreagency.com/tiktok-statistics/#:~:text=TikTok%20Demographics,26%25%20between%2018%20and%2024.
9. https://www.oberlo.com/blog/tiktok-statistics
10. https://mediakix.com/blog/top-tik-tok-statistics-demographics/
11. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1095186/tiktok-us-users-age/
12. https://blog.hootsuite.com/how-to-create-a-social-media-content-calendar