If you own a small or medium-sized business in Canada, you are quite likely to spend a good amount of time looking for a social media plan for your brand. Social media marketing is too essential for any business nowadays. There are more than 4.2 billion active users on social media, which is twice as many as it was just five years ago. So, if you wish to reach out to more people, you should start marketing your brand on different social channels every single day.
Social media can have a huge impact on small and medium businesses. Your target audience is there, ready to engage and purchase from your company. According to reports, 78% of consumers use social media posts of different companies to buy from them. So, in case you do not have a social media plan in place yet, keep this article handy.
1. Create a Plan and Set Achievable Goals
A number of small-business owners are now solely depending upon social media to sell their products/services. Do you know why? Why are they looking for different social media strategies to gain more customers? This is because it’s not only a smart approach to do business but is also affordable and can offer a lot in return. Why smart? SMART is basically Specified, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound, which can help your business set great goals, with precise aims and a lot in return.
2. Start With Custom Branding
Once your goal is set, you need to work on refining your branding process. Your brand is what makes you different from the rest. And this is what your audience will recognize and get familiar with in the long run. So, if they aren’t able to resonate with your brand on an emotional level, you’ll lose out on many potential resources. So, it’s essential for you to customize your branding. And how do you think it will help? Well, having your branding customized will make you stand out from your competition, it will increase your brand recognition, you’ll be able to build consistency across all social media channels and it will increase the trust and loyalty of your customers. Your brand should look and feel similar on all social channels. Make sure that you use similar fonts, visuals, and typography to be consistent on every single platform.
3. Connect, Learn, and Share
If you wish to grow your followers organically, you will have to start sharing your views with others on social channels. Connecting regularly on social media with your audience will help you reach more people in less time. Your foremost goal should be to share valuable content related to your brand. Also, you need to make sure that your content will be helpful for the followers and the industry that concerns your business. Simply put, make sure that your social media profiles are helpful for everyone.
4. Don’t Overburden Yourself
Some small-business owners find themselves overburdened with the need of developing up-to-date content for their social media channels. They make sure that all feasible tactics are followed so that their social media marketing tricks are on point. But the outcome is often not up-to-the-mark. Why? The reason behind this is, you need to take your efforts slow, which means you need to start with lesser platforms (a few most essential ones), understand their algorithm well, and then grow into the rest. Do not rush with things as it may not help you in any way.
5. Make a Schedule & Post Accordingly
For a small business owner, every minute counts. Also, on all your social media platforms, consistency is the key. Create posts, schedule them through post-scheduling sites like Hootsuite, and stay worriless for the rest of the month. Also, you might wonder how often you should publish your posts on social sites. Of course, it varies from one channel to another.
· For Instagram, make sure you share stories along with posts every day.
· For Facebook, be consistent with sharing at least one post every day.
· For Twitter, in case you have no followers, make sure you post more than once every day.
· For LinkedIn, you can post thrice a week or more. Choose to share relevant blogs and stats here related to your brand.
Wrapping It Up,
There are a number of ways to engage your targeted audience on social media. However, the very first thing which you need to understand is their needs. Understanding what fits your customers the best will make you post better content every day. And if you are still searching for a social media strategy for small businesses, make sure you keep in mind the above-listed points to kickstart your social media game better.
In order to learn more about such effective tips on taking care of a small business in Canada, do not forget to subscribe to our monthly CanadianSME Small Business Magazine.
