Promoting your small business on social media should be an integral part of your marketing strategy. A good campaign can drive lots of traffic to your website and increase your brand awareness. However, managing a successful social media campaign isn’t as easy as many people think. It requires some well thought out effort and good planning. Here are five ideas to help you start your own successful campaign today.
1. Implement the 1 in 7 rule
In order to keep your social media accounts interesting, you shouldn’t make every post about your business. If you do that your followers will quickly lose interest and your results will slump. That’s why you should follow this simple rule. For every seven posts, only one should be a reference to your business. The other six posts should be about topics that your followers will find interesting.
2. Aim for Loyalty, Not Quantity
Your social media campaigns should be aimed squarely at your ideal customer. That means that while your campaigns will appeal to only a select audience, those that do choose to follow you will be dedicated. If you post content with mass appeal, you’ll gain a larger following but it won’t be from the type of people who are likely to buy your product.
3. Make a Plan
An important part of a creating a successful social media campaign is being consistent. It’s always better to have four posts spread across a week then five posts on a single day. Make a plan to ensure that your posting remains consistent. You don’t have to write out every post in advance, but if you have an idea of what you want to talk about beforehand you’ll find it easier to post on a consistent basis.
4. Personalize the Message
Depending on your business you may find that Twitter works better than Facebook, or the other way around. However, most small business owners use several different platforms in order to maximize their results. If that’s your strategy then you should be sure to customize the message. Don’t post the same thing to Google Plus that you posted to Facebook. Take a few minutes to personalize the content so that the message remains the same, but the wording is different.
5. Regularly Interact with Customers
Whatever you do, don’t post it and forget it! To create a successful social media campaign you should regularly engage with customers. You can do this through your website, see my post 5 Tips to Generate More Traffic to Your Website, or it can be as simple as replying to comments on your posts. On the other hand, to generate even more participation you can post quizzes and polls. These are interesting for your followers, and can easily be used to find out about the tastes and preferences of your target audience.