How to Strategize Your SMM as a Small Business Owner?

As a start-up or a small business owner, you want to have a strong social media presence. That’s a smart decision. 

But how do you go about it and how will you know which strategy might work and which won’t? Also, which social platforms will suit your business type, and what tools will be best for the desired results?

The truth is, there’s no work-for-all strategy but there’s a general guideline that can help turn your lonely accounts into popular communities that are bustling with activities.

We’re here to walk you through the steps!

How to Strategize Your Way to a Successful Social Media Presence?

Step 1: Create a plan

Laying out a well-thought-out social media marketing plan is always the first step. Creating a social media profile doesn’t cost any money but you’ll have to invest your time and effort instead. 

Make sure that your marketing strategy supports your business goal. Without a clear goal and plan in motion, things will go haywire. Research the market and your competition well. If you’re already using social media, do an audit. 

Note down all your goals and the plans to achieve them. Keep your competitors in check and find out they are failing to provide. Plan ahead, make a calendar if needed, but focus on that key point and turn it into your strength. 

If you’re just starting out, use the 80-20 rule about posting, where you’ll post 20% about your product/service and 80% about educating or entertaining your audience. 

Step 2: Select platform

The next step is to identify your audience and select the best social media platform to reach out to them. Don’t just make assumptions, research and find out the best social media platform to focus on. 

For example, if your target is Gen Z, Instagram and Tiktok will work much better than Facebook. Pinterest works great for baby boomers

You can also use different platforms to target different types of audiences. Select the right platform for the right job. Many small businesses use Twitter to provide updates and customer service only whereas the main business operation is happening somewhere else. 

Step 3: Identify your audience

This is a key step in any kind of marketing practice. A well-structured customer base will reduce your marketing hassles significantly. You can start by collecting information on your target audience. Social media will help you micro-target your audience and get valuable client info. 

Once you have a primary database, you can go deeper with social media analytics. When you figure out who is interacting with your post and who’s actually buying from you, you can create your customer database. 

There are some platforms where you can create customer personas, where all the data relevant to your peers will be stored. Once you are done identifying your audience, it’s time to introduce your business. 

Step 4: Build authentic relationships

Once you are comfortable with your target audience, you’ll need to focus on building personalized and meaningful relationships. You can interact directly with your peers that can help your businesses grow sustainably. 

Around 44% of users use social media to research brands, and you can use that to your advantage. Make sure that your business value is aligned with your peers. If your peers engage through a post, engage with them back, as this will help you win over a large portion of your audience. 

The more your audience interacts with your post, the more you rank up in social media algorithms and the more exposure you get. Find out which type of post/activity your peers resonate with, and use them to connect with your clients on a more personal level.  

However, don’t always prioritize new customers only. Older peers are just as important. You can create a group, collaborate with other influencers/small businesses, and give your peers the chance to like, share, and engage with your post. 

Using User-Generated Content (UGC) is on the rise as a social media marketing strategy. This allows your peers to connect with your small business brand and work as your own marketer. 

Focus on providing a positive user experience as 78% (according to Sprout Social) of buyers are willing to buy from you if they engage you through social media beforehand. 

Try out different types of posts to find out what your audience is thinking and what are their pain points.  Addressing and solving (if possible) those pain points is what matters most. 

Step 5: Start selling

This is the part where you actually start pitching your products to your audience. With the rise of visual platforms like Tiktok and Instagram, selling is becoming much easier. Facebook has its own marketplace now. If you can provide value, you won’t have to worry about your sales margin anymore. 

Try to maintain a healthy relationship with your clients, even after the sales are complete. It’s crucial to focus on quality. Even if you don’t have a website, you’ll have no issue selling your products over social media.  

Step 6: Focus on providing values

Many small businesses ignore this part and struggle to grow as a result. You have numerous marketing options, so don’t worry about that. Focusing on the quality and value provided will be the deciding factor behind your success.  

If all you do is just pitch and sell, your peers will quickly get bored and move elsewhere. SMM is all about building relationships with your peers, and only value can achieve that. 

Many social media tools can allow you to automate the marketing process and you don’t need to do it all alone. Start off with the one your peers are most accustomed to, and gradually move up.  

Step 7: Get the tools

In this modern era of tools and technology, growing a small business online has become more streamlined. There are a bunch of advanced tools that can reduce your workload significantly by automating parts of the marketing process. 

These tools will allow you to manage your engagements/tasks, get up-to-date analytics, do graphics designing, cure content, and many more. Google Business, FB Creator Studio, Hootsuite, Buffer, Buzzsome, and Tailwind are some of the most widely used tools in SSM. 

Step 8: Automate the process

Once you are familiar with the tool setup and your business environment, it’s time to automate the process so you can focus on growing your business solely. If you follow all the steps above, you should have a content calendar by now. 

Your next job will be scheduling the posts for at least a month. You can use free or paid tools that will allow you to create an order by which the scheduled posts will automatically be posted. That way, you’ll be able to have only one dedicated timeframe for this task. 

Instead of getting busy with every post, an automated approach will grant you more creative freedom. Focus on growing your business, the marketing process is operating in the background.  

Step 9: Track and refine

Just posting continuously on different platforms like a madman won’t do your business any good. You need to track the post that is getting all the attention just like the one that has failed to engage. 

You can use social media analytics (comes with social media) or any third-party tool to keep track of your posts. This will show you the performance of each post, and you can fine-tune the post or create a new post to increase your engagement. 

You can try different formats, color/font schemes, copies, and approaches to see which works best for you. This will help you analyze your market in real-time and make necessary adjustments. In fact, 72% of small enterprises use the data from social media to make their business decisions. 

Marketing is an ever-changing sector. What is trendy today may become obsolete tomorrow. That’s why you need to be updated with the ever-changing landscape. The whole marketing world works on a trial-and-error basis. The more you try, the more refined your marketing strategy becomes. 

Best Places to Build Your Social Media Presence

1. Facebook

Facebook is undoubtedly the biggest growing social media platform. With over 1B daily active users, the possibilities are practically endless. Most businesses are wrapped around this platform as it works as the primary source of peers. 

What to post

Facebook supports most types of content. You can use text, images, videos, gifs, and more to catch the attention of your audience. You’ll be able to share product updates, upload event photos, run campaigns, host giveaways/lives, and engage with your peers in numerous ways. 

When to post

Although there is no limit on how much you can post, too much or too less will cause your engagement to drop. According to Socialbakers, if your business posts only once every week or more than twice per day, your post engagement will most likely drop. 

Take your time to understand your peers; especially what they like, and when they like it. Resonating with your peers’ mindsets will help you go a long way. One post per day works for most small businesses.

How to boost engagement

Facebook isn’t a dedicated marketplace. If you just continue to provide good value to your clients without being pushy for upsells, your peers will grow. Just make sure you are posting relevant info and providing good communication. 

2. LinkedIn

Since its introduction in 2022, LinkedIn has been the backbone of networking for many B2B (business-to-business) marketers. With over 300 million monthly active users, 73% of buyers are more likely to buy from your small business if the salesperson reaches out via LinkedIn. 

What to post

LinkedIn is essentially “Facebook” for businesses or corporate individuals. A large number of the users are in decision-making positions. If you work with other businesses, LinkedIn is the goldmine for you. 

Share your business-related posts (not product deals), industry updates, innovations, policies, and trends on a regular basis. People on LinkedIn will care for quality information and to-the-point insights. You can also share most types of content on LinkedIn. 

However, images/videos, updates, and polls are the most commonly found content type on Linkedin. 

When to post

You don’t have to be on a tight schedule to maintain your Linkedin business profile. Posting once a week is enough. However, the more quality and value you provide in your post, the more engagement you’ll see. 

With Linkedin, you can also turn your employees into your brand ambassador. When done correctly, this can spread your content over the platform without you oversharing.    

How to boost engagement

Be careful about the type of content you’re publishing. LinkedIn provides a professional environment, so a casual approach won’t take your business far in this environment. Most B2Bs use this platform to find new leads and maintain their brand image. 

The primary focus of your content should be to educate or provide insights. Using images with your text is a great strategy since this will result in high engagement and conversion. Insight or informative content is your best bet. 

3. YouTube

This is the biggest video archive in the world to date. YouTube is the mammoth of a social platform where people consume around 1B hours of content each day. YouTube has over 2B monthly active users and is the 2nd most traffic-heavy website after Google. 

What to post

YouTube is all about visualization. Video content will help increase the credibility of your brand significantly. YouTube is so huge that you’ll have to constantly update your content to keep ranking. This platform is basically for long videos, so keeping your viewers focused is the key.

You can share inside videos, tutorials, promotional content, and animations to grab the attention of your peers. How-to tutorials work especially well for youtube as people are more likely to watch a tutorial than read the instructions. You can also reuse your previous content in video formats. 

When to post

Most YouTube videos are 3-15 minutes long. YouTube Shorts will allow short videos up to 45 seconds. Unlike many other social media platforms, the more information/video you can produce, the better. 

However, you have to find a way to sustainably produce content. Drop the quality and you’ll stop growing. Additionally, consistency is also needed here. You should upload at least one video per month. 

How to boost engagement

The biggest advantage is that it is owned by Google. As a result, it supports Google’s search algorithm and you’ll be able to use Google’s powerful ad network to promote your content inside and outside the platform.  

The key here is to optimize your videos for SEO, provide catchy titles/thumbnails, and optimize for the right keywords. Learn more about your peers to find out what types of content resonate with them. Take advantage of the cards, CTAs, and annotations to direct your YT traffic to your website. 

4. Instagram

Instagram (Ig) is the most visual of all social media platforms. The platform reached the billion club (Over 1B users) faster than most other platforms. With 500M active users, you can bring the biggest possible spotlight above your small business. The platform is also affiliated with Fb. 

What to post

Ig provides a couple of different formats you can choose to post your images, videos, and animations. You can use promotional image copies, video descriptions, and short reel stories to showcase your products. 

You can highlight your brand values, inside stories, your services, their effects, and the journey your brand is making. We all like to see cool things, and Instagram gives you the opportunity to provide just that. 

When to post

Instagram requires quality and consistency. If you provide lower quality, you’ll lose followers and if you break the consistency, your engagement will suffer. Most small businesses post once a day. You have to provide value through your content regularly. 

Use different content types, times, and formats to find out the best possible combination for your business. 

How to boost engagement

Instagram focuses the most on visuals. The more high-quality, eye-pleasing visuals you can provide, the better result you’ll get. Using proper hashtags is really important in Instagram marketing. The location and the caption are also key here. 

If you manage to land your post in the “Explore” section, that would dramatically help increase your followers. You can also post your behind-the-scenes moments to connect with your peers on a deeper level. 

5. Twitter

Twitter is the most conversational platform out there. Compared to other social media platforms, Twitter provides a more fast-paced environment consisting of 206M daily active users. It is the most used social media for news and information. 

What to post

You can post images and videos on Twitter. However, text-based content rules Twitter. If you have international clients, Twitter can be a great medium to let them know about your new announcements, promotional offers, online contests, data insights, and other relevant information. 

You’ll have 280 characters limitation on a single tweet. That’s why you’ll need to be careful about your wording. 

When to post

There are about 5.5K+ tweets being tweeted every second. That’s why it’s easy for your post to get buried under newer posts. You’ll have to become fast-paced for Twitter. The more you tweet, the more the possibility that your peers will have to see and interact with your post. 

How to boost engagement

With Twitter, you have to provide value to your post. Twitter has a cool feature where your content can be shared even by the audience of your peers, and you need to see far ahead. Make some posts that will address your peers on a more personal level. Just keep it light and bright. 

Essential SMM Tools 

Common SMM Challenges 

Aside from bringing about many amazing practices and results, social media marketing also comes with a bunch of challenges to overcome. If you can improve one step at a time, you’ll be able to overcome all of your challenges. 

Here are the biggest challenges of social media marketing for small businesses: 

• Creating and refining a good social media strategy
• Abiding by the industry regulations
• Keeping up with the latest events and trends
• Protecting your organic reach from declining
• Lack of people and resources
• Increasing your audience engagement
• Making your business stand out in the crowd
• The increasing costs of advertising
• Building genuine connections 
• Creating unique and valuable content with high-quality visuals 
• Getting people to share your content 
• Extending your radar, getting more exposure and potential clients
• Adapting with social media algorithm changes