Starting your small business off on a good footing is hard, let alone getting a competitive edge over other players in the industry. With the right marketing strategies, any business can strive and thrive in today’s competitive business landscape.
But many managers and entrepreneurs take social media “likes” as a success of social media strategy. While getting likes on your social media promotional posts is an important metric, it alone cannot determine how many people want to buy your product or service.
For instance, consider a party where loads of people have shown up but sat there silently without talking or bonding with you. No questions, no conversations, no games, just complementary hello and that’s all. Would that be considered a successful party?
Surely, not!
The same goes for the “Likes” on your social media posts. If the potential customers are just liking your post without any follow-up, it means next to nothing for the growth or success of your business.
What’s the Way Forward
For any business with an online presence, having a strong audience engagement is key to boosting sales and building trust. Of course, increasing likes on your post are encouraging but actively engaging your potential customers is crucial.
Some of the key variables of your social media marketing, aside from likes, include:
· Comments
· Mentions
· DMs
· Click-throughs
· Followers count
· The popularity of your branded hashtag
· Shares or retweets
Always Go for Platform-Specific Content
The good news is it won’t take rocket science to boost engagement with your followers and grow your business. Make sure you’re posting the right content on the right platform. Avoid following the one-size-fits-all approach to social media marketing. Learn to optimize content and share consumer-specific posts for different platforms.
For instance, you can post promotional content on Facebook and Instagram while keeping Twitter as a customer service platform. Use social media analytics to determine which of your posts are getting the best response from the audience and try to tailor the rest of the posts accordingly.
Use simple strategies such as hashtags, geotags, people tags, and shopping tags to boost your reach and engage a more diverse audience.
Build Trust with Customers
Try to develop meaningful relationships with your audience. Try to answer their comments or quote tweets, address their concerns, and appreciate constructive criticism. Make them believe you understand what they want to promote brand reliability and trust.
Thus, don’t consider “Likes” as the sole criteria for your social media marketing success. Focus more on audience engagement on different platforms and try to elicit their responses to your posts. That way, you can grow your small business without spending an arm and leg on marketing.