Social media: As a small business you need to keep up with this changing environment and find a way to maximise its potential so that you can reap the vast rewards that it holds. It’s a no brainer: social media has taken the world by storm, and it’s not slowing down for anyone.
A known fact is that small businesses overlook marketing in order to ‘save’ money. I highlight save, because in this instance it’s somewhat of an oxymoron. You cannot save money by reducing your marketing efforts. All you’re doing is putting yourself in a downward spiral to having no money to run your business. The answer is social media.
You need to invest a minimal amount in social media in order to gain maximum return. In this day in age, it’s not about advertising on big billboards. It holds monumental value for those who have the ad spend and are bold enough to do so. Smaller businesses need to take advantage of online promotion. Options range from advertorials, on site advertising, to social media and advertising throughout the available online mediums.
Advertising on Facebook is a great way to get the proverbial promotion ball rolling. For as little as R54 per day, you can advertise your page to a specific audience for a specified amount of time. The success of your 7 day ‘campaign’ will determine whether or not you would like to peruse further advertising time and spend. While it may seem fantastic that your likes are increasing, you need to ensure that your content turns those likes into engagement. It’s no good having 20 000 likes when no one is actually interacting with your brand and subsequently doing business with you.
Twitter is a platform where you can interact with potential clients, and get to know about them before you start doing business. It’s a great way to educate people about your business and its daily operations. What you don’t want to do, however, is push content onto your followers, talking about ‘Me Me Me’ throughout your conversation. You need to depict a picture of your business that emulates your passion, successes, developments, and daily routines.
You may have heard the term “no more cold calling”. This refers to the use of yet another free marketing platform at your disposal, LinkedIn. LinkedIn is used to connect like-minded business people. It enables you to make valuable connections with valuable people and companies. An incredibly useful feature of the platform is being able to introduce yourself before making that person a ‘connection’. This means that you can control who you connect with and who contacts you. Whether it’s to find a job, meet potential clients, or to keep up to date with your industry, it’s a platform that you as a small business and individual should be using.
Other SNSs (social networking sites) that you can use include Pinterest, Instagram, and Google+ to name a few. Use all of the above sites to maximise your online presence, and gain a good return in the form of business. You don’t need to spend a fortune to gain a fortune.
