Is Social Media a Good Small Business Communication Tool?

Social Media and Small Business

Some­times it seems that social media is made for small busi­ness­es. The plat­form is essen­tial­ly a free way to con­nect with con­sumers all over the world, to share your brand in a unique way and begin gen­er­at­ing sales.

And yet anoth­er pow­er­ful use of social media is its capac­i­ty for com­mu­ni­ca­tion. As a small busi­ness, reach­ing out to poten­tial con­sumers and fos­ter­ing rela­tion­ships through cus­tomer sup­port are two impor­tant areas to con­stant­ly improve. If you are a small busi­ness, and you haven’t used your social media plat­forms to com­mu­ni­cate, now is the time to get up to speed and start chat­ting with your audience.

How to Use Social Media for Business

Social media can be used in a vari­ety of ways. Amongst the most promi­nent for small busi­ness­es is com­mu­ni­ca­tion. Social media plat­forms pro­vide easy and acces­si­ble chan­nels through which to share infor­ma­tion about the brand or prod­ucts, respond to cus­tomer ques­tions or con­cerns, cre­ate per­son­al touch-points with poten­tial buy­ers and to gath­er data on your tar­get consumer’s behav­ior. Mas­ter­ing how to com­mu­ni­cate with clients on social media helps small busi­ness­es learn, grow and suc­ceed in their industries. 

Benefits of Social Media for Your Company

The ben­e­fits of using social media are many. Some busi­ness­es rely on com­mu­ni­ca­tion tools, and oth­ers focus on con­tent aes­thet­ics. The areas of inter­est depend on the indus­try, spe­cif­ic social plat­form, busi­ness objec­tives and mar­ket­ing goals (iden­ti­fy­ing these goals with your social mar­ket­ing strat­e­gy team is a wise start­ing point). 

Here is a short list of the ben­e­fits your com­pa­ny will get from com­mu­ni­cat­ing with social media:

• • Increase sales — That’s right, social media increas­es sales. Brand aware­ness and expo­sure are two start­ing points in the sales funnel.
  • Enhance cus­tomer sup­port — Respond to cus­tomer requests right away and improve the trust between brand and buyer.
  • Audi­ence adapt­abil­i­ty — Know your plat­form audi­ence; Are they tak­ing a break? Look­ing for work? Search­ing for a prod­uct? The con­tent you share and mes­sage you com­mu­ni­cate vary accord­ing to plat­form and audience.
  • Added brand expo­sure — The more face-time you get with con­sumers, the more like­ly they are to rec­og­nize and choose your brand at the point of purchase.
  • Holis­tic mar­ket­ing — Round out your mar­ket­ing strat­e­gy by pro­vid­ing a touch-point at every com­mu­ni­ca­tion plat­form, includ­ing social media. Remem­ber — one mes­sage, many modes.
  • Sup­ple­men­tary tool — Use social media to sup­ple­ment tra­di­tion­al and dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing endeav­ors, to sup­port sales efforts and to sup­port busi­ness development.
  • Data track­ing and analy­sis — Col­lect con­sumer data to ana­lyze behav­ior, and then use this data in strat­e­gy refinement!

Best Social Media for Business

Not all plat­forms are cre­at­ed equal; the audi­ence polls vary accord­ing to the social network’s intend­ed func­tion. Let’s look at the top pro­files to main­tain your small business:

• Insta­gram — Share your aes­thet­ic and per­son­al or “fun” side with consumers.
• LinkedIn — Mar­ket your busi­ness pro­fes­sion­al as you net­work with oth­er indus­try professionals.
• YouTube — Begin build­ing a video chan­nel and reg­u­lar audi­ence; embed these videos in emails, social posts, and web promotions.

Tips for Implementing Your New Tools

Get­ting start­ed can be both excit­ing and over­whelm­ing. Fol­low these tips to keep a cool head on your shoul­ders while striv­ing toward max­i­mum results.

• Start slow­ly, try­ing one new tool at a time
• Use a beta group: Test out your con­tent to a select few before rolling it out to the public
• Gath­er feed­back: Before imple­ment­ing com­pa­ny-wide, gath­er and include feedback

Tips for Using Social to Communicate Effectively

• Con­sis­ten­cy
• Brand­ing
• Voice
• Com­mu­ni­cate

Consistency Is Key

Con­sis­ten­cy is essen­tial to con­sumer rap­port. Set reg­u­lar time frames to post, share, com­ment and respond. Keep con­tent con­sis­tent with brand aes­thet­ic or with the mes­sage you want to share on that plat­form. Con­sumers should always know what they can expect from you.

Stay On Brand

Even when shar­ing per­son­al clips of the com­pa­ny, infuse your brand mes­sag­ing in con­tent.

Adapt Brand Voice to Each Medium

As men­tioned, each medi­um is dif­fer­ent. Make the most of your time on social plat­forms by adapt­ing your voice on each medi­um for that spe­cif­ic audi­ence (e.g. pro­fes­sion­al, clever, humor­ous, informative).

Use the Forums to Communicate

Yes, the goal is dri­ving more sales, but that’s not the objec­tive of social media. Use social media to engage with fol­low­ers, to com­mu­ni­cate effec­tive­ly and to invite con­sumers “inside” of your com­pa­ny so when the time comes to pur­chase a prod­uct that you offer, your brand is top of mind.

Hire a Professional Team

Work­ing with an expe­ri­enced team is often the best bet for imple­ment­ing social media as a com­mu­ni­ca­tion tool at your small busi­ness. While there is a lot to learn from first-hand expe­ri­ence, not all small busi­ness­es can afford the cost of tri­al and error. A pro­fes­sion­al team, on the oth­er hand, pro­vides invalu­able insight into what works in the indus­try, what has worked for com­pa­ra­ble busi­ness­es and more. Take advan­tage of the edu­ca­tion that comes along with work­ing with experts, too!

Do You Have Tips to Share?

Have you used social media in your busi­ness and seen direct results? Let us know! We’d love to hear more about what’s been dif­fi­cult, what’s been easy, what’s been eye-open­ing and what’s real­ly worked for your brand to gain trac­tion with tar­get con­sumers. Share your sto­ries in the com­ments below.

Rosy Strategies

Rosy Strate­gies pro­vides holis­tic guid­ance to small and medi­um-sized busi­ness­es expand­ing their reach through dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing. Our solu­tions accom­mo­date a vari­ety and inter­nal inef­fi­cien­cies and han­dle com­plex or time-con­sum­ing plat­forms, such as social media. Learn more about how we can help you achieve your busi­ness goals by get­ting in touch with a mem­ber of our team today.