15 simple steps – 3 weeks to Social Media success for SMEs

Dabbled with social media? Not sure where to start? Or had a few false starts? Then take a look at our 15-step guide to getting your social media on track to the stars. Whether you are a complete novice or have social media sewn up, This simple guide will help make sure you have all the foundation building blocks in place to surf the wave of social media.

By doing a little something every day, 5 days a week it will help you to gradually build up your knowledge and confidence. Here is our step-by-step guide to marketing your business on social media more.

Week one – building your online presence

1. Update the ‘about’ info on your page/bio
– Giving out clear information for your business is great, so when people visit your page it’s clear what your business does. Make sure it gives them a reason to find out more and it’s not just what you do, but why, so it intrigues.

2. Update your services
– It’s so important, so people can see what specific services you do. No matter what your business is, people want to see what you offer, so they can be confident in contacting you to help them with their problems or query.

3. Update your opening hours
– This is essential for your social media, whether you have a physical location or not. This helps the customer understand how your business runs and when they can expect enquiries to be answered. Also, it gives an idea of how fast products, services can be delivered.

4. Update your cover photo with your USPs
– This will show the advantage(s) of your business and give people a reason to follow. This also helps add value, by showing what your business does differently and why they should spend time or money with you, over your competitor(s).

5. Post a story
– Stories are great for increasing engagement. We are brought up listening to stories and this never goes. By turning your news or information into a story you can reach more people through better engagement and beat the algorithms that police social media. This is a great feature that should be utilised as much as possible, stories are great for something not substantial enough for a full post but something you still want to be shared.

Week two – Engaging with your followers

6. Research competitors
– See how they conduct themselves on social media, and see what you think works and doesn’t work for them. Doing this research can benefit your marketing by looking at their strengths and weaknesses, gathering inspiration from their pages, and finding a way to make yours successful while standing out from the crowd. Take a look at people who are in a different industry, but serve the same audience as you. What do they do and what can you learn to improve your social media marketing?

7. Spend 10 minutes engaging and networking on social media
– Engaging with others helps algorithms promote you. It also helps more people see your accounts and posts, as friends of friends engage with you and share. If you are more active and engaging as much as possible, the algorithm will pick this up and therefore boost your posts to reach more people.

8. Post a review from a customer
– This helps advocacy from customers and helps build trust for your business. Posting reviews is a great way to show support for your business and get more interest from potential customers. If you can include who the review is from on social media, they themselves may share it too. Read how to generate reviews in our post about social proof.

9. Post photos of your business and work
– Show your best, most proud of & most popular work. The old saying still applies, ‘The more you tell the more you sell’, showing more to more people is better. Remember though, when posting, to use a call-to-action to send them to your website after showing this, so they can consider buying and/or take a look at your other products.

10. Write a review for another local business
– Helping other businesses is also great, encourage writing reviews as much as possible. By supporting them, you will get support in return, positive reviews are so valuable to help a business’s reputation. It’s called social media for a reason, so the more you give the more you get back.

Week three – creating habits and help with becoming more consistent

11. Look at your insights for 10 minutes
– Analyse and review your insights. What posts have done well and when do you get the most engagement? Use what you’ve found out to improve your future posts. Do more of what works and think of other ideas. Try and understand why they work and how you can apply this learning, to help other posts do better.

12. Add a Facebook shop
– This way people can see your products better, see pricing and more descriptions of the purpose of your products/services. You can drive a lot of traffic from Facebook to your shop. Traffic that would normally not visit your website as they are too busy flicking through Facebook.

13. Ask people what they want to know about you
– Ask for opinions, and understand what your followers want to see from your business. This helps not only your engagement but informs you of valuable opinions and criticisms which you can take on board to help improve your posts and business more.

14. Find a tool to help you schedule posts
– Social media scheduling tools are great for planning posts and campaigns ahead of time. They can be used as an effective way to post at the best times for your business. The times your customers are online and you get the greatest engagement. A quick Google search will find some great tools, some free some paid for, to help marketing on social media easier.

15. Plan posts to answer questions people have asked
– Use the responses you’ve received and create posts explaining and answering these questions, don’t forget to add a graphic or photo too, as these can drastically increase engagement. This will help show your transparency and clear up any queries your followers may have.

By doing a little every day and consistently applying these tips you will see a massive improvement in your social media and engagement. You will grow your presence and your brand.

If you are already at a point where you can no longer keep up with social media and need help to be consistent and effective, then please get in touch. We provide social media services for many customers posting reviewing and growing their brand and business online each and every day.