Why do SMEs need digital marketing?    

You might be considering trying out social media for your business or you have dabbeled in it, but don’t really know what to post and how? Here is my guide to successful social media posting as a business :

Firstly, why should you be on social media as a business? Well, you might be missing out on an effective way to reach your target audience and build relationships with them. Facebook now has almost 2 billion active users per month globally. More locally, 16 million Australians are now using Facebook on a monthly basis and we’re spending 12.5 hours per week on Facebook alone. That is a lot of users and a lot of time spent on this medium. Why not at least try to engage with potential customers this way?

But before you get ready to post, ask yourself, what your goals are: What do you want to achieve? Is it brand awareness, relationship building, lead capturing, event advertising, a combination of them all? It might make a big difference whether you are looking to build relationships or trying to capture leads as quickly as possible.

Who is your target audience and how can you find them on Facebook? Are they among your family and friends? Are they in certain groups (be careful not to appear to be too “sales-y” in groups, especially if you have just joined them)? Can you reach them via Facebook advertising?

Define your brand personality : do you want to appear friendly, approachable, professional, corporate, as an expert, a mate, … Write in the appropriate tone for your brand personality. Good examples of brand personality would be Origin Energy or Ubank who speak their customers language and therefore appear more approachable: “You’ll …”, “We’ve…”.

Facebook is making it harder to get reach without advertising. Facebook algorithms are limiting your Facebook posts’ visibility – especially if they are too “sales-y”. Try to provide relevant content to get more reach and not be filtered out of the newsfeed.

But what can you write about? Think of potential “ pain points ” your target group(s) might have and show them how you can solve a problem for them. E.g. you are a physio and your potential customers might have a back problem. Share news articles, your own blog posts or videos about how regular exercise can help with strengthening your core muscles and alleviate back pain. Of course include a link to your website so that they can get in touch or read more on your blog. This way you’re adding value, establishing yourself as an expert, and are building and nurturing relationships. Don’t just sell your product or services too obviously unless you have a product launch, promotion or special offer and it might make sense to do so. When people are using social media, they are there to communicate and enjoy interesting social content, not primarily to shop. It’s a bit like going to your mate’s party and only talking about your work and your new product. People will get bored of it pretty quickly and not want to be sold to in a social environment.

Try to engage your audience in a conversation by asking questions like “We absolutely love green this season! What is your hot new colour?” (Sorry, I couldn’t think of a better example…)

Content is king in social media. The more interesting content you can produce and share, the better. This could be anything like a blog post, recipe, interesting fact, photos, podcasts, videos, live videos (the new thing!), etc.

Don’t try to do everything at once. You will quickly get overwhelmed and social media becomes a full-time job. Start with whatever you feel comfortable with, get some experience and then try out anything else that seems interesting. However, be aware that Facebook currently favours videos in the newsfeeds including or particularly live videos, which is their baby.

But what happens if you have a promotion or specific offer you would like to share with potential customers? You could try out Facebook advertising as you can target your ads so that they are shown to the kind of people who might actually turn into customers (e.g. kids clothing ads to mothers of young children, wedding expo ads to people who have recently got engaged, etc.).

Don’t “boost” your posts as this is not targeted and may not reach the right kind of people.

Make sure to use a specific offer rather than just generally advertising your services; this increases the conversion rate significantly.

Whenever appropriate, drive traffic to your website by including links to your website. Keep in mind that the more clicks they have to make, the more people you lose, so the link has to lead to the right page.

Remember to keep it clean , be appropriate and in line with your brand personality. When you get negative comments – unless they are inappropriate, trolling, or discriminating –try not to just delete them, but try to be polite and deal with them in a positive manner or just ignore them if there is no point getting into an argument with the person, as it this could make it worse.
A great saying to think of is “Don’t argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.”

And last, but not least, give it a go . You can’t just post once and expect this to make a big difference to your business. Try to commit to posting at least once a week, if not daily and stick with it for a couple of months as a minimum in order to see whether it might work for your business. You will gain more experience along the way, become more confident regarding what to post, find out what people like, learn about your customers, develop ads that work, etc. If you give up after a week, of course you won’t see a difference in your sales. Rome wasn’t built in a day, neither are the “overnight” social media success stories you hear about.

And now, over to you: Go and socialise!

Please share your experiences with social media as a business in the comments below.

If you are interested in a conversation about marketing support for your business, please don’t hesitate to contact Shoots Marketing Consulting on Julia@shootsmarketing.com.au or 0447 235 000 .