Ready to Go Social? 4 Questions Every Small Business Must Ask
If you’re a small business owner thinking about wading into the social media space, there are a number of questions to ask yourself before you jump in. In this article I share the advice I give to solo entrepreneurs and small business owners who’ve asked me what I recommend. And in light of the recent turmoil over TikTok, it’s wise to be cautious about investing your precious time and marketing dollars on social media.
Let’s review the purpose of social media
Social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok and others, offer a place for people to connect over shared interests and ideas, discover new products, services and businesses, stay current on the latest trends and news, and be entertained. Businesses have an opportunity to build relationships with their current and potential customers, employees, partners, and vendors on these platforms, but it takes time to earn people’s trust and establish your business as reputable and an expert in your market segment.
So when you begin, I encourage you to think of social media as a place first to listen and learn. View it as a marvelous opportunity for market research: discovering what conversations are taking place around your areas of expertise, who is engaging in those conversations, and what other businesses are doing in your space. This listening and learning is so helpful before moving to building relationships, influencing, selling or recruiting. And we advise that you always view social media as a place for all three of these activities:
Listening/learning
Relationship-building
Influencing/selling/recruiting
So now that we’ve got a common understanding of social media’s purpose for business, let’s move on to the questions to ask yourself as you begin.
1. How mature is your market segment, and what’s the competitive landscape?
Answering these two questions will help you determine how much and what type of education your target market needs. If your market segment is more mature - meaning the products or services have been available in your region for a while - you will want to focus more on your unique competitive advantages versus educating about the overall solution or service. Having clarity around your distinctives is critical.
2. Where does your target audience hang out?
If you sell your products or services to other businesses, LinkedIn is an obvious choice. If you sell to consumers, but you recognize that decision-making around your products or services is heavily influenced by leaders in other businesses, LinkedIn may still be the right place for you. It gives you a place to build relationships with those industry influencers and makes your social media efforts more leveraged and impactful if you have limited resources.
If your ideal clients are consumers under 50, and your products or services lend themselves to visual storytelling, Instagram or Pinterest may be the smartest play. Facebook is truly a mixed bag, but in general I tend to see it as a place to reach older (45+), family-oriented users.
3. What is your current relationship with social media?
This question encourages you to reflect on your true feelings about social media and whether your business can benefit from your existing presence on any platform. Are you on social media already, and do you LIKE being engaged there? If the answer is generally yes, and you have built somewhat of a wide network of connections, that will serve you well as you wade into the waters on behalf of your business. If not, I suggest you push ‘pause’ and look for other marketing opportunities.
4. What is your current content strategy?
If you don’t yet have one, think about wading into the target social media platform with the goal of listening to existing conversations that are relevant to your business and industry, asking questions to get at what topics and issues matter to your influencers and/or consumers, Then start building connections and contribute to the conversations in meaningful ways, to build your credibility and establish trust.
If you are looking to build a content strategy, we recommend the rule of thirds as a guiding structure. Then create an editorial calendar that balances your content across the pillars and buyer journey, with a cadence that works for you.
⅓ content creation - create original content that attracts and helps your ideal audience
Brainstorm topic ideas to get at your content pillars & think multi-format
Create content hosted on your website & promoted on social & via e-newsletter
⅓ content curation - find quality content from industry experts and share it with your audience
Build a repository of reputable sources (leaders/influencers in your space) you want to share with your audience and some do’s & don’ts
Research key topics, current trends
Share via all channels regularly
⅓ conversation - engage in dialog
Monitor social feeds regularly
Join relevant online groups and contribute to the discussions
Comment, ask questions, like, and share follower/influencer posts as appropriate
How an agency can help you
If you are ready to say ‘yes’ to social media, realize that you don’t have to go there alone. Agencies like Rinehart Marketing can help you be strategic and efficient with your efforts. We believe an agency’s best use is in providing guidance on your content strategy and plan, and then assisting you with content creation and sharing. Here are the top ways an agency can help:
They can help you flesh out your editorial calendar after brainstorming your content pillars, ensuring you keep the right balance and variety of content to hit your prioritized topics and keywords.
An agency can also work with you to write blog articles, streamlining the process to capture your expertise, then craft emails and social posts to share your original and curated content.
Actual social media posting can also be outsourced as long as you’ve granted them admin access to your social accounts.
Alternatively, if you are still in the network-building stage on social media, an agency can give you the post details, train you on posting best practices, and then you can share the posts yourself. This may be a particularly good approach on Facebook. Because it is difficult to get organic (versus paid) reach from a Facebook business page, it might make sense for you to continue using your personal account rather than starting a business page.
Before diving into social media, small business owners should first evaluate their market landscape, target audience, and personal relationship with social platforms to ensure their efforts are strategic and effective. And remember: social media marketing is just one aspect of an overall marketing strategy. With the recent uncertainty surrounding social media platforms and their ever-changing algorithms, it's clearer than ever that you shouldn’t have all of your marketing eggs in the social media basket.
If you would like to get some feedback on your marketing strategy, explore your next marketing steps, or want social media marketing support, we’d love to hear from you.
