Even though you may not have the resources of a large corporation to devote to marketing and advertising, your customers still expect to see evidence that you offer an excellent product, provide first-rate support for all of their concerns, and strive for perfection at all times.
The good news is that you may successfully project the image of a large corporation on social media without spending a fortune. Not persuaded? To be honest, no one here can say they blame you. Perhaps some hard data can put your mind at ease:
Simply Measured (the forerunners in social analytics) studied hundreds of significant global firms last year and discovered that 68% have social media teams of only one or two employees, and nearly 50% had only one person!
To begin with: Put together a social media style guide, then use it.
Style guidelines are the lifeblood of every business, no matter how big or little. Your brand’s voice should be consistent in all communications, and style guides ensure this.
A well-written social media style guide is an effective marketing and sales tool that helps any employee get up to speed quickly. That means you may swiftly expand, whether by introducing new services or hiring a dedicated social media manager, or even if only in name.
The best social media style guides are brief and conversational, which is how any business, no matter its size, should come across online.
Just be yourself and don’t resort to any tricks.
You’ve undoubtedly heard “your story is your brand” a million times.
But you know what’s missing from most discussions on branding? Trust formation.
Social media “hacks” that artificially enhance your number of followers or the amount of people who “favourite” a post aren’t nearly as reliable as the real deal: genuine social engagement.
First, you need to make great content, and then you need to use social media wisely to spread the word (or your message). Get your material in front of your followers where they’re currently spending time. Monitor your data constantly. (You can observe how your admirers are responding to your postings by checking the free statistics provided by Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.) Promote your company by spending a few dollars on a sponsored article every now and again.
Solicit their input on how to improve your brand, product, or simply what kind of content they would want to see more of. Think about all the people you could reach with a webinar or Twitter chat. (We’ve included some of our favourite suggestions for boosting your social media following.)
Use social media as a public relations tool
These days, it’s all about using social media as a vehicle for your influencer marketing and making all of your major announcements straight to your customers.
With the use of social media, even a tiny firm can make as big of an impact as a large one with its announcements. Most digital marketers’ primary objective in using social media is to raise brand recognition, and they may do so at no cost.
One of the finest tools a small business has is its capacity to establish and utilise significant, and much more personal, business connections in order to break through all the social media noise (and there is a TONNE of it). In fact, that is essentially how tiny firms have always beaten out their larger competitors.
Never Stop Sharing Your Content
This may seem like a gimmicky strategy at first, but it’s worth it to get more exposure for your greatest evergreen content by resharing it. (Do you get the pun?)
Resharing is simply an efficient strategy for maximising the impact of your work. Getting the most out of your investment is as simple as making the most of what you have, whether it be a car or a piece of content.
One Last Thing
The most fantastically terrific thing about social media is that it allows all businesses, no matter how large or little, an equal chance to get recognised. You can now go head-to-head with the “big guys” while still maintaining an air of legitimacy thanks to these four social media tactics.