Social media is one of the most effective ways to grow your small business online.
There are many reasons for it like, for example, no cost to start, which is a big factor for small businesses or building a brand’s culture.
The problem is that most small businesses don’t know how to do it the right way. They don’t understand that there are certain things they MUST do to grow their small business on social media.
And that’s why in today’s blog post, I’m going to share them with you! So, hold your hat, and let’s begin…
Set The Right Goal
I used to say that you should set SMART goals. I don’t do that anymore, and that’s because I hate the attainability, and realisticity part.
In case you don’t know this concept, SMART = Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. Everybody else is setting smart goals.
That’s why most of the businesses that do anything with themselves get to something like 100,000 followers, and then they are finished.
SMART goals don’t work for the long term, and they also won’t motivate you. I want you to set unrealistic, bodacious, crazy goals. In other words, don’t want 100,000 followers. Want to reach 100,000,000 followers and get over 1,000,000 customers from your social media every month.
Sounds impossible? It’s not. There are people who are already doing it like, for example, Dwayne Johnson.
I want you to DOMINATE the industry and ensure your small business is not so “small” anymore. And the only way you can do that is by setting bodacious goals. Even if want to be a small business forever…good. Set a goal to dominate the area that you’re in using social media.
In other words, if you’re a gym in Miami, set a bodacious goal like becoming the only gym people go to in Miami using social media.
You’re still a “small” business. But you will dominate the space you’re in. That is going to be the drive you need if you want to successfully grow your small business using social media.
But drive is not enough if you want to grow your small business using social media. It’s just the first step. You’ll also need some real strategies if you want to make it happen.
Pick The Right Platform
This is the first thing that you have to do if you want to successfully grow your small business on social media.
Not every platform has a great opportunity for growth. In fact, most of the platforms that you can pick from don’t have almost any opportunity for growth.
That’s why you need to pick the right platform from the start.
For example, it is super tough to grow your small business on Facebook as the organic reach there is so tiny it’s terrible.
I don’t say it’s impossible, but for sure, it’s really hard.
So, always study the platform that you want to do social media marketing gone for your small business before you go there.
Is there enough organic reach? Can you become successful there?
If the answer is a “YES”, then you can go there and actually make it happen.
Find Out Where Are Your Dream Customers Hiding
If you don’t know where your dream customers are hiding, how the heck do you want to get in front of them? It’s almost impossible. Of course, you can get lucky, and it might happen but don’t count on that.
On every platform it is different. There are different places where your dream customers can be hiding based on the features of the platform (for example, on Facebook there are groups. However, it’s not something you’re going to find on Instagram or Twitter.)
But there is one place that is always similar for every platform…
…and that is accounts they follow.
There are always some accounts on every social media that are followed by your dream customers. And that’s why I want you to make a long list of them.
Next, you also want to look at other places, specific for the social media platform that you’re on. As I already mentioned, it can be groups, keywords they search for, etc.
The more things you’re going to list, the better clarity you’ll have on how you are going to reach your dream customers and grow your small business on social media.
Find Out How You Will Reach Them
This is the last part of the process, and it is the hardest one. But unless you find out how to do it, you’re never going to successfully grow your business using social media.
There are only two ways to reach your dream customers…
You can leverage other people’s audiences, or you can leverage the algorithm’s own audience. First, there are other people’s audiences.
This is where the list of influencers you made will come to play. You’ll have to somehow get in front of the dream customers that followed them.
To give you an idea of how to do it, here are the most common ways for that:
- Influencer marketing (paid or free)
- Engaging with their followers
- Buying ads that are shown to somebody’s followers
- Making people share your content
By the way, to make it clear, by doing free influencer marketing I mean collaborations between you and the influencer or guest posting.
But there is also a second way to get in front of your dream customers, and that is leveraging the algorithm.
On every platform, there are dozens of features where the algorithm shows new content to people that aren’t following the person that has created it.
It can be hashtags, search, explore page, home page suggestions, etc.
When you’re going to find out how to leverage it as well, it’s going to be one of the most powerful things that will let you grow your small business on social media.
If you have no idea how to do that, one of the easiest things is to model the content of somebody who is already successfully doing it and then model it for your own business.
Next, you will have to test, improve, and find out what works the best for you.
It is simple but incredibly effective for growing your small business on social media.
Filip Konecny 