Running a small business is exhilarating, and with the advancements in online tools and ways to connect people, the growth opportunities have never been greater.
Social media has almost 4.5 billion users around the world- many of whom are actively using multiple platforms every day, and many of whom are your potential customers. Here are 12 ways that you can use social media for your business.
1: Make it a Hub for Customer Support
People are familiar with social media platforms, and Facebook is especially popular for people looking for answers to questions. Whether they post in groups or send messages directly, they use social profiles as their first point of contact.
Use your business profiles places where clients can come directly to you, rather than getting potentially wrong answers elsewhere. It boosts your customer service ratings and helps you respond faster.
Use chat apps like Chaty to make it easy for customers to connect and interact with you directly from your website using their favourite social networking channels such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Twitter etc.
2: Generate Leads and Grow Your Potential Client Base
Social media, for better or worse, is a place to find out a lot about people and what they like, which is super helpful for lead generation. Some marketing tools can help you find leads based on location, age profiles, and the content people view, and you can use that to create curated content that appeals to your target audience.
3: Learn More About Your Clients with Social Media Market Research
Another way to use the vast database of client information available through social media is to research the things that make your customers tick. Again, having tools that can help you track important customer metrics and use the data to shape your marketing approaches makes it easier to take your business in the right direction.
4: Promote Your Products with Minimal Costs
Marketing and advertising can be expensive, but since social media is free, you should make the most of it! In small local businesses, you can post deals, offers, and promotions directly on your page or on community pages that allow advertisements. This costs nothing at all, and you can include share links with rewards for customers who refer a friend.
5: Create a Community for Your Business
Speaking of community, small businesses often rely heavily on having a loyal core client base. Setting up a group page for your business is an excellent use of social media, as it makes your customers feel like they are part of something.
You can invite people to join and then use it for promoting products, learning more about clients, and managing your social media customer services.
6: See What the Competition Is Doing
We have all heard of Facebook stalking, but instead of focusing your attention on your ex, funnel that energy into researching the competition!
You can learn a lot from what others are doing well, and what they are doing wrong. Knowing what your competitors are doing is a vital part of building a social media strategy for your small business. Look for inspiration and see how your business compares to a wider range of rivals from outside your community.
7: Connect with Your Customers Quickly and Easily
Customer engagement is a huge deal for small businesses. You fail and succeed based on how your clients feel about working with you, and their recommendations can make or break you.
Because of this, connecting with customers quickly and conveniently is essential, and what could be more convenient than social media? People feel safe to contact businesses through social media, but they expect quick responses. If you work instant messaging services and live chat into your company priorities, you can tick this box.
You can also use it to engage with customers when they are not buying from you. Sharing updates about your business without always trying to sell something can make people feel like you are one of their friends popping up on their timeline rather than a business profile.
8: Build Your Brand and Get It Out There
Social media platforms let people create an image for themselves and put out a curated persona. It works the same for business, except then we call it a brand. Building a brand image on social media is actually fairly simple, but you need to stay consistent and reliable.
Once you have your brand established on your chosen social media platforms, you can quickly reach a much wider audience using tools such as hashtags, linked comments, and collaborations.
9: Stay Up to Date with the Latest Buyer Trends
Like any trend, the way people like to shop online changes. Ensuring a relevant and enjoyable buyer experience for your customers is an important step in securing repeat custom and word-of-mouth recommendations.
Follow trends based on how leading companies in your industry do things and try to implement them in your business wherever possible.
10: Use Social Listening to be a Fly on the Wall
If you don’t already have a social listening strategy, it is time to get one! It is one of the most important marketing trends of 2023 and has the power to help you take your business to the next level.
Social listening means tracking the mentions your company gets when you are not tagged, and it helps you find out what people are saying about your brand across social media sites. Using tools that analyze where and when people talk about your brand and what they have to say allows you to be proactive in your marketing and business practices.
It also boosts engagement with customers and creates more opportunities to generate sales.
11: Gain Valuable Insights and Use Them to Improve Your Business
All of these things lead to the same purpose: using social media to understand and connect with your clients better- and to respond and adapt based on the insights you gain.
Social media should be viewed as a central tool for your business, and it is advisable to spend time and effort building your social media presence and implementing it into your customer service strategy.
12: Connect Social Media and Your Website Using Chaty
The good news is that you don’t need to do all this alone. Many great integrations can help you streamline everything from your chatbots to analytics, and Chaty is one of the best.
Chaty is a powerful chat management app that brings together client communications across all your social media platforms in one channel. You control the conversation with Chaty’s handy chatbot responses and live chat options, and you can share it with your team so they can engage with clients on the go.
Never miss a beat or leave a client waiting for answers. Chaty takes the benefits of social media engagement and streamlines them to help you maximize the impact they can have on your small business.
Conclusion
The scope of possibility when it comes to using social media to enhance your small business is impressive. Whether you want to improve your customer support channel, reach a wider audience, build a stronger brand following, or integrate more with your local community- social media can help you do it.
With Chaty, it all gets a little easier. If efficient, convenient, and effective engagement for you and your customers is something your company needs, this is the way to go.
