It seems odd to think that there was a time when social media wasn’t a key part of growing a small business. While entrepreneurs still struggle with how to best use social media to engage their audiences and promote their brand.
Socially savvy entrepreneurs know that it’s all about engaging the right audiences with valuable content. The online community has little tolerance for self-promoters who view social media as a mean to publish free advertising.
Promotion and engagement are really two sides of the same coin. Engagement is rooted in consistently sharing insight and providing value every time you connect with a customer. This creates credibility while building trust.
Promotion extends your engagement efforts by presenting a valuable offer that’s based on your customer’s interest and needs. Social media amplifies your efforts so you can be found and engage a wider audience to expand your business.
To put it all together, here are the best practices for successfully engaging customers and marketing your brand through social medial.
- Follow the one-in-seven rule
This rule is where only one of every seven post you share promotes your business. The remaining six should only focus on posting valuable content, including post from the community. This doesn’t mean you can’t promote your business on those post, just be sure you pair it with quality content.
- Ask engaging questions
Most people enjoy sharing their opinions, so ask Facebook followers to weigh in on topics that are relevant to your business and interesting to them. For example, a fitness center may ask fans to vote on their favorite summer sport in order to be enter in a drawing to win a free membership for a gym. The question should be engaging for your followers.
- Share your expertise
Post little-known, fun facts in your social media accounts with a special offer presented to the first person who answers correctly.
- Give them value
While including fun post that reflect what your business is all about, it’s important to create content that benefits your followers. That can mean posting tips on best practices, providing access to white papers, or offering special deals on your product and services.
- Enhance the reward for virtual check-ins
For a set amount of time, double the points for each time a customer checks in on Foursquare and triple the points for each time he or she brings a friend with. Their friends on social media networks will see when they check in while you grow your reach exponentially.
- Start a Pinterest board
Make sure the board has eye-catching visuals and run a contest through it that will inspire and reward customers for their participation. Be sure to encourage them to re-pin and start their own boards that reflect the initial contest for additional social amplification for your campaign.
If you find that your customer base is scattered across a variety of social media networks, focus your efforts where they’re most active.