Not a long time ago small business owners relied on face-to-face marketing to promote their businesses and to get new clients. Technology evolved, social media appeared and more and more businesses depend on social networks for getting new clients. Even though being present on various social media channels is recommended for almost all business, when it comes to social media marketing things are a little bit more complicated. While some small businesses can depend on social media to have new or repetitive clients, others can rely on social channels to keep in touch with their customers and to build a good online reputation.
The best answer to “what types of businesses benefit from implementing social media marketing?” is, simply put, all of them, but in different ways! Small businesses need to learn to use social media marketing in an effective way and not randomly post on as many social media networks as possible.
A small business can benefit from implementing social media marketing if the business owner or the marketing representative respects these two simple rules:
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Find The Best Social Network For The Business
Before investing a huge budget in social media marketing, business owners should determine what are the best social media channels for their businesses.
Facebook is better for B2C companies, but not so good for B2B. When it comes to B2B, Facebook is a great way to stay connected with existing clients and to build a good online reputation. B2Cs can sell and can expand their clients database immensely through Facebook ads if they know how to target their ads to reach their potential customers.
B2Bs have more chances to find clients on LinkedIn if they learn how to properly use the social network to magnify its potential.
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Create Good, Shareable Content
Investing in social media marketing without creating quality content is the worst thing a small business owner can do. When people see something they like online, they share their discovery with their friends and families. Creating great, interactive content will make it easier for the business to be discovered online. There are various types of content that can be shared on social networks – images, texts, videos, gifs and links – finding the best alternative for a specific industry or using a combination of them will make the difference in the results obtained.
Another mistake most business owners do is using social media marketing to advertise their promotions and discounts. While this sounds like a good strategy, people are saturated and tired of seeing promotions in their feeds no matter the social network. Creating ads that allow people to discover the brand without a direct sales pitch will make people more willing to connect with the business.
If these rules are respected, a business owner can see a huge increase in the business’ online reputation, can have a direct line of communication with the target audience and can keep in touch with existing and potential clients. Receiving direct feedback is another great benefit of social media that cannot be ignored. Listening to online conversation about a company can be better than market research if the social media marketing was done right.