More than 300 million people in the US use social media, and this is expected to increase by 8.55% by 2029. With those numbers, it’s no surprise that countless businesses use social channels to market their products and services.
And if your small business isn’t doing the same, you could be missing out on the chance to grow your customer base. But how can you do that?
In this guide to social media marketing, our Orange County digital marketing experts explore four simple techniques to help you reach your target customers.
Build Trust and Credibility with UGC
User-generated content (UGC) is videos, images, or testimonials made by genuine people on social media networks. It can be a powerful part of any successful social media marketing strategy, and it can complement traditional content created by businesses.
UGC may help build trust in your brand, help you gain credibility, and drive leads to your site. How can you take advantage of it?
- Encourage customers to share their views on your products or services.
- Run contests that incentivize users to get involved (e.g., the funniest review wins a prize).
- Set up brand-specific hashtags that help you track content related to your business.
Engage with Your Followers Regularly
Regular, consistent activity is vital for a successful social media marketing strategy. For the best results, you should create ads, publish posts, share content, and engage with users often. If you can’t be active every day, try at least three or four times per week instead.
And if you don’t have time to manage accounts across multiple channels, focus on building a solid presence on just one.
Take Advantage of Social Media Trends to Boost Relevance and Visibility
Tracking social media trends will help you spot opportunities to:
- Increase brand awareness
- Attract new followers
- Drive traffic to your site
If you can create a video featuring a trending hashtag, for example, your small business’s content might just appear on a lot more feeds than usual.
But take care when creating trend-specific posts: your business won’t be a good fit for all of them. Make sure you only pick trends that are objectively relevant to your products, services, and industry.
Otherwise, users will recognize that you’re trying to capitalize on something that’s totally unrelated to your business.
Repurpose Content from Your Website
Make room in your social media marketing strategy for repurposing content. This will help you squeeze more value from past blog posts, articles, YouTube videos, and other material you’ve created.
Here are a few ideas to consider:
- Post snippets from a webinar to give users bite-sized, actionable tips while they scroll.
- Adapt a blog post into a script for a series of short educational videos.
- Create video podcasts and break these up into chunks (e.g., 30-60 seconds), then post a new one daily.
Repurposing content can be quicker and easier than creating posts from scratch each time.
Conclusion
Social media can help even the smallest business reach new customers, build brand awareness, and earn trust.
Need help with your social plan? We’ll develop a unique social media marketing strategy tailored to your audience, branding, and goals.
To discover how our Orange County digital marketing experts can help you, get in touch!
