Social media is an important marketing tool for all small businesses. Your social media platforms build a network of friends, acquaintances, and customers—and establish your company or brand in the social media sphere. Just like making friends in real life, you need to show your followers that you’re fun, interesting, caring, and human. But unlike real life, all of your interactions with your friends are completely public. Everyone sees what you say, what others say to you, and how you respond to each other.
Promote your social media identity in your emails
Social media should be an integrated part of your marketing plan, and we can help you make your social presence known. Here's what Constant Contact can offer you:
- Social media icons - Social media buttons (Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest) can be dropped right into your email template so you can connect your contacts directly to your social media profiles.
- Social sharing buttons - Social sharing buttons let your contacts share your email on their Facebook, or LinkedIn accounts.
- Social Posts - Social Posts so you can post your email or event to Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
Promote your organization through social media
These guidelines will help you connect with new and existing customers:
- Be present and responsive on your social media platforms and you’ll gain credibility and value. When people engage with you by commenting, they expect a response. The frequency of posts is dependent on your audience and the content you’re sharing. Don’t talk for the sake of talking; you don’t have a quota to meet. As long as your account gets updated enough to keep your audience engaged and following along, you’re doing fine.
- Stay engaged! Not responding or deserting your social media channels will reflect poorly on your business.
- Use our Campaign Calendar view to schedule content creation and publication more efficiently.
- Don’t horde content then post it all at once. Spread your posts out over a day or multiple days or weeks. Social Posts let you schedule posts to publish throughout your marketing campaign.
- Give multiple people access to the organization's Facebook business page (and other social media accounts) to help update the page, keeping the content fresh. Each administrator must first have their own personal Facebook account.
- Use analytics to measure your success. Match the analytics information from your email and social campaigns to the content and engagement levels to determine what caused the results. This information should inform your future content and campaign decisions.
- Use hashtags in your posts—business hashtags or other hashtags that have been started that fit your need—or create your own! Search your hashtags before using them, though. Make sure the other posters that use that tag are aligned with your intention. Hashtags are used slightly differently on each platform, so read up on those differences. Your social media platform's FAQ section is a good place to start.
- Make sure your social media "handle", or name, is the same, or really close, across all channels and cross-promote your accounts. Let readers know why someone would want to follow you on more than one platform. Use similar images across all channels, too.
- High-quality images increase engagement! Use images with your posts and make sure they are the best they can be by sizing them correctly before you post.
Make social media fun and interesting
Your posts don't have to be only promotional messages—broaden your scope! This will make your content more appealing and lessen the burden of constant creation. Share content like this:
- Adjacent content – Content that’s tangentially relevant to your business or something of common interest to your audience.
- Tips & tricks – Sharing content that makes your customers’ lives easier adds value to their conversation with you.
- Responses – Respond in a thread as your business to give your social media account a personality and brand visibility.
- Non-promotional company info – Where did your company volunteer? What fun employee (or customer) appreciation event did you run? How many cute dogs visit your location in a week? Showing off your culture and community goes a long way toward building relationships. Plus, they're fun to read!
Ready, set, post!
Sometimes all you need to get started is an idea. If you find yourself stuck on what to post, how to create content, or where to find the time, we have just what you need to get started with Social Media Post Ideas. Let the creativity come to you and you'll be ready to boost your marketing strategy and grow your business. If you ever get stuck, always visit our Quick Starter Training Guide to begin your journey of social media marketing.
