I talk to a lot of small business owners and entrepreneurs a lot. I hear what their frustrations are and the question I get asked most often is, “Which social platforms are right for my business?”
Cause lets be honest, there are so many. I totally understand how they can get overwhelmed.
Heck, it’s hard keeping up with the day-to-day of running their business and then having to find time to figure all this social media stuff out too. Uh, no thanks.
When it comes to deciding which platform(s) to use, I always start with 2 big questions back to them:
1) Who is your audience?
2) What are your goals for social? (This one usually trips them up – like I usually get – “I need to be on social media. Everyone is on social media to sell their services. I need to be too.”)
This first question is pretty simple for most. They know who they want to reach and know that social will help to do that. They describe their customer – stay-at-home moms looking for another income, brides for a wedding planner/dress shop, parents of seniors for a photographer strong in that niche. Whatever their industry, most of the time they have a good idea of who their audience is. (If you aren’t sure, you can fill out the buyer persona to help you ;))
Knowing who your audience is will help you determine which platform is right for your business.
But then we get into their goals. Right away most will say to make more sales. Or I get a lot of comments like, to share their products and services so people know what they do. All good, I hear ya. But my next question back is what value are you providing your audience? Just sharing about your products/services is not enough. That’s not a goal. In fact to me, it’s a little selfish. (I’m just being honest.) This is usually (not always) a light bulb moment for them.
It’s not enough to just share products and services. When I consult with a client about what to put on their pages we discuss how social media is part of the plan, it is not the marketing plan. How they begin to build an audience of loyal followers all stems from the kind of content they share. If it’s all about them and not the customer, you will lose them.
Always be asking yourself, what does the customer want?
Really get into their head, and write to them. I promise it will create more social engagement, loyalty to your brand, and even grow your page. Which in turn gives you an audience to market services to, and therefore (ah-ha) increases sales.
Below is a little cheat sheet for some of the biggest social media platforms. And stay social with me, get IN each week, with resources, freebies and stories that help. Click here to join me. ❤️
