Every good business today, no matter how big or small, relies on social media to promote its brand. Aside from being an easy way to get a brand’s name out there and boost business, social media also allows a business to interact directly with their clients and address any of their feedback quickly.

Although many online outlets have now existed for over a decade, some businesses still aren’t sure of how to use their social media accounts properly. Companies with a larger budget have the resources to hire a team to manage their accounts daily, but most small businesses don’t have that kind of money. In this article, we explore ways of getting quality social media for your business.

Who Creates the Social Media Content?

The truth is that if you learn to navigate your way around any of these online networking outlets and determine which ones work best for your businesses, you don’t always have to hire someone else to help you out (though it certainly makes things easier). Small companies of ten or fewer usually have a single full-time employee present to do all of their marketing work, especially social media. Hiring freelancers is also helpful, as they provide you with high-quality resources for no overhead costs. The following tips can help you grow and fully utilize your online presence through the quality of your content, even if you’re just a one-person show.

A Quick Breakdown of Social Media Outlets

Facebook: At the start of this year, 2.3 billion people were using Facebook every single month. Facebook is the king of social media space for most businesses, both big and small. It even comes equipped with deep audience insights to better determine your followers’ demographics, which you should use to leverage your content marketing strategy. Despite the platforms, yearly algorithms change, and you can still reach a massive audience here. And although businesses pages now rely heavily on paid ads to reach that larger audience, your Facebook page can serve as a one-stop area for all important information and updates quickly and easily.

Twitter: The younger brother of Facebook is Twitter. Twitter is a great tool to many businesses. Aside from having visual posts, and keeping followers informed quickly on updates and services, it allows for the most direct interaction with clients. Twitter is the key player in today’s world for customer service. And, as an added bonus, it also enables you to connect with similar businesses out there by allowing you to follow each other.

Instagram: Of all other platforms out there, Instagram seems to be the favorite among businesses.

Pinterest: While it is another informative and visual outlet, Pinterest does not have the customer-to-company interaction aspect. Pinterest really is great, though, when you utilize its description area so that your pins show up in search results. It can be very useful for shops, artists, designers, food experts, and bloggers.

YouTube: Businesses that rely heavily on videos find YouTube to be an essential aid in their marketing process (as long as they are consistent in posting).

Snapchat: Unless your target audience’s age range is between 15 and 25, you can skip Snapchat altogether. But if it is in that range, Snapchat can be extremely useful in getting the word out about your products or services.

What Should I Post to Social Media?

Visuals: When it comes to social media marketing, posting photos of your products or services is most important; clear, good-quality images are essential. Bring in a professional photographer to take good pictures of your products or workplace. They can easily style your space to look as appealing as possible, and they’ll know how to sell it well. If you’re in graphic design or visual arts or know someone who is, create stunning quality images before uploading them. A blurry or pixelated photo is a fail.

Photos are especially useful during holiday seasons to generate ROI in your business. If you’re looking to gain more traction, a product giveaway is always an excellent idea. These work best everywhere really  – Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest – and are especially effective when you offer your best-selling product as the big prize.

Events: Consumers enjoy companies that are aware of current events, so posting news articles related to your field lets them know you’re informed and allows them to learn something new. It also supports other businesses in your industry. You can add in some humor, too, by posting memes related to your industry, as long as this stays limited. Remember: people follow you to keep track of your business and see what you can do for them, so let those posts shine the most.

Your Story: For those who utilize Snapchat or Instagram Stories, take the opportunity to post a how-to or behind-the-scenes video for your followers. Show them how your workplace is set up, and introduce them to your employees. Give them a step-by-step visual of how you make their favorite dish or how you create a new piece of clothing. Even if it’s a makeup tutorial or an acupuncture session, giving your followers an insight into your business keeps them better connected and more interested in returning.

Oh, and let’s not forget the hashtags. Though they can seem obnoxious if you use too many, they allow your visual posts to be viewed by your peers and potential followers. Using between 5 and 10 on Instagram usual yields the best results.

When Should I Post to Social Media?

Every year, there are new studies done to determine when businesses should post their content. Still, when you actually take a look through these studies, you’ll see that there is no consistent answer. This is because the answer varies, depending on your chosen industry. Generally speaking, weekdays during lunch and after work rank high for Facebook and Instagram, and early-to-mid morning is active for Twitter. Most businesses don’t gain as much traction on weekends as they do on weekdays.

Your best bet is to keep track of your posts and take note of which times and days they generate the strongest reactions. Once you’ve determined this, pre-schedule each post using a tool such as Hootsuite, Buffer, or Sprinklr. Once you have all of the marketing content done, you can set up a month of posts in one day.

The most important tip is to market your business while still being completely genuine to your company’s ethos. The key to online success isn’t posting at all hours, or even having an account on all social media outlets. The real trick is finding what works best for your individual business and client base.

Do share your experience in handling social media content and effective marketing promotions in the comments section below. Or, reach out to us at [email protected] if you wish to discuss your social media content strategy with us.