Social media marketing for small business | Xero
[Music] hi everyone my name is calvin Angra and I'm a digital performance late at zero I also run my own small business called chirp digital and I offer consulting and digital marketing strategy customer experience and campaign management essentially I'm really passionate about helping small businesses find their voices online today we're going to dive in to how to market your small business online using the power of social media if you're here I probably don't have to harp on about this too much but social media users have passed the 3.8 billion mark consumer behavior particularly in younger people shows us that these users are also influenced by social media when purchasing so we've got 49% of people in the 18 to 29 year age bracket who are purchasing something after seeing a social media ad for it 77 percent of Millennials report making a purchase either online or in-store after seeing a product on a social media platform so with those numbers it's easy to see why social media is definitely something you want to know about as a small business social media audit who are your audience and how are you already reaching them I'm assuming that if you're ready to start marketing your small business online you already have a digital presence if you joined us for the digital marketing strategy and digital marketing course before you might already have the answers to some of these questions think about this in regards to social media particularly who is your current audience and how do you reach them what channels are you currently using this is assuming that you have a social media presence but do you have one do you have a social media presence do you have a personal social media presence do you have a business social media presence or do you have both the reason I'm asking you this is I want you to consider the relationship between the two sometimes especially if you're running a personal services business you can be sharing a lot of content via your own personal channels that might overlap with some of the other content that you're sharing with your family and friends it's really important to have a distinction between when you're providing a brand or a service and whether you're just communicating with your friends in a social capacity it might sound really obvious but I know a lot of small businesses have muddied the waters early on now I want you to think about the type of content that you share are you posting dog photos are you posting product pictures what is the engagement like and can you think about the content that just generally seems to perform really well for you I also want you to think about how often you post and engage with your community and I'm going to use the word community a fair bit when I'm talking about social media because I think the best kind of social media presences are all about community and authenticity let's be honest being active on social media is a real investment of your time and energy and you want to have a clear understanding not only of your opportunity but how you can be more effective it's very common to get on social channels and get distracted and procrastinate instead of doing something that will actually benefit your business you don't actually have to spend a whole lot of money to be successful on social media but if you want to it is a good idea to promote high-performing content this is a really great way to vet your advertising if you've got a piece of content that's performing really well that fits with your brand you already know that your target audience is into it so if you put a bit of extra money behind it you're not going to lose out find your people understanding who you're trying to reach is really crucial to developing an authentic and successful social media presence and it's just as important as when you are going through your digital marketing strategy there are lots and lots of social channels to choose from and different ways to connect with consumers online and so you want to start with who you're trying to connect with and why if you're already doing this awesome I want you to consider who you want to target that's outside of your current community what age are your ideal customers what types of interests do they have whereabouts are they located and how do they actually find your business currently one way to do this is if you're already using analytics behind your website actually go in and have a look at where your users are coming from if you can see any social channels that are coming through where your users are finding you make sure that they're on your list of channels to target because they are definitely an opportunity for you I've mentioned this before but I think it's really important to say this again as a small business you do not need to be on every platform or channel you just need to find the ones that are right for you your business and your target audience and it will help you to engage more meaningfully and not spread yourself too thin social also has the option to target particular demographics and groups particularly around interests but there are some channels that are preferred by particular demographics and are better for certain activity for example if you're going to be a bakery and you're going to share beautiful photos of freshly baked loaves you might want to promote that content on Instagram versus if you are a non-for-profit that wants to run a Facebook live video to promote a local fundraising event think about the channel you're using and your intent behind it and make sure that it's right for your need build a community we've talked a little bit about your value proposition in our digital marketing strategy course but I really want you to consider what your value proposition is on social media and how you can best share it social media is absolutely best when you're authentic so you want to make the most of your unique offering and ensure that your message is getting across what value do you provide your customers that no one else does I want you to be really clear here on who you are and what you offer make sure that everything on your social media is consistent because it is representing your brand consistency is key what makes your offering different or special you want to know who your competitors are you want to see what they're sharing and you also want to learn from their mistakes particularly in regards to how they respond to support requests or potentially how they respond to disgruntled customers are you the right person to represent your brand this is a big one for people who offer professional services because a lot of them feel that it's them and their brand and they're promoting themselves as well I want you to consider whether this is right for your product so for example if you're somebody who delivers great service but maybe isn't so comfortable doing videos or being in photos maybe you actually promote your content on social media by sharing your customers and elevating their stories rather than your own you want to consider what the right message might look like and choose the ones that actually connect with your community the most so even if it's not product related if it's a human interest story as long as it connects that's what you're going to go for I want you to be authentic but I want you to get the right balance as I said before some of your messages are going to be about your services or your product and some is actually going to be about brand building be clear on which is which and know the intention behind each of your messages you're going to want to have calls to action on anything that's product driven and brand building you also want to be able to send them to your website to find out more if that's what the relevant endpoint is one of the things I'm going to mention here is there are loads of brands who look really ident to call online and the ones who succeed are the ones who do so because they have a story to tell and they come across as authentic interesting and engaging I want you to connect support and share so social media is not just a one-way conversation you need to connect with the people in your community to show them that that connection is real spend time engaging with your community and respond to them answering any question that they have joining groups is a really great way to do this community is key and you really don't want to go spamming people with links to your business if it's not relevant add your value and they will come so consider what your an authority on and is this content driving value for your customer if it's not rethink it when we're thinking about joining groups that might be if you run a dog-walking business and there is a puppy preschool you know group within your community maybe you want to post there be an active part of that group share pictures of the dogs that you walk any helpful tips that you might have around puppy training and then people will find you for the right reasons calls to action each social media post should have a reason for being primarily if you can send people to your website and give them an action to take I want you to do it for example you shared a new picture of your candle stock you're excited but I don't want you to forget to share the link of where people can purchase it because if you don't give them a reason to do so they won't you might want to post with a message like I just got these gorgeous lily-of-the-valley candles you can buy them online now the reality is though that social media might not be your vehicle to immediate sales in fact for many businesses social media serves primarily as a brand promotion tool so it'll get you in front of more prospects and it will get people to understand what service you're providing but generally it might not deliver purchases straight away it takes time to build up an authentic presence create a content marketing strategy content marketing through social media is actually a really powerful tool because it helps you share relevant content it helps you be consistent and by sharing it through social media you can actually attract and build an audience and the best part is it doesn't actually cost much money but it can be quite time-consuming when we're talking about a content marketing strategy what that actually means is that it's a plan that allows you to outline how you're going to connect with your key audience and on what channels you're going to do so I want you to understand what messages that you want to share what channels you're connecting on and what types of content you actually want to share and how often I also want you to understand what success looks like to you understanding your capacity to create and engage on social media is a big one for small businesses interacting with the public on social it really can take a lot out of your day and doing it on behalf of your business is an equal parts creating content and engaging with people like a digital customer service center so you want to make sure that you have the time and capacity to do so one big piece to think about here is actually providing customer support through social media once you're on there and you're posting and sharing content you're going to need to set your expectations with services like Facebook messenger there are expectations that users now have around response times so you'll have to make sure that you check in with your social media accounts for questions to support your customers one thing I really recommend here is to set up an autoresponder for any queries that may come through after hours or just in general so that people can understand when you're going to get in touch with them it allows you to create a pre canned message pop it in there so that when someone contacts you by a direct message that's the first thing that will pop up for them this means that they'll know when you're going to get back to them and they'll be able to you know adjust their expectations accordingly you might say something like thanks for getting in touch office hours are 9:00 to 5:00 on weekdays and we'll do our best to get back to all queries within 48 to 24 hours if you'd like to put in an order you can do so via this link or you can contact us by email you're gonna have to deal with these queries that are coming through so you want to do it in a streamlined way and include them in your strategy because they're not going to disappear digital content takes time and you really want it to be as high quality as possible worth with imagery and video sure in some cases you may want to do more authentic live video or I had a hot personal content but I really want you to consider your brand and if this content will set the right tone for you you'll need to tailor your content in size and format to the platform and which then you can either decide to post directly from your device which a lot of people do or you can use a tool like canva to edit those assets for you you can use some of the editing software on your phone as well if you're going to do that if you want to use desktop using a tool that camera is a great way to to get that done however again curating your content via desktop can be quite difficult to post to a social media site so you may want to use the social media scheduling tool so you can create your content all in one go on your desktop and then schedule it to go live at a particular time so you don't have to post it in an ad hoc way from your phone or device I want you to consider right place and right time so most platforms will actually provide insights into the best time to post and share content and you can research these pretty easily by searching online as well if you're going to share please consider the time and environmental context particularly if you're sharing something that might be considered sensitive cultural context is particularly powerful on social media and you really have to consider whether someone could be offended because you might gain visibility for all the wrong reasons I want you to think about a bit of an intense example but when you think about a museum sharing a picture of an antique gun after a tragic gun related incident or even the famous Pepsi commercial which trivialized the black lives matter movement make sure you're up-to-date with what's happening in your industry and also with world events because you do not want to be on the wrong side of a viral moment tying it together know who your audience is and where to reach them know what your message is and what content your users engage with engage and connect with others and be authentic link back to your website where possible now that you've got it all written down it's time to get out there and put your social media strategy into action industry focus what does your social media presence need to be to match up to the best in the business in my mind social media is about being authentic and connecting what does it look like for you in your industry I want you to consider what does a really positive experience look like if you work in a hospital hospitality consider what you expect from a social media presence personally I expect a catering company or a restaurant to let me know of any events and special offerings that they might have through their social channels I want to be inspired and enticed by their content so their images and video and I really want to get a sense of the people behind the experience I also expect them to answer any queries about delivery services or reservations in a really timely manner and I expect them to respond to disgruntled customers in a professional way I'm sure we've all seen the horrors or is there if you work in construction I want to say the quality of your work through your imagery videos and testimonials think of this as an extension of your digital marketing strategy if you went through it with us before I feel like this area is also really relevant for the professional services because social media it should feel relevant and it shouldn't feel forced so I'd expect to see here for construction industry images of staff behind the scenes appropriate content as well as images of good work done and satisfied customers telling their stories this is a general statement but I really would expect any complaints to be handled professionally and with good customer service skills I'd also expect there to be a bit of expertise so if you run a landscaping business and there's relevant content that you can share to your community that's going to help make their lives better for example how to plant drought resistant plants in their garden during a drought consider what you can offer that's really different and individual and will give your customers value professional services there's a big question that comes up here with my clients which is around personal brand and business brand so I want you to think about this too it's really hard on social media sometimes to distinguish between the two and what can be good and bad and in general if you are the face of your brand you really want to make sure that your content is curated and that your responses are timely and professional at all times in a similar vein to what I've said before you want to be helpful relevant and you want to cut through the noise when I'm talking about the double-edged sword there I mean that being personal is also a great way to be authentic but sharing your political views or irrelevant content on your social media might alienate your potential customers so be really careful and considered about what you share and make sure it's in line with your call to actions always consider that it needs to have some action associated with it if there's not a reason for the content existing then maybe you need to get rid of it I it's fair to say that retail has a very strong presence on social media generally what do you expect when you say some good social media engagement essentially you want to say that the retail store is supportive of their customers that they respond in a timely fashion and that they actually provide inspiration and storytelling through their imagery where relevant you also want their content to be seasonal it seems very weird if they're not sharing content that is in line with potentially what their users are experiencing there's been some really great content coming up that seasonal for retail things like the winter lookbook may be providing some styling options so that people who purchase your items can style maybe their spaces so for example if you're selling candles don't just focus on images of candles focus on you know maybe a patio set up or a beautiful romantic candlelit bath scene for Valentine's Day be creative and think about what kind of messaging is going to connect with your users the other piece there is look at what engagement you're getting and that will give you a really clear indication of what seems to be connecting with your users and what is not or maybe is missing the mark and continue to tweak until you find that perfect balance for you and your users bring your content marketing and your social media strategy to life so your social media strategy really should see it alongside your digital marketing strategy everything should always come back to the performance of your website and of your business so social media can really be a bit of a beast for small businesses not only can it be time consuming but it can become without realizing it your primary support channel so I want you to be wary that before you embrace social media you're gonna have to set some expectations with your customers around engagement and support for example if you actually prefer that your customers email you for support make sure you state that on your profiles and your pages and be prepared for people to post asking for support anyway and for you to have a plan for when that happens when it comes to understanding what success looks like for you your social media presence should be driving traffic even if it's not driving conversions which means other purchases are an on your site that's okay but it should be driving traffic and hopefully it should be driving traffic that is sticking around and engaging with your website at least a little bit social media's role can also just be a brand role and it can be a support piece for the rest of your content that you're creating and also the services that you're selling but I'd really want you to be wary of how much energy you're investing in it if it's not performing in the way that you want it to be please make sure not to spread yourself too thin and also look after yourself because social media can be a really tough place especially if you're dealing with a lot of negativity online always take a deep breath before responding to any negative comments and imagine that you're using your most helpful voice at all times possible remember that if your social media presence is driving conversions that's actually great news and it really means that you should prioritize your content check in with your website have a look at how many visitors are coming through from your social channels and you'll get a clear indication of how much time you should be spending on them so to go over what we've discussed today one I want you to understand who your audience is and how to best connect with them to understanding those calls to action and why it's relevant particularly on social media 3 creating that content marketing strategy so you have a plan in place for how you want to tackle your social media engagement for understanding what good social media engagement looks like for your industry make sure you're looking around looking at your competitors getting an idea of what works what doesn't work and putting your own spin on it so that you can continuously improve thank you so much for joining me and now that you have all the tools that you need to ensure your business is thriving online I want you to put them into action remember that there are always some great online resources out there if you want to learn more about digital marketing and social media marketing and even website experience this space is moving really fast so it's always really good to check in on your knowledge and update it where applicable thank you so much for joining me I really hope to see you next time and if you have any questions you can always reach out to me on linked and Twitter and I'll do my best to answer them in a timely and professional manner thanks so much everyone