Social Media. We all know that we need it to maintain and grow our businesses, but how can you find the time to effectively promote your business on social media while juggling all the other responsibilities that come with being a small business owner?
You can’t just dabble in social media & expect it to be an effective tool. So, with limited free time and a need for intensive social media, what should you do?
With all the hats that business owners wear, the key to social media is automation.
Creating an automated workflow for your business’s social media strategy breaks down into five simple components. I first presented this information at our May Small Business Forum, which you can watch here.
Component #1: Time Management
This is the scariest one of all, so once you nail this down, you’ll be rocking & rolling. Social media takes time and you don’t have a lot of that as a small business owner. You can’t just post once a month or once a week and expect good results.
You must find time to fit it into your daily or weekly routine. Having been a mom and small business owner, I found that I could wake up before my kids and/or spouse and spend 15-20 intentional, focused minutes on social media. Whether that was planning the day’s posts or brainstorming content for later, I could get done in that time what would’ve taken me an hour or two if I were on the go or in the middle of work.
Find the time that works for you and your business. Is it during your lunch hour? Before your restaurant opens? Schedule the time and make it happen.
Component #2: Content
You have set aside the time to work on your social media and now you are staring at the screen wondering what to say! My go-to tip is to have a list of content ideas always in progress.
How do you start a content list?
- Write down the top 50 questions that your customers ask. Use graphics (watch this Canva workshop) or captions to answer those questions and educate your followers about your business. Doing this will turn your social platforms into resources for your customers and save you time responding to FAQ. (Don’t forget to post photos mixed in with these graphics. You don’t want to be a wall of information when someone comes to your page).
- Start a note on your smartphone where you can keep track of ideas no matter where you are!
- Follow other social media accounts of businesses that are doing a great job at social. Keep up with the ideas you find there!
- If you’re a paper-and-pencil person, get a planner or notebook specifically dedicated to social media.
What type of content?
- Try posting videos! It’s a fantastic way to get engagement and humanize your business. You don’t need a fancy setup; your smartphone has a high enough resolution for this.
- Don’t be afraid to recycle content! Not all of your followers will see every post! The goal is to get engagement, sales, and visits to your business, not followers or likes. If you come up with something fantastic, your followers will appreciate seeing it again.
Component #3: Photography
Social media needs to be social! People like seeing people’s faces, so take pictures of yourself, your employees, and your customers (with their consent). These can be behind-the-scenes of your business or portraits for staff introductions.
Again, the only camera you need is your smartphone. If you want to learn more about Smart Phone Photography you can watch these recordings of Nikki Toth’s ASBTDC photography workshops.
Component #4: Channels
Like cable TV, social media comes in a variety of channels. There are numerous, but here are some descriptions and tips of the three channels that are most relevant for marketing in Northwest Arkansas.
Facebook: older demographic, constantly changing, you can utilize FB Groups feature among others
Instagram: owned by FB, younger demographic, home of reels (like Tik Tok; 30-second videos; extremely popular)
LinkedIn: untapped market that’s up & coming, used to be for networking but now becoming broader, can be effective if done properly, pro-tip: use the same 3-4 hashtags on every post, creating a “hashtag brand”
The differences between these channels are the demographic and the format in which you should write captions.
At my old business, Kindness and Joy Toys, I would advertise certain toys on Facebook, where I knew I was targeting grandparents and aunts and uncles, and certain toys on Instagram, where most of my engagement was from moms. I knew what kind of toys each of those demographics typically bought, so I focused my marketing energy on those products.
At ASBTDC, we rephrase our promotions on LinkedIn to target bankers and investors, because we know that that’s our base on that certain platform (SEO and Data webinars coming soon).
Component #5: Automation Platforms
When you’ve done all your content creation, videography, brainstorming, photography, graphics, and time management, you can plug it all into an automation platform. I recommend Planoly, but there are a host of options depending on your budget and needs. This will automatically post content to your platforms so that you can plan ahead of time.
These platforms allow you to schedule out your content so that you aren’t having to post in the middle of your busy day!
In review, here are the five components and the key details:
- #1: Time management
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- Schedule 15 minute blocks to focus on social media
- #2: Content
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- Write down your top 50 questions that customers ask
- Mix photos, videos, and graphics
- Quality over quantity
- #3: Photography
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- People like seeing faces
- Use your smartphone!
- #4: Channels
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- Customize captions and content based on channel demographics
- #5: Automation Platforms
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- Try using a scheduling platform like Planoly
- Schedule posts far ahead of time
After working in marketing for a Northwest Arkansas bank for over 12 years, Lindsay Ramsey stumbled into the small business ownership life and opened Kindness & Joy Toys in 2016.
Lindsay began working with the ASBTDC in the summer of 2020, but has since sold her business and joined us as a full-time business consultant. She is able to combine her marketing and day-to-day small business operations experience to help clients start, grow, or re-energize their social media and marketing efforts.