Best Tips for Social Media Marketing & Why You Should Not Use Tik Tok for Business
Social Media is a powerful and very sexy marketing tool, especially for small businesses. There is an abundance of information for entrepreneurs to learn all the best tips and tricks for our social media marketing strategy. This is a wonderful thing for entrepreneurs because we are naturally avid learners.
On the flip side, over-consumption of information can lead to overwhelm and scattered marketing strategies. It can be hard to sift through which information will work best for your specific business. Of course, there are best practices and common sense actions every small business can take when implementing a social media strategy, but you really have to make it work purposefully for you.
As a marketing strategist dedicated to small business, I get a ton of questions about social media and how to maximize the platforms for business. Here are a few of the most common questions I get and my take on the ideal social media strategy for small businesses, specifically.
How often should I post on social media?
If you Google this question, you will undoubtedly get a million different answers. You can easily get sucked into the rabbit hole of “algorithms, peak times, and posting schedules,” but what it really comes down to is: what kind of time do you have?
Social media can quickly become a full-time job and as an entrepreneur, you’ve got to prioritize where your energy goes. You’ve got a business to run. Unless you’re trying to become “insta-famous” and monetize your following, social media should not be your number one focus. Building your business should be. Social media is just a tool.
I do not post every single day on my business social media and I'll tell you why. One, because I really believe in the quality of content over quantity. As for when and how often you should post, it's more about consistency.
Quality and Consistency Over Quantity
I'll say that again: consistency is more important than frequency. You need to get into a flow that works for you. To figure out the actual day or time you should post, check out your analytics to see when your specific audience is checking out your content.
I post three times a week: Monday, Wednesday, Friday at the same time each one of those days, and I have a specific purpose behind each post. The super complicated, highly-researched, agonized over logic behind that formula? Because it’s what I have time for.
If you’re just diving into the world of social media marketing for your business, especially if you're doing it on your own, pump the brakes.
I see this a lot with small businesses - you get really gung-ho about social media, really excited and your creative juices are flowing in the beginning and then life kicks in. You have to manage your business and then your social media presence just kinda dies.
My advice to you and to business owners that are really excited about social media is: slow your roll. Instead of posting everything you've got right up front, spread it out over time so you can be consistent.
There are a lot of tools out there to help you schedule your social media, so you don't actually have to be on your social media every day because you should be focused on other things, like building your business.
The frequency with which you post on social media should be balanced. Find a consistent amount of posting that you can do in your week and just follow that. Ideally, 3-5 times per week is sufficient, especially if your content is quality.
The second common topic I discuss with clients is not really a question, but more of a worry.
I need more followers.
I’ll save you a headache. Customers are more important than followers. Yes, you want brand awareness and you want people to know your business exists. But, most importantly, you want businesses to buy from you. One of my favorite mentors, Marie Forleo states it simply and brilliantly:
Profitability Over Popularity
It doesn't matter that you have a million followers if none of them are actually paying customers.If you have a small amount of followers but most or all of them are actual paying customers of yours, you have hit gold! Nurture your audience by offering a ton of value with your content and ask for referrals. Get your customers to sell for you!
Should I use Tik Tok for my business?
I’m not an early adopter - I’ve never been an early adopter of different tools, marketing tactics or social media platforms. Whenever some new sexy thing rolls out in the marketing world, I like to hide and watch to see how the trends go and how it affects business as a whole.
There is no searchability feature in Tik Tok; it is not a search engine. For me, it doesn't make sense for my business because the way that copy works, and website copy, in particular. My advice, at least when starting out, especially if you're not familiar with social media is to put Tik Tok on the back burner for right now.
Use Search Engines to Grow Your Business
When you're trying to grow your business, and get more traffic to your website, you need searchability working in your favor. That means focusing on a quality website, getting consistent on one social media platform - Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest or LinkedIn, and doing that really really well. Once you’re building brand awareness, building a following and consistently converting those followers into customers then feel free to experiment with creative outlets like TikTok.
When Instagram first started getting popular, I didn't early adopt that either because it was purely for visual entertainment. It wasn't really business-friendly until people started to use it in that capacity and the platform changed a little bit to fit the demand. Businesses were then able to utilize it for brand awareness and marketing. Now businesses are using it and it’s a phenomenal tool in the kit of social media marketing.
When Entrepreneurs Get Shiny Object Syndrome
For small businesses, Tik Tok is the new sexy toy. A lot of small business owners, including myself, sometimes get shiny object syndrome. So I would say focus on one tried and true social media for your business before exploring Tik Tok. It’s super easy for entrepreneurs to get distracted by all the new tech, trends, apps, tools, and toys in the marketplace that promise the quantum leap to success. But stay focused, get consistent, be selective where you spend your time and then explore the new shiny object when you have extra time to play.
The Best Social Media Platform For Your Business
The last question and most common question I get is “what is the best social media platform for my business?” This varies based on your business and your industry. My initial advice to most small businesses, especially when they're first starting out is to create a Facebook page. It's a great platform to start with especially if you don’t have a website. There is a ton of functionality beneficial to your business including the option of paid ads, and connecting in industry-related groups to prospect for customers. You can set up a Facebook page, you can build a little bit of a following, and you can work on building your website while your Facebook business page is working for you.
If Your Business Doesn’t Have a Website
If you don’t have a website up and running or you're working on getting one, then I would suggest starting with Facebook. You can share all kinds of media: videos, images, articles, long-form posts, and link out to exterior websites. You can utilize the searchability feature and you can put a ton of information about your business including how to contact you. You can run paid ads or you can do really strategic posts that act as ads without paying for those.
Instagram is really great for brand awareness especially if you're in an industry that requires displaying products. I would say Facebook is really great for service-based businesses and Instagram is really wonderful for product-based business, but I caveat that to make sure you have quality images of your products.
Go Where Your People Are
I wouldn't say there is a “best social media platform.” I would suggest discovering who is your target market and where they spend most of their time. Is your target client base on Facebook? Are they on LinkedIn? Or are they on Instagram? If you are a product-based business, a lot of product-based businesses and a lot of consumers for those businesses are going to be on Instagram.
Many people use Facebook to find recommendations for services so it’s really great for service-based businesses. There is no one-size-fits-all best platform of social media for any type of business. The key is to get really targeted on who your client base is and discover where they're spending their time.
Best Rules for Social Media for Business
My advice to any business using social media for marketing is: get really good at using one platform; explore all of its features and get really consistent with the content you're putting out there. Once you have that automated for your business, then explore adding another platform, if it makes sense for your business and if you have the time.
It is irresponsible marketing advice to tell small businesses they should be everywhere all at once. I hear other marketing professionals saying this all the time, and I don't think it’s responsible and it’s certainly not strategic.
Avoid “Spray & Pray” Marketing
Being everywhere at once, especially on social media is another form of the “spray and pray” method of marketing. It’s very outdated, not effective and a waste of your precious time and energy.
Focus on one avenue of social media. Get really good at it, build a following, drive traffic to your website and then explore other methods of social media. Use it as a tool to grow your business, but be mindful that your time should be spent building your business, not managing your social media full-time. Remember, social media is a vehicle, not a destination.
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