by Karen Petrauskas | May 6, 2022
Are you a small business owner looking to engage more in social media? Here are our 8 tips to make social media marketing fun for every small businesses owner.
Social media marketing is one of the best and most enjoyable ways to reach new customers and get them to like your brand. But it can also be a lot of work. If you’re not having fun with it, then it’s going to be hard to keep up with.
We’ve put together 8 ways that can make social media marketing fun for small businesses owners:
#1 – Make Everything Visual
Social media is all about visuals, so use photos and videos whenever possible. Even if you’re posting links or articles, include an image that helps tell the story behind the link or article. It will make your posts more interesting for your followers and increase their engagement with your content.
Visuals are crucial for social media marketing because they have the power to make your posts go viral. If you’re not sure what visuals you should use, try using photos and videos of your products or employees in action.
Even if you don’t have a graphic designer on staff, there are plenty of affordable tools available that make it easy for anyone to create great graphics in minutes. You can use free tools like Canva or Snappa for creating amazing visuals.
#2 – Collaborate With Other Brands
Collaboration is a great way to connect with other businesses and build relationships with them. It’s also a lot of fun! You can collaborate with other brands by doing something like running a contest or giveaway together or by offering discounts or special promotions for customers who shop at both of your stores at once. If you’re interested in collaborating with another brand, reach out to them with a proposal that includes information about what you want from the collaboration and what they can expect in return.
When you have a limited budget and time, collaboration with other brands can be a great way to increase your visibility online and make your own brand better known. Collaboration helps to spread the message of both brands by providing more content for people to see and share. It’s also a great way to build relationships with other brands in the industry that might help grow your business down the line.
#3 – Host Contests and Giveaways
If you’re looking for a fun way to engage your audience, there’s nothing better than hosting a giveaway. There are tons of options available, including:
Photo contests – You can ask your followers to submit images with a certain theme or hashtag. The best photo wins!
Fan polls – You can ask your followers questions and see which answer is more popular. For example, you can ask them what their favourite type of food is or what they want to be when they grow up.
Video contests – Ask participants to create videos around a certain topic or theme. The best video wins!
Quiz games – Quizzes are another fun way to engage your customers by asking them trivia questions about your business and its products or services.
#4 – Tell Stories with Instagram Stories
Instagram Stories is an amazing feature from Instagram and it allows users to share photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours. It’s a way to share behind-the-scenes moments from your company, such as office parties or team outings. You can also use stories as an opportunity to interact with customers directly and answer questions they might have about your product or service offerings. These are easy to create, seconds even, so you can create them as you go and just keep posting!
#5 – Go Live on Facebook and Instagram
If you haven’t tried live video yet, now could be the time! You can go live from your phone or desktop, which means you don’t have to schedule anything in advance or worry about having the right equipment. All you need is a smartphone and an internet connection.
Once you’re live, viewers can chat with you and ask questions in real-time. Live video gives people the opportunity to get up close and personal with your brand — and they love it! A scary thought? Just jump on in and give it a go 🙂
#6 – Start a Podcast
A podcast is an audio show which you record and then upload to iTunes, Spotify, Audible, Stitcher or your other favourite podcast platform., for others to listen to. If you already have an idea for a topic you want to talk about, this is an easy way to get started. You can interview experts or people who are involved in the industry you want to target and then share those interviews on your website, blog or social media. Try it out with a friend or colleague and see how it goes, before you go big with someone you don’t know.
#7 – Create a Facebook Group for Your Customers or Fans
Leading a Facebook group is a fun and brilliant way to build your credibility as a market leader. While you share your knowledge, provide guidance, and create opportunities for expansion and growth, it only improves your professional image as a reliable resource. Besides, you will also learn many things about your customers and followers which will help you create better services or products for them.
#8 – Try a New Social Media Platform Out
If you’re using Facebook, Twitter and Instagram but are bored with them, try another platform like Pinterest or Snapchat. These platforms might be less popular than the big three right now, but they have unique advantages that could work well for your business – you don’t know unless you try.
Takeaway
Social media marketing can be fun if you come at it from the right angle. After all, your customers are there to connect with you and other people on the platform just as if it were face to face. We understand that not all small business owners have the time to create amazing social media content, but that’s ok. We suggest doing what you can, snapping photos and videos along the way, in whatever you are doing (having a bank of images is so worthwhile) and then setting a pace that works for you. If you’re still struggling to keep up, or you simply don’t enjoy social media, then reach out and let us take the reins. Your brand deserves the best chance possible, so don’t hold back, if you want to grow your business, let your social channels do the hard work for you.
Why not download our FREE social media checklist to help you stay on track – it’s our gift to you.
We look forward to hearing from you – get in touch today!
by Karen Petrauskas | Feb 25, 2022
Brand awareness = Business growth
Where are you in your business plan right now? Are you just starting out or have you been going for some time?
Everyone has their own journey and go about this at different rates, it’s not a competition, it’s about what’s right for you at this moment in time.
It takes time to build a brand, but the best bit of advice we can give is to let people know what you’re doing. If you’re shy or quiet about what you do, how do you expect people to know what you’re about! There might be someone right there who is your perfect customer, but if you’re not telling people what you do, they’ll never know you exist.
How do you build your brand?
There are a few vital things you need to do to grow your reputation and become established and these few tips will help:
Document everything
Whatever you do, document it. Take notes, take pictures, write it down, detail what motivates you, where your inspiration comes from, what people give you the nudge to get going. Create your own story and make it possible to share that journey later down the line. When the time comes, you might be the person who will inspire someone else to start their business – telling your brand story and having the proof of what you have been through and achieved will help others.
Put yourself out there
Don’t be afraid to talk to the people around you. Many people starting out in business are shy about telling their friends or family, but actually these are the people who you need to tell first. Why? Because these are the people who know you and will believe in you. They know your abilities and your strengths, and they have the desire to want to see you succeed.
A reputation grows when people start talking about you, word of mouth is a great marketing strategy, the more people hear about you, the more chance there is for someone to discover you. If you’re passionate what you do, why wouldn’t you want to talk about it!
What situations can you put yourself in that will help boost your brand awareness? Are there places you can go, people you can meet, networks you can utilise, advice you can give… put yourself out there to make the most of every opportunity that comes your way.
Use social media to share your stories
Everyone is online. The pandemic has driven more businesses to use online marketing to grow their brand. You need to be there too. If you’re not yet using social media for marketing, you’re missing a treat! It takes more than a few Facebook posts here and there. It takes more than posting a few posts on your personal profiles in the hope that ‘someone’ will notice you.
Create branded social media profiles, across various channels, post regularly, engage with your with your audience, give value through all your content.
If time is an issue for social media, don’t be afraid to outsource. This can seem like an expense that you don’t need in your small business, but in reality, this is such an important part of business growth that when you spent time focussing on what you are good at and utilising your skills to do the things you love – you can budget in for someone else to carry your marketing, so you don’t have to.
Join our Facebook Group!
Sidenote: if marketing is not your forte, there seems little point to wasting time doing it to a ‘half-standard’. The more your marketing works for you, the more clients you can bring on, or services/products you can sell. Make the most of this to your advantage and work as a team to build the brand and see the results.
When your business starts to build, you will have more opportunities to do bigger and better things. Scale and grow, and look at different strategies as you go through each stage. Take hold of the things that cross your path which will help you grow your brand. Don’t hide away, speak out where possible and let people see the passion you have – let them catch the enthusiasm with you!
If you’re looking to scale and grow your small business, we’d love to chat with you about your online marketing and how we can help you achieve your goals. Step out today and contact us – and let’s start the conversation.
In the meantime, download our free “Social media checklist – don’t forget the basics”, to get you tracking the basic social media ideals.
by Karen Petrauskas | Feb 18, 2022
There’s a storm blowing… who’s been watching intently and with anticipation at the extreme weather we’ve been experiencing recently? If you’re in the UK like we are, it’s been quite the picture in the past 24 hours.
Extreme weather causes for extreme action
This got me thinking about how we can reflect this in business terms. How can we turn what we’re watching out the window into full-blown action for our brand?
Here’s what I came up with for today:
- Focus on my main goal of the month – prioritise this goal over the smaller ones and give it 100% attention.
- Communicate with my regular clients and ensure that we’re on track with everything they expect.
- Deep dive into some paid advertising to keep leads coming in and the sales funnel open.
- Do my best to follow up on everything that comes in.
Goals = Results
These may not seem like extreme actions to some, but we all have our personal goals and end game, we all have the targets that we need to meet in order to accomplish what we set out to do. Focus on your personal goals, focus on what is important to your business and use your marketing to help you get there.
Marketing is a powerful tool which really can do powerful things. Just like a storm can do damage to whatever gets in its way, marketing can hit an audience at just the right time, in just the right way to create just the right results – when done properly.
You may be new to marketing, you may be a small business owner or start-up entrepreneur, but whatever angle you are coming from, your marketing plays a big part in getting your business noticed and raising your brand awareness. A plan of action and focus are the foundations to a good marketing strategy.
When extreme weather happens, don’t take your eye off the ball, but keep your head above the storm and striving for results. Utilise the marketing tools and people around you to get where you need to be and to reach the people who will benefit from your business, product or service.
If you’d like help pulling your business goals and marketing strategy together, get in touch or book a free consultation to start a conversation.
Karen x
PS – download our free social media checklist to help ensure you don’t miss the basics in your social media marketing
by Karen Petrauskas | Dec 8, 2021
Do you test and measure marketing results?
What a question. For small business owners on a pretty busy schedule, the thought of going back through everything to see what results actually happened, can not only be a time-consuming task, but a dreaded one.
You’ve put in all the hard work, it’s out there, social media posts have been put across all channels and if it works, great! Does this sound familiar?
So many people we talk to do not actually look at the results of their social media marketing and therefore have no idea of whether it’s beneficial or not. And realistically, if it’s not working, it’s costing you a lot of time.
Gain clear judgement and understanding by regularly measuring your social media efforts.
Don’t stand by and HOPE that something will work – test it!
via GIPHY
When you have a clear understanding of what impact your marketing is having, whether it’s hitting the right audience and above all – achieving your goals – then you’ll know which direction to go in next. A marketing strategy will help map all this out, giving a foundation to work from and a base to be able to grow and improve. Take action on the strategy and create a working plan that you can follow in each and every piece of marketing you do going forward.
- Sound time-consuming?
- Sound difficult?
- Sound not important for your small business?
… well, the truth is, that if you don’t measure and test, you could be doing it all for nothing. Therefore you are already wasting time, making marketing difficult and not helping your small business grow!
Use the metrics and performance measurements as a way to prove value and demonstrate the contribution of marketing to your business.
Here’s WHY you should test and measure your marketing:
Enhance your existing marketing content – improve or tweak
When you can see what is working, or not, you are able to make adjustments to give better results. Just a small tweak in the copy or a change of background in a Paid Facebook Ad could make all the difference to having just one sale, or to having one hundred sales.
Understand tangible metrics that help in costing and performance
When you deep dive into the ins and outs of the performance in each part of your marketing, you can help bring down costs and gain a better return on investment (ROI). You may find that advertising is expensive, or you’re spending too much time creating social media content, but if you can understand exactly what works and focus on this, you’ll spend less time and money in failed attempts.
Map out a customer journey and see what a customer actually wants, rather than what you think they want
Your business wouldn’t survive without customers, they are what keeps your business going. The more customers, the better the revenue and the greater the success. Knowing what makes your customers happy, having an understanding of what they are seeking, will help you create the right marketing content that resonates and has impact.
Hit goals and targets, allowing yourself to reach bigger achievements
Do you know what your targets are? Do you have big goals and ambitions? Your marketing is a tool to help you achieve. Within your strategy, create goals; small goals and big goals, short-term and long, and then map out steps to help you reach each step – targets. With each accomplished marker you’re closer to getting to the end goal.
Customer retention – vital in business growth.
Yes, you want customers to stay with you! It’s much easier to keep customers than to find new ones, right? Think about that for a moment, how much time do you spend acquiring a new customer? Once you’ve got them, you want to keep them. Customer service is a vital part of your marketing, ensuring customers – and potential customers – are happy.
Marketing works, when you know what works. Testing and measuring marketing results is so important in order to grow a business, and putting in the time and effort to structure this so that it works for you, rather than against you, will have a big impact in the future. Get it right now, and save time and money.
What are you waiting for? Are you measuring your results?
If not, we absolutely suggest that you start today. And if you’re not sure where to start, ask us, we’re happy to help.
In the meantime, start off with our FREE downloadable ‘Social media check – don’t forget the basics’, which will help you get an understanding of what you should be doing on a regular basis on your social media channels.
Speak soon!
by Karen Petrauskas | Sep 30, 2021
Struggling with WHAT to POST on your social channels?
How much time do you waste thinking about what to write and create, when you could be spending the time busy in your business or doing something you love?!
This is where planning and preparation comes in.
Planning out your content will really help get you on track with creating awesome eye-catching, inspiring and motivational posts that attract your audience 100% and get them interacting with you and your brand, turning them into loyal and repeat customers.
Do you use a content calendar?
👉🏻 First, get a blank monthly calendar where you have space to fill in (you can message us to get our copy if it helps)
👉🏻 Then use our awesome awareness days calendar (free here) and find the days that you know your audience will resonate. Put them in the calendar and start to think about how you write content around those days ensuring that it is relevant to your followers.
👉🏻 Do you use hashtag days? #MondayMotivation for example.. schedule in a few of these and write a note with each one to get your mind already thinking about what type of post it will be.
👉🏻 The next steps is to fill in intermittent blocks with content that relates to your own business. This could be taken from your blog, your services or the expertise you can share.
👉🏻 Next you want to curate content from other reputable and reliable sources which you know would be beneficial to your audience. What sites do you read? Pass on what you like and plan a few of these posts across the month
You’ll then realise that there’s not many spaces left in your content calendar! And it probably didn’t take you much time in the grand scheme of your week. The next step would be to write the posts and get them scheduled in – but this could always be done another day – plan some time in during the week to do this.
Ongoing social media plan
Each month, if you take time to plan and prepare, it takes away the pressure of finding content on a daily basis. You can mix and match the types of material you use, you can switch up the amount of awareness day that go in, and you can take inspiration from other things that are going on around you.
If you plan time to create your images, you may find that other things come to mind at the same time. When you don’t rush, there’s time to think things through and ensure that they’re completely on brand and following your values. When you rush, there’s more chance that you’ll use content just for the sake of it – that’s never a good plan and can easily result in your brand identity falling down.
What if you don’t enjoy content creation?
That’s ok – we all have the things that we love and the things that we’re good at – if we were all the same the world would be a very boring place! Sometimes you can be better off concentrating on what you’re best at, and finding someone else to do the bits in between. As a small business owner, you can’t do everything! Outsourcing or hiring at Virtual Assistant to fill these gaps can be an efficient way to move forward. Marketing is such an important part of your business and if you haven’t got the time to do a good job, it’s not going to the job it’s supposed to do.
Whatever your situation, social media planning is the best plan to creating a sustainable and growing channel. Plan ahead and get creative! Give it a go and let us know how you get on. And if you have any tips on finding WHAT to post across your social channels, drop a comment below.
Alternatively, if you’re still struggling to come up with content that is engaging and on-brand, or simply don’t have the time or resource to do it to a good standard, or even more – want to see bigger and better results than you’re currently getting – we’d love to chat with you. Hit the contact button and give us a bell and let’s see how we can work together.
