Blog Layout

7 Social Media Tactics for Businesses That Struggle With Social

Brian Davidson • Dec 21, 2022

A strong social media presence is one of the best ways to be heard, and businesses are no exception to this rule.

Forget the doorstep; there’s a whole world of potential customers and fans at your fingertips who are actively looking for brands that they can identify and engage with on a personal level. However, social media skills have to be learned, and many businesses struggle to find an audience and connect with them online. If yours is one of them, what can you do to make the best use of social media and all its benefits? How can you create content that gets people to stop scrolling and start reading, liking and sharing?

These 7 social media strategies will help your business build a presence and a following in the most crowded rooms online by creating content that entertains, educates, inspires and engages.

 


1. Make a plan

Before you rethink your entire social strategy, ask the tough questions. What are your goals as a business, and how will a strong social media presence help you to achieve them? What actions are you going to take to build presence, and how will you measure your success? Establish achievable and quantifiable objectives that are informed by your marketing and business goals, and put a time-frame on how long they should take to achieve. Find the right KPIs and tools to evaluate your progress, and don’t be afraid to change your tactics if something isn’t working.

And remember: don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater! If you’ve done something in the past that worked well, think about how and why it worked, and let it inform your strategy as you go forward. Similarly, look to past failures and learn from them: how have your past social efforts missed the mark, and how can you avoid these mistakes going forward?

With a roadmap to social success in place, your business can begin to make guided changes to its social strategy that work toward definite goals.

 


2. Know your audience

There are so many eyes and ears out there on the web, but do you know who is going to listen to your brand’s voice? Identifying and empathizing with your demographic and how they spend their time online makes a huge difference in making your voice heard. Picture your ideal customer. What interests them? What are they passionate about? What do they read, watch, and talk about with their friends? What are their goals, and how can the things you do help to achieve them? The better an understanding you have of your ideal customer, the easier it will be to find people like them online and speak to them with your content.


Listen to your audience and their conversations online about your industry in general and your brand in particular. Find the keywords and phrases in these conversations, learn how they’re used, and put them into practice in your own content. These keywords, which can include anything from industry jargon to misspellings of your company’s name, make up the language that your customers speak – to walk the walk, your business needs to talk the talk.

Finally, knowing the social media influencers your audience follows and engaging with the things that interest them can put you straight into your audience’s line of sight. Learn from what influencers do to engage your audience, and put it into practice in your own social media strategy.

 


3. Tell your story

Just like every person, every business has a story; no two are alike. Use your social media channels to build a narrative around your business that shows how it got to where it is today. Invite your audience to think about where they enter into that narrative: how are your followers involved and invested in your success? How can the things your business does change a person’s day, or change the way they live their lives?

One way to nail a narrative is to find your niche and own it. If your service or product fits into a certain lifestyle, build a story around it, and highlight your place in it. You know the unique value of your business – tell the world about it, and appeal to an audience that will benefit from it.

 


4. Get conversational

Social media is a two-way street, and driving engagement with your brand means taking hold of the reins and engaging with your audience. Make your business part of the conversation online by asking and answering questions, making friends, and following back. Things don’t always have to be about sales: sharing holiday greetings, discussing local events, and starting a dialogue about current news stories are all ways a business can drive engagement from their audience and learn more about their demographic.


Most importantly, share with your audience and encourage them to share with you! Ask your audience about what they want to see, take the feedback and deliver on it. If you see someone doing something cool with your product or sharing a success story, like it, retweet it, or give a shout out! When your audience is engaged with your brand, you become a part of their network, and everyone gets to see how your business fits into the lives of people just like them. This widens your audience and compounds your chances of generating engagement.

 


5. Go live!

Facebook Live has quickly become a powerhouse marketing tool for the biggest brands. Your followers are notified the moment you go live, and can join at any time to watch you broadcast the things that matter to the both of you. Is your company reaching a milestone, or releasing a brand new product? Has your warehouse just received a long-awaited and much anticipated shipment? Go live, and share the moment with your fans! Hold a live Q&A session, give fans a sneak peek at exciting things in the works, or simply broadcast a day in the life of an employee. When your fans see the real people behind your products or services and share in their successes, it lays the foundation for a fanbase that is engaged, loyal, and eager to see more!

 


6. Call to action

Make your statements short and sweet, and provide a way for your audience to follow up and learn more. Succinctness is a virtue and brevity is the soul of wit, especially in the fast-paced world of social media, and many social media platforms have embraced this philosophy to the point of integrating it into the very nature of user interaction. Twitter’s 140-character limit is an obvious example, but Snapchat’s ephemeral photos and videos and Instagram’s bite-sized Boomerang and Stories features are more recent examples. These limitations allow you to create captivating copy and striking visuals that inspire interest and are digested at a glance. Once you have their attention, encourage users to follow up by clicking a link, signing up for an email newsletter, or looking through a complete product line to get more of the content that hooked them!

 


7. Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3…

Finally, always be improving. Don’t focus on a single successful formula and stick to it. Variety is the spice of life, so keep an eye out for new trends, new conversations, and new mediums to get your message out there – but be scientific about it. Keep your eyes on the KPIs, put your strategies to the test by comparing their results, and learn from your failures as well as your successes to evolve along with your audience and your social media networks as they grow.

 


To wrap things up

The world of social media is constantly evolving, and with these tactics your business will find its place in the world beyond a brick and mortar shop or a domain name. Take stock of how far you’ve come, and set clear and measurable objectives that correspond to your business goals. Get to know your audience, tell them your story, and get involved by listening to what they have to say. Go live, give your followers a taste of what you have to offer, and provide the means for them to learn more about what you can do for them. Always pay attention to what works, learn from what doesn’t, and test out new ideas to keep improving your reach. Most importantly, remember the point of social media: to connect people! Use your social media channels as a platform to connect to and grow your audience, not just as a megaphone to talk at them. Now get out there and give the people something to talk about!


Want to talk to one of our experts on your social media strategy? Click here to book an appointment.

The Power of Purpose-Built AI Tools: Maximizing Your Content's Potential

By Brian Davidson • 14 Aug, 2023
Take your content to the next level by leveraging the right AI tools for the job

The Importance of Having a Content Marketing Strategy

By Brian Davidson • 01 Aug, 2023
In our fast-paced digital world, it's important that businesses - big and small - understand the importance of content marketing as a key strategy. You might be wondering, what exactly is content marketing and why do you need to have a solid content strategy? Lets explore the world of content marketing together and uncover why it has become an essential tool for all businesses in this digital era. Let's dive in! What Is Content Marketing? At its core, content marketing is the process of creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to a specific audience. The goal is to provide information and resources that your target audience is actively seeking, with the intent of building trust and authority within your industry or niche. Examples of content marketing Blog posts Videos Social Media Updates Whitepapers Case Studies And more. Essentially, anything that creates value for your audience could be considered part of a content marketing strategy. Why do you need to have a content marketing strategy for your business? Increases Traffic and Engagement A content marketing strategy helps to increase your online presence and attract new customers. When you produce relevant and engaging content regularly, it can help to boost your website's organic traffic, which translates into more sales. Boosts Brand Awareness Consistently creating valuable content helps to establish your brand as an authority in your industry. When you provide helpful information, insight, and solutions to your audience, you become a trusted resource to them, leading to increased brand awareness and loyalty. Builds Customer Loyalty and Trust A content marketing strategy helps to build customer loyalty and trust in your brand. When you provide value to your customers through your content, it creates a positive impression of who you are and what you stand for. It helps to build rapport, which can translate into repeat business and referrals. Generates Leads and Sales Content marketing can be used as a lead generation tool by creating content that provides a solution to a particular customer's problem. By offering valuable information and advice, you can turn a prospect into a customer or even a loyal follower. Cost-Effective Content marketing is one of the most cost-effective digital marketing strategies available. It does not require a significant financial investment to create content, and organic reach can bring in a steady stream of traffic for years to come. Including content marketing into your business strategy is crucial for achieving growth and success in our current fast-paced digital climate. By creating a well-thought-out content marketing plan, you can effectively drive traffic to your platforms, encourage active engagement from your audience, enhance brand recognition, cultivate strong customer loyalty, establish trust within your target market, and ultimately generate a steady stream of leads and sales. The best part? All of this can be achieved in a cost-effective manner, making content marketing a smart investment for any business. So don't miss out on this invaluable opportunity to propel your business forward – hop on the content marketing bandwagon today! If you want to speak to a member of our team about your content strategy you can reach us at i nfo@lightswitchmedia.ca or book a discovery call here .

Why Hiring a Pro Beats DIY Solutions

By Kim Johnston • 06 Jul, 2023
DIY solutions are great we offer a few to our clients and give as much support as possible but nothing really beats outsourcing things and letting a pro take care of it for you. In today's competitive market, companies are looking for ways to improve their business operations. One option is outsourcing. It's a popular choice among all types of businesses because it allows them to focus on their core competencies while letting an expert handle important tasks like marketing. Let's have a look at why outsourcing outperforms DIY solutions and how you can get started with it today! There are so many reasons why you should outsource. You can focus on what you do best. You can save time and money. You can hire experts in their field. You can get consistent results. It's also a good way to grow your business quickly and efficiently by outsourcing some of the important tasks you don't have as much experience with, allowing you more time to spend on larger projects and initiatives that will help grow your company in the long-run! You want to be great at everything, but the truth is, you can’t. You can’t be great at everything. It’s a fact of life. You have to focus on the things that matter most to you, and then hire people who are great at what they do. Outsourcing is the best way to achieve this because it allows you to focus on your strengths and delegate tasks for which others are better suited. The opportunity cost of doing it yourself is huge. The opportunity cost of doing something yourself is the value of your next best alternative. In other words, it's the value of the most valuable thing you could be doing with that time or money. If you're an entrepreneur and have some cash to put into a project, then hiring someone else can be an incredibly smart move. But before considering outsourcing your business processes, make sure that you've considered all the pros and cons thoroughly—from both sides! If you can find a skilled team that can do the tasks better and faster than you, why wouldn't you use them? If you can find a skilled team that can do the tasks better and faster than you, why wouldn't you use them? Outsourcing your content marketing efforts frees up your time to focus on the most important parts of your business. Instead of spending hours each week trying to figure out how to create engaging content, you can hire an expert in that field who will deliver consistent results. You'll find they're a lot more efficient than you at creating the kind of content that will attract new customers and increase sales. In short, outsourcing can be a great solution for your business. It allows you to focus on what matters most to you and avoid spending time on tasks that aren’t core competencies.

Myths about outsourcing your marketing

By Brian Davidson • 12 Jun, 2023
There are many misconceptions when it comes to outsourcing — Let's talk about them

What Is SEO Anyway?

By Kim Johnston • 23 May, 2023
What Is SEO?...And Why Does It Matter To You?

Traditional Marketing vs. Digital Marketing. What works better?

By Brian Davidson • 09 May, 2023
Both traditional and digital marketing work to create a successful brand but is one better than the other? Let's find out!

How Using AI Writing Tools Can Save You Hours Each Month When Creating Social Content

By Brian Davidson • 19 Jan, 2023
AI is here to stay, how can Local Businesses take advantage?

Planning for Marketing Success in 2023

By Brian Davidson • 09 Jan, 2023
You're not alone if you feel like the world of marketing is constantly changing. From social media trends to advertising platforms, it seems like every year something new comes along that can help or hinder your organization's efforts to build brand awareness and sales. It's no wonder that many businesses decide to outsource their marketing plans: after all, why waste time trying to stay on top of every trend when there are experts out there who can develop a comprehensive strategy for your business?

Marketing During Uncertain Economic Times

By Brian Davidson • 22 Aug, 2022
It may seem like a scary time to be in business. You hear on TV about how the economy is falling apart and all the things that are going wrong. The stock market looks like it’s going to crash again at any moment. And yet, this is also an opportunity for savvy marketers who have a plan in place to make money while others are scared and pulling back their spend. You can’t cut your way to profitability. Marketing is no longer a nice-to-have in today's business world—it's essential. The best way to ensure that your company stays profitable during uncertain economic times is by staying top of mind with customers and prospects. You have to do this by constantly engaging them with tailored messaging, relevant offers and content that allows for engagement with your brand (via social media, email communication or other means). Recessions are a great time to make money. Recessions are a great time to make money. The old saying is true: When it rains, it pours. And when the economy goes south, you can be sure that your customers will start looking for ways to cut costs and increase their bottom line. In fact, one of the surest ways to get new customers during uncertain economic times is by offering them discount pricing and special offers on your products or services. If you're not taking advantage of this opportunity now, then what are you waiting for? Your competitors will be doing just that! The general public is actually spending more time with media. In fact, people are spending more time with media than ever before. According to Nielsen's Total Audience Report, the average American adult spends nearly five hours a day watching TV and live streaming programs on their phones—that's more than two hours more than in 2017. And even though it may seem like Americans are glued to their phones, they're actually spending less time on social media: Americans spent an average of four hours and 42 minutes per day using their smartphones in March 2019 (a decrease of one hour and 35 minutes compared to April 2018). The good news is that all these trends have given businesses new opportunities. As consumers spend more time consuming content from brands they love—whether it be an ad or just a meme from YouTube—it gives marketers another chance at connecting with them and explaining how their products can help solve problems or improve lives. The bottom line here is that businesses should keep up with current trends in order for them not only survive but thrive during uncertain economic times when people will look for any way possible to save money without sacrificing quality of life! When everyone else is panicking, this is the time to be brave and courageous. When you're in a room full of people who are all terrified about the future of their business, it's easy to feel like you have no hope for success. You may even start to wonder if it's worth it or not. Remember: bravery isn't just for soldiers and firemen—it's also for entrepreneurs! If your competitors are panicking, your customers will notice and will sense an opportunity there for you to step into their place as the new market leader (with creative marketing strategies). By constantly staying in front of your customers and prospects, when things turn around or consumer confidence increases, your business will be top of mind. And hopefully, the first in line when the purse strings are opened again. Marketing = Lead Generation, Lead Generation = Customers, Customers = Sales, Sales = Profits! The best way to get leads is through marketing. The more leads you have, the more customers you'll have. And the more customers you have…you guessed it! You'll make more money! Now that's a cycle that makes sense! A recession is an opportunity to make money while others are scared and pulling back their spend A recession is a time of uncertainty, and that’s great news for you. While others are scared and pulling back their spend, you can use this as an opportunity to make money while they hold back—and then take it even further when they eventually feel comfortable enough to do business again. It’s important that you don’t just sit around waiting for the market to recover from its effects. Instead, use marketing strategies that help your business stand out from the crowd during uncertain economic times: Keep communicating with existing customers about what value your product or service brings them. A downturn in sales might mean some of them are struggling financially, but it doesn't mean they're not interested in continuing doing business with you! If anything, communicating with them will help build trust so when things get better again (which they will), they'll be even more likely than ever before to come back because they know how valuable having such friendly relationships can be during tough times like these. Conclusion I hope this article has helped you understand why marketing is crucial during uncertain economic times. Marketing has always been important but now it’s even more so because the general public needs to be convinced of your products and services before they will spend money on them. If you take anything away from this post, let it be that no matter what happens in our economy, businesses can still make money if they have a good marketing strategy and track record behind them!

Online Directories....The Secret Weapon for Local Businesses

By Brian Davidson • 20 Jun, 2022
Online Directories....The Secret Weapon for Local Businesses N o matter how good your product or service, if you're not using local directories, you're missing out on a huge opportunity to find new customers. Why your business needs to be listed in local directories As you've probably noticed, there are thousands of local directories on the internet. Many of them are free and can be easily accessed by anyone who wants their business to be listed. And it’s a good idea for your business to be listed in as many directories as possible. Here's why: ● Directory listings are an easy way to get more customers. When someone searches for products or services near you, they're likely to find your listing first if it's been optimized correctly and has high rankings in search engines like Google and Bing. You may even show up at the top of search results for searches with multiple variations on keywords (like "online directory" or “local online directory") because these types of sites rank well with those searches due to their high domain authority (DA). This makes it easier for people who want your products or services locally to find you! How to list your business on local directories For example, you don't want to be listed in a directory that is only for lawyers or dentists if your business is a plumber. And while it might be tempting to submit your business under the "plumbers" category and then list all of the services you offer, think about how confusing that could get for someone looking. They may not know which category applies most closely to the service they need—and they certainly won't have time to read through every single one of them! You should also make sure that your contact information is correct on any local directories where you are listed. We've all experienced this frustrating situation: You type in an address into Google Maps or Waze and it takes you somewhere totally different from where you intended! So, when someone searches for a business based on their location (which is what most people will do), having an incorrect address can mean the difference between being found by potential customers or remaining hidden from view. The same goes for websites too; if people can't find out whether there's one or not then they're less likely ever even think about giving your company a chance! How to get the best results from being listed in local directories If you're going to be listed in local directories, it's important to understand what they are and how they work. That way, you can make the most of your listing. ● Listing on multiple directories ● Listing on directories that are relevant to your business ● Listing on directories that are popular in your area ● Listing on directories that are easy to use ● Listing on directories that are free (or at least inexpensive) And if possible, find out how often each directory is updated so you know what kind of information will be available when people search for you online. Listing your business in a local directory can help you grow it. A local business directory is a great place to get noticed. It can help you build your brand and get more exposure, which will result in more traffic to your website, which will result in more customers. ● Being listed on a local directory helps people find you online. We all know that most people use search engines to find businesses near them, so getting listed on directories like Google Maps or Yelp can be the difference between being found and going unnoticed. ● People trust online reviews from people like themselves who have experienced something firsthand (i.e., an actual customer). If someone sees that there are positive reviews about your business on a local directory site then they’re more likely to trust what they read because they know it comes from verified customers just like them! To summarize: Listing your business in these kinds of sites can be very beneficial as long as you take advantage of it properly by putting effort into building relationships with new clients and keeping track of what works best for them (so make sure there's some room left over after the monthly dues). Conclusion In this post, we covered some of the main benefits of having your business listed in local directories. You can get more customers and build trust with potential clients by showing them that you’re an active business. And you can also use these listings to show up in search results for local searches related to your business. Most importantly, listing with a directory like LocalDines is free! So there’s no reason not to give it a try, especially if you don’t already have a strong online presence or social media marketing strategy. Interested in automating this process? Our Listing Sync Pro software will search the web for the most relevant directories for your area and industry, create your directory listing and automatically update that listing for you. To learn more visit us here for more information.
More Posts
Share by: