If you are the typical small business owner, you want to gain leads through your marketing process by building relationships with potential customers and gaining that coveted consumer trust. It’s not about sales at the forefront … it’s about providing value to your customer base. Social Media Marketing (SMM) is no different as it should be an integral part of your marketing campaign. The following are some tips that might help you with your SMM process.

This is an integral part of branding your product or service in this age of consumer-driven brand trust. If you are constantly telling your audience to purchase your product or service, then how are you any different from that stereotypical car salesman that is constantly in your face? Walsh continues, “Social media has ushered in a new era of doing business and customers are in on this new development, so that anything less to adapting this new method of business means losing customers in the long run.”

So, with this in mind, how do you take the lead with your social media marketing process? While it is tempting to leave the work of SMM to the younger members of your organization because of their technological savvy in this ever-changing social media landscape, the business chief should be the one performing the actions. Why? Simply put, the owner or chief just knows more about the core and essence of the business, products and/or services that are being offered. If the owner is not well versed on the ins and outs of social media, then this is the time to approach the younger members of the staff to teach them about how to use the various social media platforms.

Once this is all figured out, you want to identify what social media service you should start using. While ultimately you want to use a multitude of platforms, Walsh points out the importance of using one kind of social media platform at a time, and that you shouldn’t be a “jack-of-all-trades and master of none.” Make sure that you consider what service properly fits your business and matches with your priorities. Trying to do too much too fast can not only be overwhelming, but it can also prevent you from learning how to effectively use each site We all know that Twitter and Facebook are the most popular avenues to choose, but the best platform for your business might not be either of these. Do your research, find the one that is right for you and your business initially, master the interface and then go on to add new sites to your repertoire. Remember, though, it isn’t enough to just set up an account and leave it to the Internet Gods to take care of the rest … you must have a consistence presence for it to work. Once you decide to use it, you should be fully dedicated to it. Neal Alfie Lasta from Social Barrel adds, “Your social media page can back fire if visitors see that you’re not posting relevant content frequently and worse, you’re not answering the questions of your customers.”

So to get that coveted following with your social media presences, you should join conversations about products or services that you are offering. Here, remember the old adage, “keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.” Connect with people in your industry or potential clients as social media is here for networking.

Your conversations should depict your know-how and proficiency in the matter to build positive and lasting awareness. It is also important to note that social media is also used for laid-back purposes and not just for business uses. Avoid posting content that contradicts this leisurely activity and provide stuff that makes their social media experience more valuable … things that are not necessarily about your business, product or service, but content that you know will captivate the interest of your fans. Be real and be yourself … people want to know that they are talking to a real person. It is not all about using social media to sell, but more about establishing your presence. If you have to use social media to sell, though, do it when you have a big sale, promotion or special celebration.

At this point, you obviously will not be an expert at social media so the first thing you want to make sure happens is to complete your social media profiles in a consistent manner. This is one important way that you will achieve consistency with your branding. Profiles may include a bio, website link, blog, location and a headshot so make sure to completely fill our your profile on any social media site that you use and make sure you are consistent throughout. This will aid in brand recognition, broader reach and ongoing communication with the same contacts on multiple sites.

Social media can be very time consuming as you could spend hours every day staying up to speed on the popular social media sites. Most small business do not have the time, energy or interest in putting so much effort into this, so you want to make sure you create a time budget that limits the amount of time spent on SMM to a daily or weekly total that fits your schedule. One way to manage your time effectively is with a social media dashboard like HootSuite or SproutSocial. These tools allow you to set up alerts and notifications, create groups, skim activity quickly and schedule updates so you can automate some of the process. While you don’t want to over-automate (keep that human feel), these dashboards can make the process of using social media for business smooth and efficient.

So now you are ready to start posting content, but you are probably asking where to start. I suggest starting by observing what already established “social media pros” are doing, and learn the ins and outs before deciding how you will approach the social media site to promote your business. In addition, before posting content, you want to make sure you are clear on your goals (what you want to accomplish with social media) and your intended approach (communicator, industry-related newsfeed or a mix of business and personal information).

Hopefully now you are ready to start using social media to market your business. Assuming you are new to using social media for your business, remember to start slow and stay true to your business goals and I can guarantee that you will be off to a successful social media start. If all of this is a bit overwhelming, we here atImagine That are here to help you grow your business. SMM is only a small part of the digital marketing process, so feel free to give us a call (970-224-1930) or shoot us an email () to set up your free consultation. Until then, Dream Bigger!