Effective Social Media Tips For Small Businesses By 33 Experts

Nov 19, 2018 26 min read

Social media can be a great medium for small businesses to reach out to new customers & grow their business. However, a majority of small business owners don't know how to effectively use social media for their business. We often get a lot of question from small business owners such as:

  • How to effectively use social media for small business?
  • What are the best social media tips for small business?

Thus, considering all the problems that small business owners are facing on Social media, we decided to reach out to top social media & small business influencers to get their best social media tips for small business.

If you are planning to promote your small business on social media, then check out these 33 experts sharing their most effective social media marketing tips for small businesses.

Enjoy :)

Experts Share Social Media Marketing tips for Small Businesses in 2019

1. Maura | Digital Market Expert at MeetEdgar

Small business owners can market their businesses on social media by using it to share who they are as a brand and to create a community. Too many small businesses focus solely on selling on social media but social is all about being social and creating connections with your fans.

Small businesses should concentrate on diversifying content and sharing educational and entertaining posts in addition to promotional posts. Consumers want to emotionally connect with brands in the digital era and social media is the perfect avenue to tap into those emotions. By diversifying content and sharing consistently, small businesses can earn their customer’s trust and loyalty.

One of the best things a small business can do is to create social media calendar that highlights the different types of content and when it will be posted. This creates consistency and engaging feeds.

Connect with MeetEdgar on Twitter.

2. Jamie Turner | Founder and Chief Content Officer at 60secondmarketer

Jamie Turner

The #1 thing small businesses need to do when they use social media is to remember that social media isn’t a silver bullet. By that, I mean that it won’t solve all your problems. Instead, social media makes everything else you’re doing work that much better. In other words it adds fuel to the fire (in a good way).” – Jamie Turner, internationally recognized author, speaker, and CEO of 60secondmarketer.

Connect with Jamie Turner on Twitter.

3. Neal Schaffer | CEO | PDCA Social | Social Media Speaker | Consultant | Author & Educator at Nealschaffer

Neal Schaffer CEO PDCA Social Social Media Speaker Consultant Author Educator

I believe that small businesses can effectively market their business on social media through a combination of providing resourceful content, engaging with others, building community using paid social, and developing relationships with influencers. It sounds like a lot and does require a budget, but considering the growing importance of social media, its best to start building a community now before your competitors outperform you!

Connect with Neal Schaffer on Twitter.

4. Andy Crestodina | Co-Founder / Chief Marketing Officer at OrbitMedia

Andy Crestodina Co-Founder Chief Marketing Officer at OrbitMedia

Back when text got too competitive, smart marketers started posting more images. And now that images are too competitive, smart marketers post video. But some are still doing a pretty bad job of it.

Here's how to use video within a post to get much better click through rates than any typical post:

  • Add captions to the video (so the visitor will slow down as they scroll, and tap to turn on volume)
  • In the post, mention other marketers, use line breaks, special characters and every other.
  • Use campaign tracking code to the link (so you'll know how much traffic you generated)

The mentions are important because they make the post visible to those who might interact with it quickly. And those early engagements help the algorithm know that the post is worth showing to many more people. These tips are by Andy Crestodina who is co-founder of OrbitMedia.

Connect with Andy Crestodina on Twitter.

5. Kamy Anderson | Market Researcher at ProProfs

Start out with building your industry authority. The more you have it, the greater the chances of customers and prospects flocking towards you. Know what you are talking about. Focus on business networking and promotion. Push yourself hard to deliver consistent results. All this will naturally establish you as the go-to authority.

Connect with your audience. Social media is not a one-way street, it never was and never will it be. It is not enough to shout from the rooftops about your products and/or services, mega business deals, and the awards you’ve won. It’s also an opportunity to connect with people in a meaningful way. Show gratitude to your supporters and appreciate their gestures, no matter how small they are.

Be clear about your goals, and put your money where your mouth is. Understand what you are shooting at and trying to accomplish. It can be leads, sales, or both. Avoid vague goals. Use analytics tools to track and measure results.

Focus on selected platforms. Identify which social media platforms your target audience is spending most of their online time. After that, play on your playground. While you continue to make your presence felt in other forums, you should invest the greatest amount of your time and money where all your prospects are active. Given tips are shared by Kamy Anderson designated as market researcher at <a href=" https://www.proprofs.com/" target="blank" rel"nofollow">ProProfs.

Connect with Kamy Anderson on Twitter.

6. Shane Barker | Digital Strategist, Brand and Influencer Consultant at Shane Barker Consulting

Shane Barker

If you are a small business and are just starting with your social media marketing plan, your first order of business should be to get noticed and build your social media presence. For that, my advice would be to post highly-targeted, relevant content that sparks a conversation.

This is a two-fold strategy. The first part focuses on delivering the right content that will resonate with your target audience. For this, you need to first understand who your potential customers are and what kind of content they engage with.

Second, you need to create content that starts a conversation between your brand and audience. This is important as most social media platforms prefer posts and that get engagement and promote those over ones that don’t.

Connect with Shane Barker on Twitter.

7. Adam Connell | Founder of Blogging Wizard

Adam Connell: Founder of Blogging Wizard

Social media can be a powerful asset for any business - and there are plenty of ways you can use it to grow an audience.

But it's easy to become too reliant on social as a whole, or specific platforms. Then, all of a sudden - a major source of new customers vanishes after you've invested a huge amount of resources in growing a following.

It happened when Facebook slashed organic reach. It happened when Pinterest changed it's algorithm, and it's even worse for Google+. That's going for good in 2019 (RIP G+).

So, my advice is to avoid putting all of your eggs in one basket (so to speak).

More specifically, focus on developing platforms and assets you have some control over. Such as an email list.

I'm not saying give up on social. It's become a necessity for many businesses. But when you build an email list, and cross promote your social networks - you'll be less likely to have any issues when the next major social network makes a change. These tips are provided by Adam Connel, founder of Blogging Wizard.

Connect with Adam Connell on Twitter.

8. Keith Keller | Twitter Marketing Specialist at Globalsocialmediacoaching

Keith Keller Twitter Marketing Specialist

If you have not begun yet it’s not too late, simply start where you are and only try one or two platforms at a time.

Perhaps Facebook & Instagram?

….. or maybe Twitter & LinkedIn?
Start small and don’t try to do too much at once.

If you have been at this for a while, here are a few things that are working really well.

Native Video
Embed your videos onto the platforms themselves, instead or sending potential clients to another page. I know this feels counter intuitive but it is getting great engagement at the moment.

Paid Social
Ads on Social Media sites can get fantastic ROI.Twitter is particularly good for this (in certain sectors) at the moment.Experiment with ads on your favourite platforms and see how you go.

It is largely trial and error in the beginning but there are experts around now that can save your heaps of time and money.

Have Fun
This is probably the most important element of all.

Social media is all about engagement and the more fun you have with it the more engagement you will get from your potential customers. Above given tips are by Keith keller, Twitter marketing specialist at Globalsocialmediacoaching.

Connect with Keith Keller on Twitter.

9. David Reimherr | Founder of Magnificent Marketing

David Reimherr

A fantastic way for small businesses to market themselves is through delivering helpful content to their audience in order to start to build the trust and awareness of their brand.

By providing helpful tips that answer some of the challenges or questions your audience has, you will not only gain and earn their attention, but you will become a thought leader in their minds as well as tap into the law of reciprocity.

And in our opinion, the most effective way to deliver these messages is thru the usage of videos. As for these videos, we are not necessarily talking about highly produced videos but rather authentic videos shot from your computer or phone. Personal branding, authenticity, being helpful by providing educational/informational/inspiration content (i.e. content marketing) are all super hot and key in today's marketing landscape. Be real, be helpful, be consistent... and you'll be successful!
These tips are shared by expert David Reimherr who is founder of Magnificent Marketing.

Connect with David Reimherr on Twitter.

10. Jeet Banerjee | Serial entrepreneur | TEDx speaker & digital marketing consultant at JeetBanerjee

Jeet Banerjee

Create something of value on social media that makes people want to follow you and engage with your content. So many brands get it wrong because they are constantly trying to sell or push products/services in the faces of their audience.

Instead of doing that, find creative ways to get your audience to engage with you so that if they do need your products or services, they'll know exactly where to find you. Branding yourself is far more important than trying to constantly beg people to buy your products from you on social media!

Connect with Jeet Banerjee on Twitter.

11. Ali Mirza | Founder of iSocialyou

Ali Mirza

We all know how popular video content is becoming on social media so start creating more videos. Actually start telling stories using video. You don't have to hire a video production agency, you can do it with your mobile phone.

If you are not sure what type of videos to create, here are some ideas for you: create videos about your WHY, successes, failures and why should people buy your product or service. Also make your team a part of your content creation process. You employees are your brand ambassadors so educate them and allow them to tell stories using video. These tips are provided by Ali Mirza, founder of iSocialyou.com.

Connect with Ali Mirza on Twitter.

12. Mike Schiemer | Founder of Bootstrap Business

Mike Schiemer

The best way to market a small business on social media is by proving that you are an authority in your industry. Whether you are a marketer or a gardener, you need to prove that you are the most knowledgeable and experienced professional available.

Share tips on your area of expertise on all major social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest and YouTube. Write and post informational blog articles about topics that will provide value to current and prospective customers.

Engage with other industry professionals via Facebook comments, LinkedIn posts, and Tweets. It won't happen overnight but your knowledge and value will become known across social media. You will then have a steady stream of organic high potential leads, referrals and repeat customers on social media. Thank Mike Schiemer who is founder of Bootstrap Business for these tips.

You can connect with mike on Twitter.

13. Temi Odurinde | Social Media Expert at Hopespring

Temi Odurinde

To market your business effectively on social media in 2019, you need to separate your personal preference, from what works for your business. Personally, Twitter is my favourite social media platform.

I however noticed that my businesses get better conversion, engagement and interaction on Facebook. So I have deployed 90% of my social media marketing resources to Facebook.

Small businesses tends to have limited budget, it follows that the budget is allocated to promoting your business on two or three social media platforms.

If you try to be on all of them, you will stretch your budget/time too thinly, to the extent that your marketing efforts will not be effective on any of the platforms. My final tip is not to get carried away by having xyz thousands of likes or followers. The most important thing is how many of your followers of likes actually converts to sales. Temi Odurine who is a social media expert at Hopespring.org has shared these amazing secrets.

14. Brenda Stolz | CEO at Ariad Partners, LLC

Brenda Stolz

Social media is not for selling. It's about relationship building. It's about increasing the number of people who know about you, your content and business. It is not for making sales.

The best thing you can do is to pick one or two platform where your prospects are and be present.
Don’t spread yourself too thin across a number of platforms. Share tips that address their needs, share content that would be of interest around your topic area of expertise.
Use relevant hashtags to reach more people interested in your topic. And remember, even if aren’t getting leads or sales, you’re helping your SEO as promoting your content helps you get high-quality backlinks.
Thank Brenda Stolz, CEO at Ariad Partners for these great advices.

Connect with Brenda Stolz on Twitter.

15. Lisa Sicard | Inspiretothrive

Lisa Sicard

Inspiretothrive.com is handled and managed by Lisa Sicard.

Having your brand stand out on social media today is very important. You must be sure all your channels have the same logo and photos.

Often, I included, put up images on various social media networks and other networking channels and then forget to update them.

I like to do a seasonal adjustment ?

  • Set up a date on your calendar to check out your networks and be sure all have the uniform look and feel to them.
  • Of course, you can have a few slightly different as each have their own audience and demographic.
  • Use the same colors for your brand along with your logo and most important your own personal photo.

I always tell people “People love doing business with other people!”.

Connect with Lisa Sicard on Twitter.

16. Pat Ahern | Cofounder at Junto.Digital

Pat ahern

The best way for small businesses to effectively market themselves on social media is to promote themselves to fans of their largest competitors.

Start by pulling up the Twitter page of your competitors (start with the largest local competitors in your industry). Navigate to their list of followers and start a conversation with these followers one-by-one. Offer them a free pizza if they swing by your pizza shop; offer them a free beer the next time that they stop by your bar.

This approach works best for business with a low average order value. However, those selling items with a high average order value (ex. furniture stores) can switch the approach away from discounts to building a relationship through genuine interactions.
These suggestions are pointed by Pat Ahern who is a cofounder at Junto.Digital.

Connect with Pat Ahern on Twitter.

17. Marko Saric | Founder of Howtomakemyblog

Marco Saric

One of the best ways for a small business to get some traction in social media is by listening. Listen and understand what your target audience is doing and saying in social media.

Be it what they are saying about your product directly, or about a competing product or about the problem that your product is solving for people.

Listen to what people are saying, learn from the trends you see and directly engage where it is appropriate. This type of a "social" social media approach has potential to give you better results faster.

Connect Marco Saric on Howtomakemyblog and Twitter.

18. Dorien Morin-van Dam | Social Media Consultant at MoreinMedia

Dorien Morin-van Dam

The most important things a small business can do to effectively market their business on social media in 2019 is to create a strategic plan and set a realistic budget!
Just throwing things out there and seeing 'what sticks' isn't going to cut it anymore. In order to have success, small businesses have to create quality content, engage with their audience, run ad campaigns and build their online presence. Without a written plan of action, nothing can be measured.
These words of advice is by Dorien Morin-van Dam, social media consultant at MoreinMedia.com.

Connect with Dorien Morin-van Dam on Twitter.

19. Gill Andrews | Founded Gillandrews

Gill andrews

Social feed is a noisy place where you compete with hundreds of other posts with the algorithms playing against you. So, if you hope to post a link to your website on social and immediately get sales, you're up for a big disappointment.

Yet, you can still use social media to sell. It just takes focus, determination and patience. I would recommend the following:

Select 1-2 social networks you know your target audience uses.

  • Give your 100% while posting there: Posting regularly, creating custom posts and images, asking and answering questions, engaging with the content of others.
  • Give more than you get in terms of sharing your knowledge and expertise, and make it about helping and not selling.
  • Learn the tricks of how to maximize engagement on a particular network: How the algorithms work, how to visually structure your posts for them to stand out, what kind of posts generally get more engagement, etc.
  • Slowly but steadily, you'll grow a tribe of dedicated followers and fans who look forward to your new posts, don't mind when you occasionally promote your offers, and even help you do that. Some of them will also subscribe to your newsletter, and this is where you'll be able to sell to them more effectively.

Connect with Gill Andrews on Twitter.

20. Robert Katai | Content Marketing Manager of Bannersnack

Robert katai

  • Understand where is your audience and what they are looking for

Before you even start creating content, doing paid ads on social media you have to understand your audience: where do they spend their time, where is their attention and what they are looking on social media. Talk with your clients, see what your competition is doing and take the amount of time you need to really understand your audience.

  • Start creating content for them, not for you

When you understand your audience you will start creating content for them, you will understand what they need and what’s the kind of content that they are engaging with. There is too much talking about the platforms, about their algorithms and other stuff but there is less talking about the importance of content. That’s why it is always about the content. That's why I wrote this article: It is about content. To make every marketer and small business owner to understand that the real deal it's in content, not in platforms. Don’t get in love with one platform, get in love in content.

  • Quality and Quantity

I know that people are asking what is more important: quantity or quality. But today they are both very important. You have to put the energy to create high quality content and make it consistent, every week, every day or whatever strategy you choose to use.

These are the 3 simple tips every small business can use in 2019. It is not rocket science and it won’t boost your business in 1 or 2 months. But when you are doing it consistent, every week and you pay attention to your user, you will figure it out what’s going well and what’s not.

You can connect with Robert Katai on Twitter and Bannersnack.

21. Seb Brantigan | Award Winning Affiliate & Featured Content Expert at Sebbrantigan

Seb Brantigan

The best thing you can do is piggyback off current trends. Create content around what is already popular and getting attention. And then add a subtle call to action to tie this into your products and services. Try to avoid politics and religion too much.

You can connect with Seb on Twitter.

22. David Leonhardt | President at THGM Writers

David Leonhardt

My top tip for social media success is to focus on the images. As important as headlines and text are, most people don’t even see the words until they stop to see the picture.

Mistake #1 that small businesses make on social media: no images.

Mistake #2 that small businesses make on social media: stock photography.

You need an image, and it has to look interesting. It has to make people stop and think, “What’s going on here?” The best image is one that people will want to share to their followers. Or an image that will make people click through to your website (usually it’s a combination of the image and headline). An image that does both is pure gold.

What I find people seem to relate to is an image that includes text, to tell a message. The text can do one of two things:

  • It can tell a story complete enough to stand on its own, so that people pass it around for their followers to see.
  • Or it can ask a question or raise curiosity.

Combined with the right headline, it can do both. Either image or headline delivers a strong message, worth passing on. The other raises curiosity, so that people click through. It’s a powerful combination. Used repeatedly, it can generate great traffic.

Connect with David Leonhardt on Twitter and THGM Writers.

23. Amy Howell | Founder & CEO of Howell Marketing Strategies

Amy Howell

Standing apart for a brand or business means having valuable information that is relevant, timely, interesting and helpful. Being real (not automated) and engaging with others is also critical in my opinion.

You can connect with Amy Howell on Twitter and Howell Marketing Strategies.

24. Erika Heald | Marketing Consultant | Social Media Coach | Blogger | Freelance Writer and Editor at Erikaheald

Erika Heald

As a small business owner, you have a lot of to do's on your list. that's why when it comes to social media, you've got to make sure you are spending your limited time on the most effective channels.

Although it can feel tempting to join every new social media channel that comes along, it's important to first find out what social media platforms your customers are using for researching businesses like yours.

Once you understand how your customers prioritize their time, you can put together a social media plan that reaches them where they already are.

Connect with Erika Heald on Twitter.

25. Jonathan Aufrey | Co-founder and CEO at Growth Hackers

Jonathan Aufrey

To be successful on social media, I recommend small businesses to think about their target audience before posting.

Ask yourself this question: "Will your community enjoy your posts?". If the answer is 'yes'; then, don't hesitate to post. If the answer is 'maybe', 'no', 'I don't know' or 'I am not sure'; then, don't post.

Also, I suggest diversifying the types of posts. Don't always share the same things and don't over promote yourself. You could post information posts, entertaining ones, discounts, blog posts, infographics, curated posts from influencers in your niche, industry news, tips, etc.

You can connect with Jonathan Aufrey at Twitter and Growth Hackers.

26. Paul Gillin | B2B Expert at Gillin

Paul Gillin

The best way a small business can market on social media is to deliver an experience that customers want to share. Ratings and reviews are the primary marketing channel for many small businesses these days.

Embed sharing links in all your communications and send follow-up email to customers whenever possible with sites where they can tell others about their experience. If your business or product is visual, so much the better.

Posts with photos get more attention on social networks and are the foundation of sharing sites like Instagram and Pinterest.

You can connect with Paul Gillin on Twitter.

27. Jordie van Rijn | Founder of emailmonday

Jordie van Rijn

“Quick tip: Talk about the (exclusive) content that will be in your newsletter before and after you send it. That way a simple status update or post can lead to more email subscribers"

Connect with Jordie van Rijn on Twitter and Email marketing specialist.

28. Anna Bennett | Top 15 Pinterest experts chosen by Pinterest

Anna Bennett

Did you know that it takes about seven touch points before a customer will trust and buy from you? And those 7 touches can’t just be product and service pushing efforts either. Modern buyers do not like that hard sell direct approach. Building trust on line requires time just like your relationships in life. On Pinterest you have an opportunity to build trust by helping people solve their problems as well as showcasing what you sell.

Most people gravitate towards Facebook because it’s the number one social. But Facebook doesn’t favor bloggers and businesses. Facebook favors connections, discussions and Facebook groups, NOT posts from businesses and bloggers. On the other hand, Pinterest wouldn’t survive without the content that businesses create and sharing on Pinterest.
Pinterest is business friendly and its users are in a shopping mindset.

Connect with Anna Bennett at White Glove Social Media.

29. Jacob Cass | Founder of Justcreative

Jacob Cass

Here are ten easy ways to use social media as a way to gain more clients for your business:

  1. Live stream a Q&A or tutorial to show your expertise
  2. Post videos of your work process to YouTube
  3. Geotag your posts to attract local businesses or clients
  4. Connect with influencers
  5. Network through LinkedIn & post links to your published work
  6. Create micro content & stories
  7. Use social media to promote giveaways
  8. Track the links you share
  9. Integrate posts with your overall content strategy
  10. Simply provide value

Connect with Jacob Cass on Twitter and Justcreative.com.

30. Liz Jostes | Founder of Elirose

Liz Jostes

Because small businesses are limited by time, manpower, and budget, my recommendation to my clients is always to select 1 or 2 social media platforms to learn the ins and outs of, and fully utilize those couple platforms.

Spreading yourself too thin by trying to manage 3, 4 or 5 platforms means you are doing only the bare minimum - if even that - on those platforms.

You are far better off making the most of the 1 or 2 platforms you choose in order to utilize social media as effective extensions of your brand.

Connect with Liz Jostes on Twitter and Elirose.

31. Neil Eneix | 3x Startupreneur | Speaker | Founder of Fannit

Neil Eneix

"Being effective as a small business on social media really depends on who your target market is. For B2B companies, your social media focus should not primarily be broadcast marketing (blast posts to your audience), it should be rifle shot, and a part of your prospecting strategy.

  1. Focus on your top 3 Personas
  2. Make your target niche by industry
  3. Choose your list building tools (LinkedIn and Twitter are great for this)
  4. Build your target messaging based on the right trigger (connecting on LinkedIn, follow/followback on Twitter)
  5. Build your social prospecting sequence
    An example of this would be:
    Day 1: Introduction Message (LinkedIn Message, Twitter Message, Email)
    Day 3: Phone Call
    If Left Message, Follow Up Email
    Day 5: Social Media Action
    Favorite a tweet and follow target profile on Twitter
    Day 9: Follow Up Email
    Day ?
  6. Launch, Test, & Iterate!"

You can connect with Neil Eneix on Twitter and Fannit.

32. Ivana Taylor | Small Business Influencer at Diymarketers

Ivana Taylor

Before you begin marketing on social media, it's important to have a strong visual brand and marketing message. That means that your social media profiles have a consistent look, feel and voice.

The first step in marketing on social media is building relationships and building a community that you regularly engage with. Focus on helping your community be successful by sharing your specific expertise with them.

The next most important step is to have clear offers (products and services) that you can promote. Keep your ratio of social sharing at 4 "gives" for each "get" -- that means to provide 4 helpful pieces of information for every offer that you promote on social media.

Connect with Ivana Taylor on Twitter and Diymarketers.

33. Tom Pick | Founder of Webbiquity

Tom Pick

Keep in mind social media works best for engaging in conversations. It's not great to use directly for promotion, lead generation, or direct sales. Share content and ask questions your followers are likely to find interesting, respond to, and share. Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook are the three "must haves." Beyond that—focus efforts wherever your customers are!

Connect with Tom Pick on Twitter and Webbiquity.

Bonus Tips

34. Srish Agarwal | Founder & CEO at A1 Future Technologoes Pvt. Ltd.

Srish Agarwal

Social media can be time-consuming. Use social media monitoring and management tools to help you identify the most relevant topics to address, conversations to join, and content to share. Automate what you can, but don't over-rely on the technology; ultimately, it's the quality of your human interaction that will drive social media marketing success.

The only thing a small business owner doesn’t have in abundance is time. That said, every step taken must be planned, so that no valuable time is wasted. Sticking your head up in the social media marketing arena is tough, but if done right it can make sales skyrocket. As an expert some of my suggestions for SMEs to make it big by using social media most effectively in 2019 would be -

  • Identify your objectives
  • Engage with the audience,
  • Choose the right platform,
  • Be active and consistent,
  • Create a social media calendar,
  • Post more visuals.

Follow the tips to effectively market your business on social media and help your brand gain more prominence.

Some of the most potent tools SMEs can use are SEMrush, BuzzSumo, MeetEdgar, Quuu, Statusbrew, HootSuite and ManageFlitter. All these tools are there to help the startups and young marketers make a successful presence on social media.

Connect with Srish Agarwal on Twitter and A1 Future Technologoes Pvt. Ltd..

35. Maria Johnsen | MariaJohnsen

Maria Johnsen

Social media marketing has become very tricky these days. The majority of companies have their own in-house social media marketing agents.

As a small business owner you should build your brand first by posting quality content within your niche. Don’t follow those who sell the same service or product unless you wish to monitor your competitor or want to outsource to them.

  • Direct selling and direct marketing don’t work in social media marketing.Don’t advertise your services in people’s posts unless they directly ask for an expert in your niche.
    For example: if someone is talking about poetry on Twitter, don’t post your service that has nothing to do
    with it. It is annoying and hurts your business and brand.
  • Marketing on social media sites requires implementing strategies tailored to your business. If you are selling bridal dresses, then you should target those who look for bridal dresses, don’t’ be afraid to target a larger area.
  • Sometimes it is relevant to use paid social media advertising, then you have to be prepared for getting spam on comment section. The solution to this is to write a powerful ad copy that targets the right audience.
  • Avoid talking about politics and your private life on social media sites unless you are a politician or relationship coach.

However this doesn’t mean to be robotic when you interact on social media. Share with your audience nice stuff to get them to open up and share with you their
stories.

Story telling is a great strategy in social media marketing however you must pay attention not to sound like a salesman. Just have fun with your campaigns on social media sites. When you are happy your audience will be happy too.

Connect with Maria Johnsen on Twitter.

36. Sofiya Deva | Vice President of Marketing at Zen Media

Sofiya Deva

"For small business owners, social media can be a great tool to connect with their past, present, and future customers. However, since their time is limited, it's important that their efforts be intentional and their results be measurable. I always recommend that small business owners begin with strategy.

What's their story? Who is it relevant to, and how? Once they can answer these questions, they can reflect on the best ways to reach their personas. Maybe that's through video content on LI to reach b2b buyers, or through client case studies and testimonials on IG to reach millennial customers.

The good news is they don't have to be on every platform, creating a ton of content; they simply have to understand their audience and engage them in meaningful ways on the platforms that are going to be the best fit for that message and that audience. This can still be pretty overwhelming, which is why at Zen, we offer small business compact "digital storytelling strategies" that lay out the narrative, the audience profile, and the targeting recommendations. Then, they can focus on doing what they do best, running their businesses."

Connect with Sofiya Deva on Twitter

37. Darren Foong | Marketing at ReferralCandy and Candybar

Small businesses have limited time and resources, so you want to get the most bang from your buck.

Obeying the 80/20 rule, there are three impactful things you can focus on that'll get you the most improvement:

Make friends from influencers: The advantage of social media influencers is their large audience and reach. Offering them early review opportunities, collaborating on comarketing or even just building a good relationship with them will pay dividends later - and it never hurts to be friendly.

Keep an eye on your competitors: You might never get as many followers as Kim Kardashian, but you won't need to! You just need to have better branding than your competitors, whether you're a restaurant or a furniture store. Stay in tune with what works for them.

Learn from the experts: They know what's up. Try to figure out what they might be doing, what type of content seems popular, and what hashtags are working. Learning from their mistakes and successes will save you time in experimentation.

Connect with Darren Foong at ReferralCandy and Candybar

38. Jitendra Vaswani | Founder of BloggersIdeas

Jitnedra Vaswani

For small businesses social media can be game changer if they use the social channels wisely, you don’t have to be active on all social media channels, all you need is to be active on your target social platform like LinkedIn, it is one of the most untouched and under the leveraged platform for small business.

If small businesses can get their brand noticed on LinkedIn, it is easy to get leads for your business and you have a micro audience on LinkedIn to interact with.

Also doing outreach on LinkedIn is a superb way to get attention from industry leaders, Just like I am doing expert roundups on my blog and for finding experts on LinkedIn through the tool I am using Buzzsumo which helps me to find influential industry leaders. Buzzsumo gives detailed insights on how you can find a niche and specific influencers in your industry. For finding email on LinkedIn I use Snov.io tool to find email ids from LinkedIn, as LinkedIn is now biggest engagement platform for interacting with your niche audience, its organic reach is super high recently and one must include in LinkedIn for outreach process.

Also, small businesses can use Twitter for outreaching experts for doing interviews, podcasts, expert roundups & guest posts. Twitter is suitable for a micro niche audience and interacting on Twitter is super important to grow your brand presence.

You can connect with Jitendra Vaswani on Twitter and BloggersIdeas.

Himanshu Rauthan |Co-Founder at MakeWebBetter

Himanshu-Rauthan

Social media marketing is one of the main digital marketing strategies which brands can leverage to reach their right audiences and build relationships. In today’s world, every other individual or marketer tries to make the most of various social media platforms to elevate conversions for their business. But marketers forget that social media platforms are a great way to fuel word-of-mouth marketing by evoking people's emotions. Bring your audience trust in your brand by presenting who you’re and why they should trust you!

To maintain audience engagement in your brand, create a social calendar and attempt to bring variation in your posting style. Gif's, videos, fun posts can do a great job if done precisely. Along with this, don’t forget to monitor your social media graph to analyze your performance but don’t go overboard with it because the customer comes first.

It’s essential for you to know which platform can bring in audience engagement for your industry. Invest time and effort only on those platforms that can bring some actual results and suit your business profile.

Social media is for creating new connections and building relationships. It can do wonders if done while being human.

You can connect with Himanshu Rauthan on LinkedIn and MakeWebBetter.

Conclusion

We are grateful to all experts for taking out time to share their social media tips for small business. Interacting with them helped us to develop a better understanding of social media & how it works.

We are hopeful that these social media tips would help you to grow your business on social media. In case if you like this post then don't hesitate from sharing it with your friends & followers who could get benefit from these social media tips.

Moreover, if you have any advice for small businesses to grow on social media, then we would love to hear from you in the comment section.

Rohit Sharma

I’m fascinated by storytelling, entrepreneurship, and travel. I love to write about Social Media and digital marketing strategies.

Explore the Statusbrew range of social media tools

Cancel anytime!