If you are a small business owner, chances are you are already on social media. You may be spending some time on sites like Facebook, X, Pinterest, or LinkedIn.
The sites you choose to spend the most time on will depend on several factors, such as your business type, your personal preference, and the kind of content that appeals to your ideal audience.
The time you spend on your social media activities varies accordingly, depending on your personality and overall strategy.
You may have a love-hate relationship with social media, and your social media presence can be described as wildly inconsistent at best. This is because you have probably stretched yourself too thin. You are dabbling in all platforms but not spending enough time or effort to truly master one.
You need to start with one or two sites and only move on to others once you have built a decent-sized following with real engagement. In this post, I will walk you through some ways to leverage social media without having to chain yourself to the desk. Read through and then pick one. Let’s begin.
Instagram & Facebook
#1 Include Instagram & Facebook as an element of your social media strategy. According to 2024 data, Facebook has 3.07 million monthly active users. Instagram, on the other hand, has 2.4 billion monthly active users. And the cool thing is that you can post the same reels and content on both platforms simultaneously to maximize impact.
#2 Create your business profile and add a useful description with all the useful links for your business. Add your photo to your profile so people can instantly see who you are and connect with you.
#3 Create a content strategy for Instagram & Facebook and post frequently when most of your audience is online. Schedule your posts to get maximum exposure, especially if you are a global brand.
Also, create an ideal persona for your ideal audience and use search to find out where they hang out. You can target the fan pages of your competitors or create custom or lookalike audiences.
#4 Create content that drives maximum engagement. In 2024, the most popular post format is reels. Make sure to create videos with great hooks and intriguing content to make viewers stick to the end.
By creating content that increases audience retention and watch time, the algorithm might increase your organic reach by showing your content to users with similar interests.
#5 Optimize and improve content for users and the algorithm. and To maximize the chances of a post being seen by most users, look into the post insights and examine audience retention, interactions, and watch time. If all of these are low, your content is less likely to be shown to other users organically.
So make sure to keep track of these, learn, and improve your content constantly.
#6 Cross-Promotion of Strategy: Use one of the platforms to drive traffic to another one. For example, if you’re going to be doing a Facebook event, use Instagram Stories to bring eyes to it
#7 Take advantage of the Meta ads manager. Organic reach is fantastic, but don’t forget ads. These are inexpensive and can be laser-targeted. Don’t just boost posts; use targeted ads to get the best ROAS. Aim to target mobile users through the Meta platforms to reach even more people. Test out different ad formats like reels, stories, and videos.
#8 Use Facebook & Instagram to collect leads and build your sales funnel rather than selling directly to your audience. When running ads, collect email addresses instead of driving traffic to a sales page. This allows you to retarget the emails with ads or even email campaigns.
#9 Keep most of your content updates non-promotional. The vast majority of people use Facebook & Instagram for personal reasons. They want to see fun reels, photos of their friends, and stories. This means you need to publish interesting content your audience will engage with.
#10 Join Facebook groups & create broadcast channels on Instagram. Create a community on these platforms, be of service, and promote your products or services.
X (Formerly Known as Twitter) & Threads
#11 Define your goals. For most businesses, being on X and threads means interaction with their customers and influencers and making their content spread like wildfire.
#12 Craft your bio well. Spend some time coming up with appropriate words to describe what you do and how you help your potential buyer. Include a link to your website and to your opt-in offer. Select a professional photograph that is well-aligned with your overall branding.
#13 Select the people you want to follow. You can create lists so it is easy for you to follow and engage with people. Be sure to include influencers and key players in your industry so you can stay on trend.
#14 Grow your audience on X and Threads. Your number of followers will not increase on its own, you have to put effort into it. Firstly, engage with your followers – ask questions, respond, and retweet what they are saying. This will encourage them to share your tweets and attract new followers. Participate in chats. You can also engage with people who haven’t followed you yet and this will make them want to do so. Promote your X and Threads accounts on your website, in your email signatures and elsewhere.
#15 Create a strategy for Threads & X. In order to be a success on these platforms, you need to pay attention to the different types of content you will be sharing and plan it accordingly.
#16 Make the most of your posts. Your posts have a very short time span – about 20 minutes. Not all of your followers are online when you tweet out, and not all of the ones who are online will see your posts, or even click on them. You can make your tweets stand out by adding an image, retweeting your content multiple times, and adding an appropriate call to action. Add something different to your tweets every time you repeat a tweet. Share content tied to live world events.
#17 Use advanced tactics. Include relevant hashtags in your content so people actively looking for those will find your tweets. Mention people and contact them via email to see whether they would be interested in sharing it with their followers. Include click to tweet within your website content so people can share sound bites from your content.
#18 It is a great tool for B2B marketing. LinkedIn has 310 Million monthly active users. Research shows that people spend 8 hours per week seeking news on industry trends and news. This is great news if you cater to other businesses.
#19 Start with an effective company profile. Include your employee profiles if applicable. Use your profile to tell your corporate story.
#20 Know the type of content that does well on LinkedIn: Professional content that increases people’s knowledge and expertise, builds their network, and increases credibility and rank. Develop a tailored content strategy keeping this fact in mind. Long-form content works like magic on LinkedIn. Aim to create content around the 2000-word mark to achieve the best results and engagement. Also, stick to the facts – nothing too provocative. Write content on LinkedIn top-10 topics.
#21 Focus on your audience. Create a marketing persona and connect with people in your network and those outside of it. Endorse people you respect. Build your LinkedIn group and promote it amongst your other networks.
#22 Create content aimed at someone with an eighth-grade reading ability. People mistakenly assume that LinkedIn users are more educated and ‘high register’ on average. This is not the case. Create content that is fairly ‘easy’ to read, and the post will fare much better in terms of likes, shares, and comments.
#23 Short headlines are better suited to this medium. Avoid creating ultra-long titles. How-to and list headlines trump question headlines.
#24 Use different forms of multimedia such as video and slides to generate good results. Use bold and headings to make it easy to read on a screen.
#25 Pay attention to the timing. LinkedIn works within business hours and the best time to post is Tuesday and Thursday between 9 am – 11 am. Share professional content and post at least once daily.
#26 Promote your content across other platforms. Cross-promote to attract even more eyeballs to your LinkedIn content. Don’t forget to add a call to action.
#27 Use LinkedIn ads to target individuals based on their seniority level, industry, interests, or the companies they work for.
#28 92% of Pinterest pinners are created by women, and 80% of users are females, so if your target audience is primarily men, other platforms might suit you better. On the other hand, you can use Pinterest to appeal to women who have a big say in the purchasing decision.
#29 When it comes to Pinterest, your industry matters. If you are a business belonging to the Food & Drink, DIY or crafts or the home décor category, you are in luck as most of the photos that get pinned belong to these categories.
#30 Craft your about section carefully and include a link to your website (Pinterest is the second largest referrer of traffic today). Include the keywords in your boards’ names.
#31 Know your audience and what they look for on Pinterest. Pay attention to their tastes.
#32 Pay attention to the seasonal trends and create pins accordingly. Research shows that the pinning activity goes up in relation to world events and celebrations. Correlate your pins with the hot topic of the day
#33 Pinterest is hopping with activity in the evenings. It’s like a dessert, a special treat. Take advantage of that.
#34 Make your offerings beautiful. Needless to say, Pinterest is a highly visual medium. You can get away with blurry images or less than professional images on Facebook where it is more about connecting with friends and family, but on Pinterest you need highly professional images if you want a chance of getting any attention. Quality visuals count, rest goes into oblivion. Use the right size photos in the right place.
#35 Showcase your products in real life. Build stories around your products and show them in action. If your product isn’t hot, tie it to visually appealing topic such as clothes, food or landscapes.
#36 Include your prices. Research shows that pins with prices get 36% more likes.
Final Thoughts
#37 Remember, to be successful on social media, you must treat it right. Make a date with the social media sites you are active on and show up.
#38 Plan your content and create it in batches ahead of time. Allocate some time to check in twice a day and interact with your followers. Set up a timer if you get sucked into social media time and time ceases to exist or schedule into your daily planner of you forget that you need to give it some attention.
#39 Adapt and repurpose your content to suit each platform’s strengths and audience preferences. For instance, a detailed blog post on your website can be condensed into a series of engaging Instagram posts, a comprehensive YouTube video, and a LinkedIn discussion prompt.
#40 Maintain a consistent brand message across all platforms while adjusting the tone and format to meet platform norms and audience expectations. For example, LinkedIn posts might be more formal and professional, while tweets are casual and direct.
#41 Keep up with the software, algorithm updates, and marketing trends. Make sure to follow marketing experts and subscribe to their newsletters to learn about the most recent changes and updates to social media platforms. And always keep in mind that whatever works today might become obsolete in a few months.
Good luck!