Owning a small business comes with lots of moving parts and although you wear many hats, you may not always be an expert in each topic. There comes a point when you need seek advice and help from people who know a lot about certain areas. Social media is a common one for most as it's highly involved and time consuming. You already know these platforms exist, and maybe you even use them personally, so why is this part so overwhelming?
The answer is because it's a whole new world when you start to think about these concepts as tools that can help you reach customers, gain exposure, and build relationships. Most people will look at social media as a whole instead of a sum of its parts. When viewed from this perspective anything will seem overwhelming. Each platform has a different purpose and audience, which makes a social media strategy essential.
There are a lot of reasons you may want to leverage these sites including:
ROI is low
Exposure is high
It's easier to find and get in front of your target audiences
Great reach for limited budgets
Drive traffic back to your website
Social media sites help with SEO
Giving your sites backlinks
Great way to start and build relationships with your customers
Allows for creative and fun engagement
In short, the answer is that you want to be on all of them, but the secret is not to add them all at once. Start with one and as you start to get more comfortable, add another. Only add them as you can manage, it’s better not to have your brand on a platform than to use that platform poorly. In most cases you don’t get a lot of chances to capture your audiences attention, so you will want to be as professional in social media as you would if the potential customer was in front of you.
My biggest pieces of advice are to stay organized and have a plan for using the page. Editorial calendars for posts and scheduling posts are great ways to free up some time so you can focus on what you do best. Remember that social media is a way to have a conversation with your customer. Don’t just blast messages at them, remember who your audience is and think about what they want to see. No one wants to be in a conversation with someone who only talks about themselves. I use an 80/20 (or less) rule for self promotion. Entertain and inform. But most importantly, have fun!