Learn how to start your business through social media in few simple steps!
We all know social media as a bad guy. They are the main distractors in our lives and they are consuming our time. And that is true, social media is terrible for your mental health, it’s wrong on so many levels.
But if you are running a business or you are a freelancer, not using social media can cost you a lot, it can cost you your business. You are missing out on a ton of customers (read money) for not being visible to them.
If your excuse is not having time or money to invest in it, you are in the right place!
In this article, I will show you how to start your business on social media! Smart and effective!
Just to make it clear at the beginning, there is no magic formula that will build your business overnight, you still have to make an effort!
Who are you talking with?
The first thing you have to do is to research your target audience. When you know who you are looking for, everything will become much easier. And if you are thinking, but my target audience is everyone – WRONG! – everyone doesn’t exist as a target audience! For every product or service, you will always have people who are more likely to buy it! Those are the people you want to find!
If you are thinking, what tool to use to do this research, start with Google and a Word or Excel document or even a piece of paper and pen – whatever fits you best!
When you define your target audience, my advice is to create a buyer persona – your perfect buyer. Be as specific as possible. I advise my clients to give that persona a name, gender, relationship status, job, pets, kids, etc. Try to go into details.
Where do you start your communication?
Then you choose a channel. Start small. Choose one channel. But how do you choose it?
There are some main parameters that you have to pay attention to first, and those are:
- Your industry – what channel is most suitable for marketing your industry?
- Target audience – can you find your target audience on this channel?
- Your location- what social media channel is most popular or available on the location on which you want to spread your business?
- Content – what content is easiest for you to create and with which platform that type of content resonates the best? For example, if you don’t know how to create a video, you surely won’t choose YouTube.
- Are you planning on investing in ads or you are relying on organic reach?
Let’s learn now a bit about the main social media channels.
Facebook is the leading social media platform in the world. It’s made to fit any industry and it’s perfect if your audience is above the age of 30. On the other hand, I am sure that among 2.85 billion monthly active users (as of 31 March 2021) you can surely find your target audience. Facebook is friendly to all formats of content – text, single image, linked content, or video. But short video content is taking advantage when it comes to not organic reach (how many people will see your post without ads) then linked content and at the end single image and text content.
Facebook is very strict when it comes to marketing, so he is allowing you to use only business pages for marketing your products. If you try to use your personal profile, he will ban it.
Truth is that in most cases you can’t expect much from Facebook organic reach (there are always exceptions).
So if you are not planning on investing in ads and if you don’t know how to run and monitor Facebook ads or you don’t have someone that can show you. I wouldn’t advise you to choose Facebook as your starting point. You can easily lose your time and money.
LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 774 million members in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide and with over 55 million registered companies (statistics from 2021). LinkedIn is amazing if your clients are businesses and for finding and reaching people from the business and corporate world. It has a good organic reach and I would advise you to include in your strategy both a personal profile and a business page. Of course, investing in ads is always a plus, if you know how to run and monitor them.
LinkedIn is also friendly to all types of content and it appreciates original content over shared one.
Instagram is very popular among the younger population, below 30. This visual platform counts 1.386 billion active users in 2021. I say visual, cause Instagram is mainly about looks, also it has often updates. So if you choose Instagram as your main platform be ready to constantly learn and explore new options in order to follow up with the competition. Instagram is friendly to single image or video content, of course, the video will bring you more organic reach.
Ads are recommended for this platform, but I always recommend more investing in the influencers on Instagram than in ads.
These are the main social media networks and I would suggest you start with one of them (if you are not in some part of the world where they are banned).
Now when you have a target audience and a channel, the next steps are to write your goals.
Start with weekly or daily goals.
Why? If you write only big goals till you reach them, you will feel overwhelmed. If you start with daily or weekly goals you will see your progress much earlier and you will be more eager to continue toward big goals.
Drag attention on you!
Make your content useful for your target audience. Make it simple with a clear call to action. Talk about your business and services, give them advice, information and entertain them and then call them to become a part of your community.
And the last but not the least advice, START RIGHT AWAY!
If you have any doubts, be free to reach me out, I can help you to level up your social media efforts!