People that are using social media is continuously increasing every day. Social media is the fastest growing platform in the Internet. This is where people around the globe create and share contents in order to participate in any social conversation. And if you want to be successful in your social media marketing efforts, here are 10 Facebook and Instagram Tips for Local Businesses that you should pay attention to.
As social media platforms grow every year and as millions of people use social media daily, business owners are already using their marketing strategy in these platforms.
This is where social media marketing takes place. Business owners are already using this strategy to target their audiences and to increase their brand’s reach.
Neil Patel, a famous entrepreneur and analytics expert, describes it as a process of creating content tailored solely to each social media platform in order to drive user engagement and sharing.
As a business owner, you want to know where your target customers are. Thus, using social media for your marketing strategy will benefit your brand building. This will let your site gain more traffic. This traffic, combined with your strategic planning, will affect your company sales, build your brand’s reputation and will make your local business reach the global market.
Two platforms that have the highest numbers of users all around the world are Facebook and Instagram. These two have also catered companies to set up their business profiles which is why these social media platforms will be the focus in this blog.
10 Facebook and Instagram Tips for Local Businesses
Maximize your business’ social media marketing strategy using these 10 Facebook and Instagram Tips for Local Businesses below:
1. Have a clear marketing strategy
A big mistake that local business owners make is setting up profiles on Facebook and Instagram without having a clear strategy on marketing their products and services.
However, you can still remake your strategy and rebuild your brand by making sure that you have a precise goal, focusing on your target audience and keeping your business moving by ensuring contents that will make your audience become customers.
First, your business should really have a definite goal. Keep in mind that your business goal should be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound.
You don’t have to dive in those goals that are really unrealistic. Just make sure that the goals you created can be achieved because this is going to be a measurement of your success.
In building a marketing strategy, you should also know your business persona. This will include what your audience are and what content they want. Creating this persona will help your business gain a deeper insight of your customers.
Then, you can set up your content calendar. You can make your own calendar or you can use calendar apps. No matter what type you use, you should make sure that this has all the details for your brand building.
Your calendar should include what kind of task or content your business will publish, who is given this task and when will it be published or when is its deadline. There are other data that you can also insert in your calendar like who is the team leader for such task and what project this task is under.
Just remember that the purpose of a marketing calendar is to organize and document your business strategy, keep a birds’ eye view of your business presence in social media and keep your associates accountable of the task that is given to them.
READ ALSO: Common Facebook Marketing Mistakes that Local Business Owners Should Avoid
2. Optimize your Business Profile
A lot of companies are already setting up their business profiles. Whether you made your already have or you haven’t, you should really maximize the benefits of a Facebook and Instagram business profile.
One thing that you should do is optimize your brand profile. Remember that the first thing that your target audience will see when they visit your profile is the photo and description that you have written on it. By optimizing these, you are already creating an identity of your business.
By setting up your profile, make sure that you include the details of your business. This will not only let your business be known but will also give them a clear idea of what your business is and what can you give to them.
The first thing that you should do is upload a profile picture. Make sure that it is your company logo because this clearly represents your business. In Facebook, you can also upload a cover photo that includes your company details or just a picture that represent your business.
In the picture above, Café Laguna made sure that the profile picture that they used is their brand’s logo. They have also included a picture of their Paella dish and a call-to-action.
The second thing that you should keep in mind is to include your company details. This includes a description of your business, what industry your business is under, your location, contact number, email address, website link and availability. In Facebook, you can also add other details like your mission, price range, founding date, company history and others.
In the picture below, Café Laguna also included other information that is relevant in their business. Making sure that these description is filled will give credibility to your brand.
3. Create compelling contents
“Content is key,” Bill Gates said in his 1996 essay. Well, it really is true and brands are using content in order to engage their audiences and convert them into customers. However, contents should really be compelling. You don’t just put contents that your audiences can’t even relate to but make one that is engaging.
Whether you are using Facebook or Instagram, make sure to share contents that have pictures, videos, GIFs and other types of content in it. You should keep in mind that whatever content you do, it should really be fascinating and relatable to your audiences. One way of not boring your audience with long content post is adding pictures, videos and other visual content.
Many business owners are already posting content about their product but only some have made their audience into customers. You know why? Well, audiences don’t want businesses that only sell in their post, they want something to relate to before they buy a product or a service. Companies do this by sharing stories and not just items.
One way to share a story is to give a “behind the scenes” look of your process. You can post candid photos of your employees during a team building or a video of your staff while working on a product. In this way, you are creating a human voice for your business.
In the picture above, Café Laguna congratulates the head of the family by posting a picture of one of its staff who is already a father. In this way, the business have captured the hearts of the dads.
Moreover, you cannot just post pictures and videos in your Instagram feed and on your Facebook profile, you can also post these contents in your Stories. Although Stories only last for 24 hours, businesses are maximizing the use of this tool because this is one way to get an intimate interaction with their target audience.
Lastly, no matter what content you do, don’t ever plagiarize content. Using others’ content, without even crediting it to them or without asking their permission, is a major backlash in your business. Don’t worry, there are websites where you can use free or paid stock photos, videos and others. As long as your content is yours, your brand name will not be shaken.
4. Build a Relationship with your Audience
Building a relationship involved your business and your audience, so you should nurture it. It doesn’t end in your part but in your audience.
One way of building a relationship is showing the human side of your brand. Your audiences love relating their experiences. By showing that your business doesn’t just focus on your product or services but also on the people that have contributed in your industry, you are giving your audience a humane way to look at your brand.
In addition, make sure to talk with your audience. Facebook and Instagram lets users like, react, comment and share your brand’s content. Make sure that whenever a content is published, you reply to your audience’s comment.
Whether it is a positive or a negative one, you should reply to any of it. Other businesses have faced backlash for not being able to reply or give a statement into a negative comment. Responding to any of it as soon as possible will result in a good judgement of your business. This way, you are making a connection with them, preventing upcoming problems and building trust in your brand.
In the pictures above, Café Laguna made sure they replied in the comments in one of their Facebook posts. This is a way to establish your social media presence.
5. Appreciate your Audiences
You may have seen businesses in Facebook and Instagram hosting a contest or giveaway, sharing customer testimonials, posting user-generated content and offering discount codes and coupons to loyal customers or audiences. These brands, small or big, are using this strategy to acknowledge their audiences, converting them into customers and to also gain more followers.
After reaching a milestone, businesses are hosting contests and giveaways and also offer discounted codes and coupons to their audiences. This is a good way to be thankful to your audiences for following and being with your brand before reaching that goal.
Businesses are also posting user-generated content for their future customers to see. In this way, you are letting your audiences promote your business and making sure that you acknowledge their effort.
Making sure that you are open for reviews and testimonials is also a good way to boost your buyers number. In Facebook, there’s an area where your customers can leave reviews for your future buyers. Although in Instagram, there’s no review tab, businesses are letting their customers post their reviews and let them tag the business for others to see.
The main goal of these 10 Facebook and Instagram Tips for Local Businesses is to always stay connected and listen to your customers. Whether it may be a good or a bad review, keep in mind to thank them for such act of letting you know how you are doing. Remember that reviews are a good way to see your business approach in your customer’s perspective.
6. Monitor brand-related events and hashtags
As you continue to share content, remember that social media, like Facebook and Instagram, also help you observe current trends that is essential to your brand. Using this tip, you are relating your content to the current event that would surely be relatable to your audiences.
One way of knowing the current events are following local or product-related hashtags. You see, in every event nowadays, there’s really a specific hashtag that is connected with it.
Although, hashtags are most used in Twitter, you can still use it in your Facebook and Instagram marketing strategy. Remember that in using it, you should carefully relate it to your brand.
In the picture above, Café Laguna has posted about the GenSan Tuna Festival 2019. This is relevant to the business because one of its branches is in General Santos City, Philippines on where this event is located.
7. Build a Partnership with Influencers
Brands, nowadays, are tapping influencers and other brands to increase their reach. This has become a trend in the social business industry, specifically, in Instagram.
If you are just a new local business, you might be really willing to connect with an influencer just to increase your sales. This might be a good idea but keep in mind that you want an audience that really want your services.
You should partner with an influencer that your audience can relate to and is within your industry. Reach to those who have the same values as your brand. In return, give the influencer the exact payment equivalent to his or her service. Keep in mind that this partnership should benefit both sides.
8. Promote and Educate
Social media is not a place for aggressively selling your products. If you want to increase the reach of your business, be sure to promote and educate.
Keep in mind that your audiences want a fun experience. They are composed of communities and you want to target those communities with your helpful content rather than with an aggressive selling strategy.
Look at this advertisement below:
As you have seen this ad targets people who love coffee and advises them how too much caffeine can be bad for someone’s health. This advertisement correlates with AXA’s purpose which is empowering people to live a better life.
The advertisement above is really an effective way to promote your service because it guides the target audience in understanding the brand’s purpose.
You don’t need to continuously share information about your services but share relevant and helpful facts that would soon be useful in your business.
9. Monitor your Analytics
By making a business profile, Facebook and Instagram awards you with a tool to monitor your profile’s analytics.
As a marketer, the 10 Facebook and Instagram Tips for Local Businesses won’t matter if you fail to monitor your performance. Besides, if you want to learn more about your target audience. Tracking your business profile’s analytics will help you to check your audience activity and other data that will be beneficial to your marketing strategy. In this way, you can tailor your content to meet the needs of these audiences.
10. Continually Build your Brand
In making the steps above, you are already building your social media presence. However, you should not just end there. You see, your goal is not just to make your business well-known but to be an established company in the industry.
One mistake that other businesses do is that they stop after reaching a goal. You should not. Instead, continue on doing the steps above in your Facebook and Instagram business accounts to lead your business in achieving other goals.
So, there you have it. These are the 10 Facebook and Instagram Tips for Local Businesses like you should use in your digital marketing strategies.
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