Social Media is a daily tool used in Society, and the power of marketing falls right in front of us as we scroll to seek information and connection.
And as much as we can feel guilty for scrolling through it aimlessly, we cannot deny the advantages it can bring for Small Businesses.
Let’s take a look at five reasons why Small Businesses have an advantage in Social Media Marketing.
Small businesses like to connect with their customers individually and within their communities.
When using social media, small businesses connect with their audience no matter how big or small the engagement is and are more likely to engage and respond more quickly than large businesses.
You can handle the influx of communication with customers rapidly, and fast responses mean you easily foster connections with people, creating the potential for more respect, support, and appreciation for your business.
Within the community, many small businesses choose to be involved in some way. You will see them at local markets and school fairs. As a small business, you might sponsor local sports groups or contribute to fundraisers, or making donations to a cause dear to you, such as food banks, women's refuge, NICU or cancer society.
Being active in the community and offering support is a great way to make new connections with others businesses and engage with customers face to face. This can lead to growth in demand for their products and service and create employment opportunities for others locally.
Cheap advertising
Advertising is vital for every business. We see it every day on TV, internet pop-ups, brochures and flyers, radio adverts, and billboards. But a small business usually does not have a large budget allocated to afford this. And it’s a scary thought to pay for high costs when you’re still growing your brand awareness.
The great thing about advertising through social media is you get to choose your budget, choose the target audience, and how long you want to advertise. Then, you can pay as much or as little as you can afford.
An easy and free way to do this is through your current customers. They write comments, posts, or stories about purchasing, receiving, and using your products - with their feedback. This is a valuable asset to share with potential customers as we all want to know what something is like before purchasing it for ourselves. In addition, it shows trust in our products and service.
You can also advertise with Social Media. Of course, what you post is already viewed by current followers and customers - but targeted ads can help you reach a new audience or those who aren’t currently following you within your preferred demographics.
You choose your budget, your preferred target audience's demographics, the length of day you want to run the ad for, and the post you wish to promote. Then, before you pay or make your ad live, it clarifies how many impressions it will leave with new people.
Running ads on live posts also allows you to see other analytic insights that aren’t fully visible in insights immediately. For example, these hashtags performed best if you used any (Hashtags, something we will discuss soon).
Collaborations with other Small Businesses.
In the small business community - you will find a tonne of small businesses supporting one another. They’re all on this journey together, and they often form support networks amongst themselves with Small Businesses they can relate to on a business and personal level.
A typical collaboration you will see is a giveaway. It usually sounds something like this - “to win this amazing prize, make sure you follow these businesses we have teamed up with, like this post, and comment on who you think deserves this prize or who you would share this with.”
The great thing about collaborations is you build brand awareness amongst their audience. You’re on the radar with a new group of potential customers, hopefully generating more sales.
Another great collaboration is small stores becoming a stockist if you have a product-based business. Having this arrangement with stores means you support and promote each other. They promote and sell your products on shelves, and you promote your products being in their stores, potentially bringing in more foot traffic.
Jumping onto big advertising
A big event through a large organization can provide an advantage for Small Businesses in their Social Media Marketing strategy.
While big businesses have large budgets for mass advertising, you too can reap the benefit of mass advertising and gain exposure just by posting your business is participating in their event.
During lockdown, an amazing Facebook group was created for small businesses to promote their products and services. Within 3 months, this group had half a million followers and over 11,000 posts queued for approval.
The public Facebook group grew so big with so much demand for support that a website has now been created to support small businesses with selling their products online, if they do not have their own website, and thriving against all odds.
Chooice has been an amazing platform for kiwi’s in Small businesses to sell their products and has circulated over 1 million dollars into our economy.
Also, Small Business Day launched this week to encourage consumers to shop small and local. The aim is to promote small to medium businesses so they can remain in business. The big pull was a chance for consumers to win a share of $200,000 for shopping small and local with participating small businesses. In addition, small businesses had an opportunity to win $10,000 cash and a 12month subscription for Xero’s premium accounting plan.
6651 small businesses registered to participate in Small Business Day on the 9th of
April 2021. Those who participated had posted on their social media pages and stories about their participation and discounts.
New Zealand is a nation of small and micro-businesses – including self-employed.
There are approximately 530,000 small businesses in New Zealand, representing 97% of all firms. They account for 28% of employment and contribute over a quarter of New Zealand’s gross domestic product.
You, as a small business, are part of these statistics. So let’s keep shopping local and small.
If you’re a Small business and want to learn more about the basics of using social media to grow your customer base and generate more leads, feel free to get in touch with me for a free audit and 30min consultation.
Written by: Natasha Tahiwi of To Done (NZ)
Originally Published on Inspiring Design & Co