BUILD A SOCIAL MEDIA FOLLOWING – TIPS FOR NEW ENTREPRENEURS

Marketing Isn’t Just Selling Your Product

Social media is slightly different than other marketing channels because you aren’t just trying to sell your product. Entrepreneurs might think that 100% of their business’s profile needs to be ads or content designed to sell a product. If you do that, it encourages people to unfollow you; they don’t want to just be marketed to all the time.

Instead, set out to provide value to your followers by sharing content about your industry, or creating content that educates, inspires, or entertains, as well as markets. You’re building a following, after all, and that takes some time.

You Don’t Need to Be On Every Platform

Contrary to popular belief, your new business doesn’t need a profile on every single platform to be successful. Instead of wasting your time on profiles on ten different platforms, pick the two or three where your target market is (more on that later).

Focusing your efforts on a smaller number of the most relevant social media platforms lets you reach the people who are most likely to buy your product, and it saves you valuable time and resources. If you use a social media management tool, like SproutSocial, it will help save even more time.

You Do Need to Know Your Market

When you’re starting your business, you need to do extensive market research to know your competition and your customers. You should know as much as possible about your customers, their likes, their dislikes, their geographic location. You will probably learn new things about your market every day, but going into social media with a good idea about your target demographic helps you avoid wasted time in the long run.

For instance, younger generations aren’t getting on Facebook as much as older generations, like Millenials. They’re much more likely to be on Instagram or Snapchat. If you’re marketing to generations younger than millennials, knowing this can help save you the pain of setting up a Facebook profile for your new business.

Don’t Forget the Power of In-Person Marketing

Even though social media is online, you’re still a person who’s going to be out in public, and that’s a valuable way to market your new business. Put together business cards, which you can design for free here, with your social media links. People love putting a name to a face, and giving them a business card is a way to keep that old-school professionalism in your business.

Research Your Competition

Seek out the profiles for your competition to give you some insights into what your own profile should look like. People have general expectations for what social media sites should look like for different businesses and industries. You obviously want to set your own business apart, but completely breaking norms might make you seem a little too out there.

It also helps you save time by cluing you into what you need to do on social media. If most of your competitors are making videos, it’s probably because it works, and you need to post videos too. If a lot of them have a blog on their website, you should start one too. There’s no need to re-invent the wheel.