Social Media Roadmap for Small Businesses

social-media-roadmap
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Social Media Roadmap for Small Businesses

By Maura Kautsky, Director of Marketing, Sales Xceleration

 

Having a presence on social media is a must today. According to Statista 79% of internet users in the U.S. have a social media profile. Getting started and keeping your company’s social pages updated and engaging is the hard part. But it doesn’t need to be. You just need to start with a well laid out plan and it will streamline your execution.

Let’s start with why you should do this and the value of social media. Social media platforms are a place to engage with your buyers. You can share critical product updates, share your expertise, and manage any conversations – whether good or bad – about your brand. But most importantly, it is a critical factor today in building your brand, driving leads, supporting SEO and engaging with prospects and customers.

Small businesses need to look at social media as a critical component of their overall marketing mix. Website messages and marketing collateral need to align with what they are doing on social media and all other marketing channels.

So, how should you get started?

  • First, you need to decide which platforms you are going to be publishing on. I recommend 2 to 3 to get started.
  • Picking the right platforms depends on who your audience is. As a general rule of thumb, LinkedIn and Twitter are more focused on B2B; and Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest are B2C. YouTube serves both.
  • Next, you need to decide what content your target audience will be interested in. Be creative – don’t think only about telling stories about your company and products.
  • Drive home messages that share how you help customers. Share insights and ideas on a topic that will be of value to them. Help them grow knowledge. Tell stories about how you helped solve a need for a client, bring your employees to life or just make the reader smile with a fun post. Make it authentic and deliver on your brand voice and promise.

After you strategically establish where you are going, you are now ready to start implementing your ideas. You need to think about types of content to post, hashtags, tagging, engagement, metrics, and so much more. To help you flesh out your plan, tools and tactics, we have created a step-by-step Social Media Plan Checklist to get you started. Download your free copy today: https://salesxceleration.com/social-media-plan-checklist/

 

Want to learn more about sales consulting and sales strategy? Read about various sales topics in our sales consulting blog.