1) Know Your Brand
Embarking on any kind of marketing effort – including social media marketing – without giving serious thought to your branding is a tremendous waste of resources (time and money).
Before representing your small business on social media, know exactly what you’re all about and what is special and unique about your product or service. What can your small business offer that no one else can offer?
2) Know Your Target Audience
Who is your target audience? Who do you want to reach on social media? What is the Demographic Profile (age, gender, marital status, income, education level, occupation, location, and ethnicity) and Psychographic Profile (lifestyle, interests, hobbies, values, attitudes and behaviours) of your ideal client?
Whatever you do, don’t say “EVERYONE is my target!” If you try to be everything to everyone in business, you’ll miss out on getting the clients who are a best fit for you.
Don’t be afraid of being selective. Don’t be over-concerned with getting lots of followers, especially in the beginning. Instead, be more concerned about getting the right followers.
3) Where is Your Target Audience?
Do not exhaust your resources by trying to be everywhere on every social media. Just focus on where your target audience is, that is all that matters.
Also, be aware that you might have different audiences on different platforms. For instance, you may find your buyers mostly on Facebook and Instagram but your referral partners may be on Twitter for the most part.
4) What Does Your Target Audience Want to Know?
Always remember, when it comes to social media marketing, it’s not about you, it’s about them. They’re not interested in learning about you (yet). They just want help with their problems, so be a problem solver. Be their go-to expert. Build trust, build rapport, engage and build lasting relationships with your ideal customers.
Before you launch your brand’s social media presence, you might want to spend a little time just “lurking:” that is, checking out the landscape and see what other brands are doing, what works for them, and what your target audience expects and responds to on social media.