This year, make it your goal to improve your small business’s online presence. For some, that will mean creating a website or claiming a business in google listings. For others, it may mean improving content and growing an already vast audience.
No matter how many followers you’re beginning this year with, there is always room for improvement.
Many people don’t realize that all influencers and big businesses use a range of social media tools to create and monitor content. These tools are extremely easy to engage with and always focus on keeping their platforms accessible to beginners. Nevertheless, they can be intimidating, and many people shy away from the hassle.
That being said, if you want to grow your business, you’re going to need to step up to the plate.
Photo Editors
The most prominent social media tools out there are photo editors. While you can edit your photos on most social media platforms, these tools will help you get professional results. They can also help you adjust issues like lighting, shadows, and red-eye more carefully than you would be able to elsewhere.
Canva
This app allows you to add text or shading to your images, so it’s an excellent resource hack if you’re not used to using the Adobe Suite (Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator). You can even resize your photos so they can fit in the best dimensions for different sites like Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.
If you’re having trouble figuring out how to fill out different parts of your profile — for example, your header vs. your profile picture on Facebook — the app can help you resize photos for each and has plenty of cool design templates to get you started.
To see how Canva is used to create a small business logo, read this post.
Layout
Ever wonder how people post those photo collages with over 9 squares on Instagram? Or how they tile four different photos into one perfect post?
They’re probably using Layout, an app that allows you to post multiple images to Instagram by setting them all up inside one picture. Imagine the app like a picture frame that allows you to set 4 photos side by side within it. It’s very, very easy to use and free to access.
How to Monitor Reviews
They say no press is bad press, but that’s not exactly true. No one wants to let a bad review air out without having the chance to address it — especially national chains.
Ever wonder how a fast food restaurant manages to find every little comment made about its store, or whether your community is talking about your business online? There are tools you can set up to monitor any time your business is mentioned and what your competitors are up to.
TweetDeck
Somehow, it seems like the huge burger chains always catch a tweet just as it’s about to go viral. Interacting with the tweet boosts new impressions and can mean a ton of good — or bad — press for the brand.
While most of these brands have a massive PR and social media strategists team, they also know how to monitor specific keywords or mentions of their name. One way you can do this is to use TweetDeck, which can help you scan multiple Twitter streams at one time.
This is a great way to keep up with any trends hitting your market and watch how different influencers or competitors are engaging.
Perch
Perch is a super accessible free mobile app. You can link it to your business and set up your account to get a notification every time you get an online review. This can mitigate some of the stress of refreshing Yelp throughout the day and allow you to keep up with everything that’s being said about your business on any platform.
Once you get used to the app, you can also use it to keep track of your competitor’s reviews. Is there one customer leaving a flagrant review for every restaurant in your community? Are there aspects of another salon that keep getting praised in reviews?
Feedback is an invaluable resource, and Perch makes it super easy to learn about what impresses and disappoints your community.
What are “Traffic Analytics” and Why Should I Care?
The real reason you need to use social media is that your platform is an excellent way to receive and track data about your customers. Every time you post, you can see how many likes and comments you receive. These are not just a metric for popularity but a way to gauge what products or services excite your customers.
When you start using a program to monitor engagement beyond these factors, you’ll be able to see how many people save, see, and click through your posts to your profile. You can even see what time your users are most active so you know when to post.
The more you learn about the kind of content your users enjoy, the more you learn about your customers. Targeted marketing has always been the best way to reach the people who are most likely to resonate with your brand, but today that targeting is getting more and more specific.
Big brands can target you based on what kind of yoga mat you use or what type of beer you drink. It’s only fair that small businesses do what they can to keep up.
The one drawback with organic social media marketing is that you can’t always control who will see your content. You might learn how to create the best content in your niche, but find that more and more of your impressions are coming from people in a different state. For a small restaurant or salon, that’s not always helpful, so it’s great to combine your marketing with a local campaign wherever you can.
Grocery store advertising has always been a reliable way to reach customers in your community, and the right supermarket advertisement can do wonders for your small business.
To learn more about grocery store advertising campaigns like coupon receipt advertising and shopping cart advertising, check out this link.
By IndoorMedia Marketing
By Eric Shafer
