In this 6-minute read:
- How to use social media to market your business
- 14 best types of social media posts for small businesses
As a business owner, you are probably constantly hearing from others that your business needs to be on social media. Whether or not you agree with them, you shouldn’t discount the valuable opportunities that you can gain from proper utilization of various social platforms.
The power of sharing and engagement on social media can help increase your online presence and brand awareness, bringing in more customers and revenue.
Attract new customers and keep them loyal with reputation management software. Learn more, plus get free reputation monitoring and customer insights when you sign up for Womply Free!
The hardest part of any social media campaign is usually coming up with new content and deciding what to post.
There are several types of effective social media posts that small business should be posting. We’ve covered many of those below for you.
So as you start planning your social posting schedules, keep these types of posts in mind to get the most user engagement with your brand.
1. Behind-the-scenes
Behind-the-scenes posts are great helping your customers and followers get to know your company and employees better.
This adds a human aspect to your business that helps your customers connect with you and view you as a friend, rather than simply a business.
You can share things like employees at community events, photos of your holiday work parties, and employees on the job with a customer.
This helps remove some of the intimidation and separation that customers may feel when walking into a new business for the first time and lets them feel like they already know your business.
2. New products and services
Whenever you get a new product or service you should take advantage of the sharing power of social media. Boost these posts by using them as Instagram ads or Facebook ads in your local area to highlight your new offerings to more potential customers.
If it’s something that customers have been waiting for or even a cool new product that spikes consumer interest, people are going to share it and drive more sales.
3. Discounts, sales, and special deals
Don’t underestimate the power of discounts. Everyone loves to get a good deal, especially on products and services that they use frequently.
Every now and then, plan a fun discount or deal to offer your customers and encourage them to share that offer with their friends and family.
Pro tip: social media users LOVE getting “exclusive” offers that you send out only to a particular platform.
Go deeper: how to use Instagram Stories to promote your business
4. Giveaways and contests
Giveaways and contests get tons of engagement, especially on Instagram and Facebook. Host a giveaway from your business page to encourage more likes, shares, and overall engagement with your page.
Select a prize that is relevant to your business, establish some rules for the giveaway, and boot that post in your area. A common giveaway tactic is to ask for page likes and/or to tag friends to get entries into the giveaway.
Just be sure to understand the rules for giveaways on the platform you are using and include the appropriate terms and conditions on your post.
5. Promote your blog posts
If you already have a blog on your website, then social media is the perfect way to get more traffic for your blog posts. Share your new blog posts across all of your social media channels. You can even take this a step further by promoting ads with your blog posts in them.
Don’t have a blog yet? Read our tutorial on how to write an effective small business blog.
6. User-generated content
Consider asking your regular followers to contribute to your social pages. User-generated content is awesome because people love to see and share the work of those they know.
You might ask customers to share a video or picture of them using one of your products or having a service done. This shows off your business offerings while also helping your followers to engage with their friends.
7. Interactive content
Interactive posts are an absolute must. Social media users love to engage with polls, quizzes, and other fun activities on the internet.
Appeal to that interest and share your own interactive posts to involve consumers more in your business and get some valuable feedback.
There are several features, filters, and “apps” in Instagram, Facebook, and other social media platforms that allow you to great engaging, fun, interactive content.
8. Videos
Visual content is key, and videos are a great way to do it. How often are you scrolling through your social feed and stop to watch a video that piques your interest?
Take advantage of that power and produce your own videos to share on your social channels. These can be how-to videos, inspirational stories, Instagram Stories, or even live streams announcing a new business offering.
Learn more: How to use Instagram Stories highlights to market your business
Go deeper: How to create a YouTube channel for your business
9. News and trending topics
Piggyback on the things that are already getting shared on social media channels. Find news and trending topics that are relevant to your business (or that you can make relevant to your business) and hop on the bandwagon.
Share the things that people are already looking for and sharing themselves.
10. Infographics and images
Again, you need to have high-quality visual content. Infographics and beautiful or interesting photos can take your social profiles far. These are the kinds of things that grab people’s attention and that they like to share with others.
Go deeper: Top 3 ways to get and use professional photos for your small business
11. Memes and quotes
Memes are usually funny, entertaining, or inspirational with quotes or captions attached to the post. These are a huge part of what many social media users are looking for when they start scrolling through their feeds.
Memes help pass the time and allow people to relax and have fun. They also get shared like crazy, so create your own versions of popular memes and share them on your social profiles.
12. Inspirational or emotional stories
Tug at people’s heartstrings a little with some inspirational stories. Think about the posts like someone seeing color for the first time or a baby hearing their mother’s voice with a hearing aid.
Share the inspirational stories that are taking place within your own community and encourage your followers to share their own stories as well.
Of course, it’s always best to keep all of your posts relevant to your business intent, or at least in alignment with your “persona” and what type of content your followers expect from you.
13. Testimonials
Be proud of your work and share customer testimonials. Video testimonials are great because they catch users’ attention and show the real people that are paying for your products and services.
Be sure to get permission when sharing any personal details or testimonials.
14. Freebies
Who doesn’t love getting some freebies? Offer some free swag or special gifts to your customers that correlate with specific holidays or new offerings.
You could share a free eBook with valuable insights into your offerings or give a free cookie to everyone that comes to your business dressed up on Halloween (these are just 2 of hundreds of possibilities).
Share those offerings on your social channels to get the word out and increase your reach.
Additional help for social media posting
Social media marketing can take a lot of time, but it doesn’t have to be difficult. Get together with your team and plan out a couple of posts that you want to do each month and get started.
To offer you some additional help in your social media endeavors, check out this guide: 10 tools for sharing content on social media
As you are increasing your awareness through social media campaigns, be sure that you are keeping up on getting regular reviews from your customers. Help keep your online reputation great while your reach increases.
Womply’s reputation management software can help you save tons of time managing customer reviews and responding to them. Remember, businesses that regularly respond to reviews earn up to 49% more revenue!
Learn more, plus get free reputation monitoring and customer insights when you sign up for Womply Free!