Social Media Marketing: Business Basics

Social media marketing matters because it’s one of the easiest (and cheapest) ways to get your business in front of people’s eyes. It’s fun and your paid campaigns can be extremely affordable (we’ll talk about that later). First things first. We’re going to cover a topic called “Organic Posting.” That’s the free posts you make everyday as a user, except that it’s for your business. This is the most fundamental approach you can take. Writing down a few short sentences, putting down some hashtags, putting a location on your post are all easy, free ways to start your social media marketing journey!

Also, social media marketing matters because everyone is online NOW. When you wake up, when you’re at lunch, when you get home, before you go to sleep, what do people do? They check their phones. Social media is part of our daily lives. And let’s talk about current affairs. The pandemic has forced everyone to move online. Stay at home orders have increased our usage of online media. Axios even reported that social media app usage is 25% of ALL mobile app usage in the USA. It’s kind of a big deal.

So, it’s time to adapt an online strategy for your business.

Why should I post?

To get your name OUT there. Visibility is currency. So the more visibility you have, the better. Those brief 2-3 seconds your pic is on someone’s phone ARE WORTH THE EFFORT. There’s over a billion people online and you want a slice of that pie. Connect with people in your city, state, country or across the world. It depends on how far you want your services to go! Have a bakery and only want to advertise in your town? Put a few local hashtags and put your location on your post. Have a larger company that extends to a state or two? Experiment with different location settings. Social media is a medium to reach people. And best of all, it’s free.

How often do I post?

Post 2-3 times a week. Enough to be “active” but not enough to take up time that could be use for something else (like doing business). You’ll want to post in the afternoon, in the morning or during lunch hour. If you’re concerned about having to jump from IG to FB and Twitter, you can post all at once with Instagram. You’ll see the two little thumb slides at the end of posting. It won’t take any more than a 5-10 minutes to write down a few sentences , put down a few hashtags (more on this later) and use a pic.

What do I post?

Use selfies (which are popular) or something about the product/service in action. Behind the scenes stuff also works well. Give context to the pic. Where are you? What are you doing? What is the product doing in the pic? How does it help the person? How do you or people feel in this pic? Make it fun, or make it professional. Or do both. It’s your choice.

Video also works well. Use your camera phone to record you talking about your service or show the product in action. Keep it less than 1 minute or IG force you to use IG TV (which I’m personally not a fan of)

What’s the point of hashtags?

Hashtags are like little topics that you can label your post under. They have a double purpose. Your post becomes catagorizable to the social media search engine. Whenever you feel like searching for a topic on fb or ig, you can go to the search bar and type your key phrase, then your post will likely come up on the results page. For example, if your post is about baking and you use a #glutenfree hashtag, people who type in “”gluten free” will be more likely to find your post. Your posts also be exposed to people who normally don’t follow you. Typically you can increase your impressions up to 20%.