Still not convinced of the power of social media? Want to know what the benefit is for your small business? Over2 billionusers from all over the world, your customers are already there. This makes social media a crucial part of your brand's marketing strategy. But while you should be on social media, knowing where to start is easier said than done. Below, we'll take a look at 8 ways you can start using social media to grow and grow your business. Laut Social Media Browser2017 Social Media Marketing-Branchenbericht, more than 65% of small businesses use social media to generate leads. But the biggest benefit of using social media isn't just the leads. It's the ability to generate highly qualified leads through advanced targeting. and still inAscender2The results of improving lead quality proved to be a significant barrier to success. So how can you use social media to break down that barrier andimprove lead qualityfor your small business? A good place to start is promoting gatedContent on Social Networks. For this, you need content compatible with the interests of your followers. To understand better, let's see an example ofMarketing Professionals. One of her latest posts directs followers to her virtual conference. The image is relevant to the content (and your audience), is clear and easy to understand, and sets expectations for your Twitter followers. You can do the same: There's a lot of discussion on this topic, but the bottom line is this... Social media can (and will) improve your search engine rankings. How? Your website's domain authority increases when yourSocial media engagement rateincreases. This leads to abest search engine rankingyour pages But it's more than that, many consumers visit yoursocial media profilebefore they visit your website to get a better idea of ​​your brand before making a purchase. More visits to your social media profiles will increase your social media page rankings and improve your chances of appearing among the top ranking pages. Use free tools likeprofessional ranking trackerto track your ranking. If you're not creating visually compelling content that grabs your audience's attention, your competition will. That's howVisual marketing can help you stand out online! Usually,Small businesses use social mediawith the aim of increasing traffic to a website. This theory was supported by the sameThe Social Media Examiner report I mentioned earlier shows that 78% of small businesses say this.Use social media to increase your website traffic. If you don't have a strong social media presence, you will miss out on organically generated traffic. This means your traffic will be generated from the same limited number of people who are currently following you. Bad ideia. You need to expand your brand's reach if you want to drive more traffic. But where do you start? especially given the2017 entry statusReport that found that 63% of businesses struggle to generate traffic and leads. How are you?generate traffic? What is the most effective way? First, create a profile for your small business on all relevant social media platforms. Then take advantage of these platforms by sharing content tailored to each of them. OnEffective presence on social mediaThis will encourage your followers to move down the lead funnel and eventually reach the product purchase page.1. Increase leads
2. Improve search engine rankings
3. Increase traffic
Second, make sure your audience can easily share your content with social sharing buttons prominently displayed on your website.
Additionally, you can add aclick to tweetFeature a statistic, quote, or other interesting piece of information for easy sharing. Now readers are just one click away from sharing your content.
4. Keep an eye on competitors
This might sound strange, but social media is a great way to keep tabs on your competitors.
It gives you the chance to monitor her performance and be inspired by her. You can seewhat kind of content they postand how they interact with their followers.
Social networks can also help youLearn from your competitors. There must be a good reason why your competitors are doing better than you.
Know your strategies, but make sure you don't just copy and follow them. What works best for them isn't always what works best for you. Instead, modify their ideas and make them your own.
Competitive analysis on social networks.it's about learning from the successes and mistakes of your competitors. It is also useful and important to analyze yourself and see where you are compared to the competition.
there are severalToolYou can useDo competitive analysis. The tool you choose should meet the specific goals of your marketing team.
And before deciding which tool to use, check if the company offers a free trial period.
5. Earn customer trust

Social networks are much more than a platform for promoting and selling services or products for small businesses. Gives you the chance to do itBuild trust with customersand develop loyal customers.
In the survey conducted by Social Media Examiner, nearly 79% of marketers agreed that social media is an effective way to gain a loyal following.
Now that we know that social media can be used to build a loyal following, let's take a look at how to do that.
Any content you post on your social media profiles must be authentic, unique, relatable and engaging with your audience.
One way to ensure your content exhibits these qualities is to make itcollaborate with an influencerto promote your product or service.
Influencers share their personal experiences with your product and this is one of the biggest benefits of working with them.
Their stories are real, compelling and authentic. It's easy for a customer to relate to and believe your stories.
However, the main obstacle with this method isFind a relevant influencer and work with themfor your brand There are many platforms and tools to help you find the right influencers for your brand.
platforms likesmileyBuzzwebcan make your search for relevant and credible influencers easier. With its advanced filters, you can search for the most suitable influencers based on follower count, engagement rate and niche.
julie sariñanais a fashion blogger with over 4 million followers on her Instagram account. Fashion brand H&M collaborated with her to promote herFall 2017 Collection.
Julie loved the fall collection and promoted it on her Instagram account. Her post managed to collect more than 66,000 likes.
6. Create brand awareness
For any small business, awareness is a top priority.
This is usually because we know that people prefer to buy from brands they know.
This is where social media comes into play.
Compared to traditional media, social media can put your brand ahead of yours.target groupfaster and easier. Plus, it makes your target audience think about your business even if they don't.
Make sure you invest your time in creating and investingPosting relevant content, cover photos and profile photos on social platforms. Position your logo strategically so that it makes a lasting impression in the minds of potential customers.
Don't place your logo in a distracting or overwhelming location. Also, don't forget to focus on thosevisual elementsto your brand.
For example, if you look at the Twitter profile pageNikeYou will find it clean and fresh. Images are simple.
They added their logo as their profile picture and their cover photo is their famous catchphrase.

7. Establish your brand as current authority
Social media platforms can help you establish your small business as an authority today. that is, in yournicheTurn your brand into a trusted source of information.
But how can social media help you with that?build current authority?
you have to be regularpublish contentrelevant to your niche.
Search engines begin to recognize your authority in that niche. This helps your brand become the go-to place for any topic.
If your page has high authority, it will also drive quality traffic to your website.
If you are looking for content as sources for your writing, you can useToolto find a reliable source. Remember, the higher the number, the more credible the site is.

8. Maximize Conversions
For any small business, generating quality traffic is not the only goal.
To be successful, you need to convert that traffic into paying customers. But how can you get a high conversion rate on social media?
Here are two of the most effective methods.
1. Add a strong CTA
A strong call to action is important because it guides and motivates potential customers on what to do next. This can help motivate potential customers to make a purchase.
Likewise, you can design acompelling call to actionand post it on your social media profiles. This will encourage your followers to take the necessary action, which could be purchasing your product or service.
Have you noticed, for exampledominoPizza's message on their main Facebook page? They encourage their fans to order online or over the phone to earn points for free pizza.

The advantage of this ad is that it can be used anywhere on social media. Furthermore, it will guide and motivate potential customers to visit your website and make a purchase.
The key is to make the entire process, from CTA to purchase, engaging. Otherwise, you can immediately demotivate your prospects and prevent them from completing the buying cycle.
2. Organize contests, sweepstakes or offer discounts
Who doesn't like discounts and freebies? Regardless of the type of business, this method is extremely profitable and a powerful way to generate sales. It can also help to promote your products.
Organizecontests or sweepstakesit can also be fun and fun. They help increase your retention rate as potential customers start interacting with your brand more in hopes of getting something.
This can raise awareness of your service or product as customers eagerly share discount news with their friends.
For example,simply fabulous, a UK fashion and clothing brand, offered 3 nights for 2 people in the south of France.
The following screenshot is a great example of how to run a sweepstakes.

As you can see, they clearly mentioned the steps to follow and the timing of the announcement of the winners. This will attract and motivate people to visit your website.
See how to use Post Planner to grow your small business
Growing your business with social media is easier said than done.
It takes a lot of strategy, manual work and perseverance.
Doing this 100% manually will cost hours EVERY week.
To remember:
You're a small business owner, so you don't have time for that.
For this reason, we recommend using a social media management tool likepost planer.
Post Planner helps you plan, automate and find viral content in one complete platform.
Below we'll look at how you can use 3 Post Planner strategies to maximize the above tactics.
sign up for onePost-planner free accountJoin. 😉
How to find VIRAL content
Not everything you post on social media needs to be original.
Sharing or recreating viral content can do wonders for your growth.
You can use Post Planner's content streams to do this.Find top rated curated content.
Content streams are curated sources of content that you or other users can create.
To find content that has been shown to have high engagement:
Openpost planerafter logging in.
In the sidebar, click Content.
Under Content Sources, click Streams.
Use the search bar to search for any topic.
(Post Planner has powerful content in almost every industry.)
Once you find a stream, you can filter the content by:
- Type of content (image, videos, articles, GIFs, etc.)
- Dice
- Likes, stars, recents and shares
(If you want to find the best viral content, sort by likes, stars, and shares.)
Filter and browse the content until you find the posts you like.
You can post or schedule the viral posts to post on your account.
To do this, just click on the spring.
Have you found a stream of content that appeals to you?
Save this content stream for future reference.
How to recycle your BEST posts
Do you want to know a secret?
Your followers don't remember what you posted 6 months ago. 🤫
What does this means?
You can reuse this content.
You should especially do this if you've already published well-performing content.
Post Planner makes it easy to find the best performing posts AND recycle them.
Once you start creating posts with Post Planner, go to "History" in the left sidebar.
Then choose to repost or queue your favorite posts across all your social media accounts.
Or, if you know a new post will be well received, you can automatically reuse it in your publishing schedule.
How to automate your social media publishing schedule
Being consistent is HARD.
But it is the key to growth.
There's no way to avoid it!
Manual posting on social media prevents you from reaching your goals.
This is why social media marketers use PROautomation.
You can use Post Planner to create automated booking schedules.
This will save you a lot of time and help you stay consistent!
You maySchedule one-time contributions.
jSimply choose a posting time when creating a post.
However, the best way to automate your social media posts is through queue plans.
Queues allow you to automatically publish specific types of content at set times.
How to begin:
First, create a queue plan.
Click Posts in the sidebar.
Then configure your content queues as follows:
- days of the week
- hour
- Content source (you can categorize content with buckets)
- content type
Now when you create a post you can categorize itcontent typeyou with cubes
Turn on recycling if you plan to republish your post in the future and add it to the queue.
final thoughts
Now you have a better understanding of how social media can benefit your small business.
Remember: not everyonecontent typesor the mentioned strategies will work for your business.Try each one, learn from your findings, and make other improvements.
Now it's your turn to incorporate social networks into yourSmall business marketing strategy..Do you have any additional questions or tips? Please share them with us in the comments below.
