Social Media For Small Business

Marketing Strategies for Business Owners

Franziska Iseli

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9780730390329
• eBook ISBN: 9780730390305
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Digital Marketing
• Index: Business

Discover how social media can transform your businessand help you attract more customers

Social MediaForSmallBusiness delivers a step-by-step guide to unlocking the potential of social media togrowyour business.Award-winningauthor andentrepreneurFranziska Iseliwalksyou through how to use Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and Pinterest to market your small-to medium-sized business. The book provides you with:

• Effective marketing strategies to get more out of your social media efforts.
• Systemsto bring structure into your entire marketing approach.
• Toolsto make your brand irresistible across your customer touchpoints.
• Case studies to highlight the application of the book's principles to the real-world
• Practical strategies you can put in place immediately to see a rapid return on investment

Perfect for busybusiness owners, business managersand marketing teamswantingto find new andeffectivemarketing tools toattract more customers, Social MediaForSmallBusiness also belongs on the bookshelves of anyone who has difficulty with or wants to learn more about how social media can have a positive impact on their business and brand.

PART I
The power of social media

It's highly likely that a majority of your customers use social media channels to connect, communicate and shop, which makes social media a very powerful tool for business owners. The purpose of these platforms is for you to connect with your customers, network with potential strategic partners, attract prospects, build relationships, collaborate with brands, create communities and share brilliant content to build authority, which leads to trust and increased sales.

Despite this, very few businesses use social media in the most effective way. Social media goes far beyond the pretty ‘snap’, sharing cat videos or showing off the latest yoga pose. If used right, it's one of the most powerful tools for growing your business exponentially.

CHAPTER 1
WHY SOCIAL MEDIA?

Why should you even care about social media?

More than 60 per cent of the entire population own a smartphone. Almost half of the world's population uses social media. More than one‐quarter are online shoppers. And these numbers are accelerating fast.

The leverage principle: exponential vs linear

The good news is that there are countless different marketing strategies out there that can help you grow your business. Some of them have a more linear growth effect; some are more exponential. Linear means the rate of growth is more constant. Exponential is rapid growth, increasing by multiples. Both are great.

Social media is one of the marketing tools that can have an exponential effect on your business's growth and become an incredibly effective and omnipotent tool.

The reason for social media's exponentiality is that it takes advantage of the leverage principle: if you publish great content on your social channels, your followers might share it with their friends and their friends might share it with their friends. You suddenly go from broadcasting to only your audience to your followers broadcasting your content to their followers, and so on. This creates an exponential effect on your exposure.

This is also why some smaller brands have been able to scale exponentially and compete against big brand names on a tiny budget. It's not the big budgets that slam small ones anymore. The power is in the hands of the people.

Social proof

Social media also taps into the power of social proof, a term first coined by Robert Cialdini in his book Influence: The psychology of persuasion. Social proof describes the psychological and social phenomenon of people copying the actions of others. If a business gets a lot of positive attention on social media, others will follow and assume that this business must be great. You see this principle in action all the time. Imagine you walk past a row of restaurants. If you see one almost empty and one with most tables busy, which one will you choose? Most likely the seemingly ‘popular’ one. That's the law of social proof in action.

Social proof describes the psychological and social phenomenon of people copying the actions of others.

Social proof is inherent on social media and all social media tools have in‐built ways to tap into this principle by way of shares, likes, comments, reviews, recommendations, and so on. If you invest in adding value, being helpful and publishing great content, your audience will do the work for you.

The power of small

The good news is that you don't need a huge audience for social media to be effective. A small, yet loyal following is way more powerful than a large, disengaged one. If you have a few loyal sneezers—aka people who love your business, cheer you on and tell everyone about you—you will increase your brand awareness and ultimately attract significantly more customers.

The challenge

Unfortunately, social media is not all rainbows and unicorns and also comes with a few challenges—including a distorted portrayal of ‘real life’, which leads to unrealistic expectations. That's why it's so important for us to be real and share both the struggles and the triumphs. People connect with authenticity more than they do with fakery.

When it comes to social media for business, there are also a lot of subpar and abandoned social media accounts out there, so rather than joining the noise, make sure your social channels are representing you and your business honestly and you will attract a loyal following.

If you invest in adding value, being helpful and publishing great content, your audience will do the work for you.

Another big challenge businesses have when it comes to using social media is the lack of a strategy. They just randomly post content without a plan, which makes their approach very scattered and unorganised. After a few months of non‐results, many give up with a big sigh, saying that ‘social media doesn't work for my business’. It's not that social media doesn't work for your business; it's more likely that you didn't have a plan and gave up too early.

No magic pill

‘Franziska, just give me the magic pill!’ I hear that a lot. There is no magic pill. Sorry! I've seen too many business owners look to social media as the magic pill, the solver of all their problems, the one thing that will help them grow their business or become famous. Even though social media is one of the most powerful tools for your business, it's not the magic pill. It's one piece of your entire marketing puzzle. In chapter 5 I'll share my Online Eco‐System™ with you so you can see how the puzzle pieces fit together. The other important piece for your business to grow and succeed wildly is that you have a great product or service you believe in.

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Before we dive into your marketing strategy, let's look at what social media is exactly.

CHAPTER 2
WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA?

Social media is defined as ‘websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking’ according to the Oxford Dictionary.

Social media is a way for people to share ideas, thoughts and information, to network virtually, and to build communities. There are two key elements to social media that are important to understand: ‘social’ and ‘media’. Let's look at each of these.

Social

Social comes from the Latin word socius meaning ‘friend’.

Social media is a way for people to share ideas, thoughts and information, to network virtually, and to build communities.

A ‘social’ person is someone who enjoys being with others, seeking and enjoying the companionship of people. Social media is a way to connect with people and network virtually.

Most importantly, just li...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• Title Page
• Copyright
• About the author
• Dedication
• Preface
• PART I: The power of social media
• PART II: Always start with strategy
• PART III: Social media channels
• The beginning
• Index
• End User License Agreement