5 Questions to Ask Before Posting on Your Business Social Media
Before you dive deep into social media marketing for your business, here are 5 questions to ask yourself.
Who are you?
Think of your social media as another “welcome mat” to welcome your customers in the door. Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Google Business are just one of several key components to your marketing success. Not the only one. Your website, your marketing materials, and your storefront –if you have one – are all first impression opportunities for your business.
If the way you make customers feel when they interact with your helpful, mobile-friendly website is the same feeling they get when they call you on the phone or drop by your office, you are developing a consistent, quality brand experience. If you haven’t posted to your business social media page in weeks, or responded to that Google review that was posted a month ago – you might need a change of focus.
The primary job of your social media is to reflect your customers’ actual experience.
2. Why social media?
Why are you posting on social media? We typically see about 20% of our clients website traffic coming from their social media pages. (Remember that one-of-many welcome mats idea?) While social media isn’t the only key to building your business, the days of ignoring it are over. Interacting directly with customers online can become a great source of sales and referrals.
Do you know where your current sales are coming from? Ask customers how they found you! You might be surprised to find out. Word-of-mouth referrals and Google search might account for more of your traffic than you realize. That means your website content and day-to-day interactions with people are just as important as posting consistent, quality content on your social media pages.
3. Who are your current and potential customers?
If your ideal client is between age 50-64, Facebook reports 51% of their users are in that age group. But if your target customers are Millennials or Get Z, Instagram is a platform you need to explore.
“Here’s how Instagram users are broken down by age, according to our Global State of Digital 2022 report:
13-17 years old: 8.5%
18-24 years old: 30.1%
25-34 years old: 31.5%
35-44 years old: 16.1%
45-54 years old: 8%
55-64 years old: 3.6%
65 years old and up: 2.1%” Source.
If you are new to posting on your social media accounts, we recommend picking one or two platforms and committing to them. Because Facebook and Instagram accounts can be easily connected using Business Suite, allowing you to preschedule your posts for both platforms at the same time, it’s a great place to start.
Keep in mind, your clients might be come from multiple generations. A wedding venue for example, might connect with potential brides on Instagram while at the same time, their moms (also key decision makers in the wedding planning process) are spending most of their time on Facebook.
4. What tools are you going to use?
Start where you are and commit to learning more about the tools that are available to you. If you can only commit to posting twice a week, start there. We frequently use Canva for creating and planning social media posts. There are also great free resources on Business Suite.
Want access to our Canva workshop on video? Email us and we’ll send you the link. It’s a free gift as our thank you for connecting with us on the Marken blog.
5. Where do you see results?
If you notice more response, foot traffic or sales after posting to Instagram stories, focus on that. If you notice a spike after posting pictures to Google Business, do more there! If you see a certain type of post is always spreading like wildfire, don’t be afraid to wait a bit and repeat the post!
An engaged audience that is small, is better than a larger audience that doesn't really care.
For more small business tips, connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn.
Ready to take your small business marketing to the next level? Chances are, the DIY website that got you started won’t be the website that gets you where you want to go! Not sure how to find and attract your ideal customers? We’d love to chat.