Social media marketing offers a host of benefits traditional campaigns simply cannot, because, unlike conventional advertising methods, social media platforms are dynamic data gold mines that offer the ability to tailor campaigns with almost eerie precision and allow companies to actively engage customers.

Of course, if small businesses want to leverage the marketing potential of social media, they need more than a series of posts, they need a plan. Here are 10 tactics every small business should include in their social media marketing strategy:

1. Define your audience. All sound strategies begin with defining your target audience – their cohort, their interests, their purchasing behavior, their pains and dreams. Social media platforms such as Facebook provide the research power of large R&D firms free of charge and access to hundreds of millions of user profiles.
2. Create a Facebook business page. With over 2 billion monthly active users and counting, Facebook can put your business in front of a wide audience. Creating a professional Facebook profile can also humanize your company, building consumer trust.
3. Research keywords. Keywords are the words and phrases customers are likely to use when searching for the solutions to their problems or curiosity. Remember, they’re not going to search for you by name, so you need to make your business visible by catering to their needs.
4. Use Hashtags. Like keywords, hashtags are used by social media networks to index your posts, making them searchable or discoverable. The more hashtags you use, the broader your reach. And with the right content, hashtags can even get you on the trending lists.
5. Keep up with trending topics. This is an easy way to generate fresh, engaging content that can push you to the top of search results. Of course, don’t post news indiscriminately; rather, repost content relevant to your industry and target audience.
6. Schedule postings. To increase brand awareness, you must be consistent and you need to schedule your posts for times when viewership is the highest – every platform has different activity peaks and every audience has unique habits.
7. Interact with your audience. Unlike a business website, social media pages are meant to be, well, a social You can use your platform to answer questions, address concerns, and build trust through communication.
8. Include images in your posts. Including visuals in your social media posts whenever possible increases the likelihood your content will be shared or read. For instance, Facebook posts with images enjoy more than twice the engagement than text only posts.
9. Use niche platforms. While Facebook is a must and allows small businesses to reach a wider audience, niche platforms, such as Pinterest, Snapchat, and Reddit, enable companies to engage different subsets of their audience. There’s no need to sign up for all of them – just focus on the ones where your audience is most likely to be.
10. Use paid social media ads. Social media is a relatively low-cost alternative to traditional advertising campaigns – it’s the only form of advertising that can get you in front of 1,000 people for less than $3. Compare this to direct mail which is nearly 10 times the cost. Driven by infinite customer data, social media platforms will place your ads where they’re most likely to get clicks.

Implement these tactics and you’ll significantly expand your company’s reach. Of course, social media marketing is most successful as part of a comprehensive inbound marketing campaign that includes website development, email marketing, content generation, and search engine optimization (SEO).

If you’d like a company with a fully integrated package of online marketing services, contact Social Spice Media today! Unlike traditional advertising or web development firms who have hastily added social media management to their menu of services, we’re experts in social media marketing – it’s in our name.