As part of your overall content strategy, a strong presence online includes a well thought out social media strategy. Developing a small business social media plan can be particularly difficult when you have a small staff and limited time. Here are a few tips to help you get started.

Define your social media goals

The first step for developing a small business social media plan is really focusing on what your goals are. Set goals that are realistic and achievable and are aligned with your broader marketing strategy, so that your social media efforts drive toward your business objectives. If your social media marketing strategy is shown to support business goals, you’re more likely to get executive buy-in and investment.

Here are some examples of goals you might want to consider for your social media strategy:

Increase overall traffic to your website by 50% year over year

Drive 60% more engagement year over year

Increase revenue from social media by 20% year over year.

A good example of a well-written goal might look like this: “For Instagram we will share photos that communicate our company culture. We will do this by posting three photos a week. Our goal is 30 likes and five comments per post.”

Review or create social accounts

Choose which networks best meet your social media goals . If you don’t already have social media profiles on each network you focus on, build them from the ground up with your broader goals and audience in mind. If you do have existing accounts, it’s time to update and refine them to get the best possible results.

Optimizing profiles for SEO can help generate more web traffic to your online properties. Cross-promoting social accounts can extend the reach of content. Fill out social media profiles completely and optimized images and text for each specific social network.

Don’t “dump and run”

Remember to keep the ‘social’ in social media. When you simply dump content onto a platform and expect people’s engagement and loyalty, you’re missing the boat. Comment, Like and share your follower’s content. When fans respond to your content, highlight them in the comments. You could also message customers and prospects personally to show appreciation for their support.

As a result, these personal touches will give you an amazing edge with your audience.

Create a diverse social media calendar

Video– is booming and will be critical to social media success in the future. Videos don’t have to be expensive to produce. Try capturing a fun moment or a product in action and uploaded it directly to your social platform. Typically, video content statistically gets more engagement than images.

Blogs– People look for information that is quick and easily digestible – a blog on your website puts you in the game. Original blog content that’s promoted properly through your social media channels attracts customers to your website and boosts your SEO.

Photos– 90% of information transmitted to the human brain is visual and our magical minds process visuals 60,000x faster than text. To win attention on social media you’re going to need to create compelling visuals to tell your story. If you don’t have access to an expert graphic designer, sites like Canva can help. Create social graphics that are fun, attractive and engaging.

Audio– It seems like podcasts just keep increasing in popularity. About 24% of Americans listen to monthly podcasts, that’s up 11 percent from last year. Consider adding a podcast to your marketing plan.

Be consistent. Always be consistent

Oftentimes, potential customers will view consistency as sign of trustworthiness. They see you have made a commitment to a social platform, a blog or and email campaign and have honored that commitment. Plus, your SEO improves with every linkback or properly keyworded post. Consequently, developing a social media strategy for small business requires consistency.

A good social media and content strategy propels your business to another level of marketing success. We like to think of it as conquering the uphill climb. If you would like to talk with us about small business social media, find us at 813-892-2545. We love to talk.