I was asked to be the guest speaker for one of the Chamber’s Business Connexions groups. They wanted me to talk about Social Media for small businesses. Here’s the list of tips that I came up with.
Social Media for Small Business: It’s Easier Than You Think
1. Make a commitment to social media, even a small one. Set aside 20 minutes a day, or the first hour of your morning, whatever works. Post when your followers are online. According to the insights that Facebook gives all of the small businesses pages that I’ve managed, everyone is online during business hours, a Wednesday. Sure, they come and go all week long, but Wednesdays are the popular day for cruising social media. Maybe everyone’s boss is out of the office on that day.
2. Have a brand personality, company voice. Be consistent.
Examples: Starbucks, Skittles, and Coke.
Leslie Lang, realtor in San Jose - posts pictures of herself in the shower/bathroom (omg) of houses that she’s selling. She’s a local comedian, in addition to being a realtor.
Helming’s Auto- they show a problem, then the solution. It’s really interesting.
Kuzak’s Closet-Estate sales, inspiration to tidy up, behind-the-scenes photos of the team setting up for a sale, or working at a liquidation.
I managed the social pages for a cannabis company and they had no online “brand personality” since they spent all of their time making the product and delivering to dispensaries, so I got to start from scratch. Oh it was so much fun! I used images of beach life and quotes about having fun and eventually patients and dispensaries started requesting posters of those social media posts. Everyone loved the images. It was great branding and showed lots of cannabis-loving personality.
3. “Social Listening” What are your competitors & customers are posting? Spy on your competition: Facebook’s insights. Listen to the online mood, not just the numbers. Figure out what resonates with your customers.
4. How to like other business pages, and how to see the feed of your business page. Sometimes you might want to like posts as your business page, as well as from your personal page. Toggle back and forth.
5. Even if you feel like you made something that isn’t so great, you can use it on a story (they’re temporary!) and make comments about it not ending up as you expected. #fail #funny #blooper
6. Get ideas through Facebook Groups. These are some of the ones I follow: Chamber Professionals, WeVideo Business Community, WeVideo Ambassadors, Mountain View Moms, You Know You’re From Mountain View When… and Lost Mountain View.
7. Video is so important. More than 80% of all web traffic is video in 2019.
More video content is uploaded in 30 days than the major US television networks have created in the last 30 years. GrowthTribe I use WeVideo for editing. They’re a Mountain View company, a Chamber member and they have a fabulous product.
8. Share things of value. People are tired of crappy posts saying “join my email list” over and over again. They’ll unfollow you, for sure. Instead, use the 80/20 rule. Eighty percent of the time, post about the community, engaging things that are helpful, and twenty percent of the time your posts can be about your product or services.
9. Videos for Facebook newsfeed should be 60-90 seconds and Facebook cover images should be 20-90 seconds long. Mountain View Chamber, Magical Bridge & San Jose State University all have them.
10. Video: A good thumbnail and autoplay are key. Google it or ask for help if you don’t know how. A good thumbnail works miracles for engagement.
11. Focus on certain platforms, wherever your customers/potential customers are. Don’t spread yourself too thin. No one expects your business to be on all of the various platforms; just do a pretty good job on one of them and you’re good.
And have fun.
