Navigating the social media landscape can be a game-changer for small businesses, so we’ve sought the wisdom of presidents and CEOs to share their insights. From the importance of “dating” your ideal client to driving authority with a spokesperson, explore the twelve tips these leaders offer to master social media in your business.
1. Date Your Ideal Client On Social Media
Use social media to “date” your ideal client. Social media is all about building relationships and trust. Before investing in your brand, people need to know that you have the expertise, knowledge, and solution to their problem. But above all, they need to know that you UNDERSTAND them.
For instance, I have a client who is a lash artist and has been trying to grow her brand to prepare for an educational product launch. At first, she was posting very cold content, showcasing only her expertise and teasing her upcoming launch. She didn’t want to share too much of her life online, which showed in her content. But how can you date and eventually marry your customer (and by marry, I mean make a conversion in your sales funnel) if they don’t have the opportunity to know the real you, the one they can relate to?
When we pivoted her content strategy, things drastically changed. She started posting more relatable content, inside jokes only people in her industry would understand, and sharing the more challenging moments. She went from being a cold expert to an approachable one with whom you can laugh and cry. Instantly, her metrics went up.
Of course, she got more likes and followed (getting over 2 million views in a matter of days), but above that, her viewer retention went up (people were listening to her), and her inbox requests skyrocketed.
Therefore, as a small business, focus on customer interactions. Make them laugh, make them emotional. Be there for them when they need a bit of entertainment, but ultimately, when they are finally ready to trust you 100%. This is when you will see true success with your online presence.
Ketsia Colas-Leroy, President, HeyKetsia Consulting
2. Get Professionally Personal
Social media is a great place to get “professionally personal.” Don’t share your nonsense; share enough that people get to know you and your company. I love sharing fun facts and such about our customer-facing employees.
A great example was with Jake. Jake is an HVAC technician and aspiring musician. When he did a YouTube video playing some fantastic blues music, it made for a perfect Facebook post with a bit of bio about Jake. Our customers loved it.
Christopher Olson, Chief Financial Officer, Surfside Services, LLC
3. Leverage Social Media Influencers
Small businesses can utilize the power of social media influencers. You don’t need 10 of them; you need 2 to 3 who share the same brand values as your brand (e.g., vegan, ethically produced products, healthy living, etc.) to ensure that they have high engagement.
There’s a reason these influencers are referred to as such: because they can influence their followers to buy what they are using or promoting. The tricky part is not to rely on their follower count. They might have thousands of followers, but if their engagement is poor, that’s a problem. You can ask for a media kit or for some data on a previous collaboration they had with a different brand.
You also choose them for the power of their content (photos/videos), as the influencers need to demonstrate the concrete value of products in their content. Create an affiliate discount link (so you can also track how many purchases were made through that link), and if you can afford to offer them a commission, do so.
Most importantly, choose a celebratory gift-giving event for the collaboration to make it more memorable (for example, Mother’s Day, Halloween, or National Book Day for booksellers, etc.).
Gen Ariton, PR and Outreach, CodeinWP
4. Showcase Business Growth Transparently
One of the effective ways to use social media to grow your small business is to have a founder post about what they are doing to grow their business. Then, to show complete transparency, you post real growth numbers so others can see how growth is going for the business based on your strategies.
This “grow in public” method is a popular way for others to engage with you and understand your business’s ins and outs. As other small business owners struggle with their businesses, they connect with your struggles and appreciate your transparency, which helps give them insight into your business strategies.
Adam White, Founder, Serpple
5. Implement a Targeted Content Strategy
One tactic I’ve seen work wonders in small businesses is having a targeted content strategy. For instance, working with NachaTech, a software company, we automated the creation of over 100 AI-created articles focusing on specific keyword clusters that applied to their niche. These were then published daily on their blog.
This boosted their homepage impressions by 22% and overall online visibility by 64%, driving over 5,000 monthly impressions from highly interested prospects. So, my advice is to understand your audience, target keywords that reflect your services, and maintain a consistent posting schedule with quality content. Automate if you can—it’s a game-changer!
Dominic Zijlstra, Founder, Adaptify AI
6. Focus On Community Over Promotion
Regarding social media, small businesses should focus on building community and relationships over promoting products. Dedicate 80% or more of your social content to sharing stories, interacting with your audience, addressing questions, and creating a welcoming space centered around your brand’s passions. Sprinkle in at most 20% direct product promotion or sales offerings.
Making social connections instead of blatantly selling establishes trust and rapport so that when special offers are shared, they’ll reach engaged followers—not distant strangers. People support brands made up of relatable people with shared ideals. Social media has incredible power to humanize your small business.
Lindsey Chastain, Small Business Owner, The Writing Detective
7. Utilize LinkedIn For Sector Expertise
For a small business, I think having a LinkedIn profile is crucial. The reason is straightforward: You can demonstrate your experience and knowledge in a particular sector by providing interesting information that is difficult to find on the web.
Interacting with experts in your sector, who may often comment on or reshare your posts, is much easier and increases your visibility. With other social networks, all this would be much more difficult, decreasing their effectiveness.
Giovanni Della Ventura, Head of Content, giodella.com
8. Set Concrete Social Media Objectives
Have a planned set of objectives that your social media efforts are driving towards. Far too many small businesses tend to put social media activities into one of two buckets: either a magic bullet that will help them fix everything or something they do simply because they must avoid falling completely behind their competitors.
Both of these views are wrong, in my opinion. Social media is an excellent tool for small businesses, but you need to know precisely the concrete goals you want it to accomplish. Do you want to spend X dollars on social media advertising and campaigns that will result in a Y boost in traffic for the upcoming quarter? These are the sorts of questions you need to ask and plan around when using social media as a small business.
Onno Halsema, CEO, Contentoo
9. Invest Heavily In Suitable Platforms
Heavy investment into the platform most suitable for your content is significantly better than shallow investment into many platforms that might help you attract new users.
Social media marketing can be pretty resource-intensive if you want to make it a serious part of your strategy, as you’re not only going to need to put together a content calendar but also make sure you’re doing a good amount of community building by interacting with your users regularly and encouraging user-generated content.
Do your research in advance and plan to put the majority of your resources into one or two platforms that can net you the best return.
Kate Kandefer, CEO, SEOwind
10. Educate To Establish Thought Leadership
I’ve always found that the best strategy is to use education to help establish yourself as a trusted thought leader, first and foremost. The mileage for this advice will vary based on your industry. Still, if you have a superior product in some way, you will want a well-educated consumer, who will be much more likely to decide in your favor when armed with the facts.
You see this approach from many well-established brands known to be industry leaders, but it works just as well for small businesses, so long as they stay consistent and play the long game. I would know, as that’s precisely what I’ve done.
Dragos Badea, CEO, Yarooms
11. Maintain Consistency And Diversify Content
One of the best tips for small businesses is consistency in posting schedule and content style. This helps build trust and familiarity with your audience. Additionally, diversifying content with engaging formats like polls and stories and posting content such as customer reviews and inside-business content can boost engagement and showcase business culture.
Mohammad Arman, Local Marketer, Mohammad Arman
12. Drive Authority With a Spokesperson
Having a thought leader or spokesperson, typically a founder or partner, who shares advice, ideas, and solutions related to what the company does and the problem it solves drives authority, brand recognition, and potential leads, as the company’s brand is tightly associated with the individual’s brand.
Jose Bermejo, Founder and Managing Partner, Predictable Innovation Strategy
