Is your social media marketing strategy flawed?

Social media marketing is not intuitive for most of us. There is both too much information online about social media, and not enough information on what strategies actually bring customers in. Many small businesses or marketing managers think that more is better on social media, so they avoid it because they cannot commit to posting daily. What stops most people from fully engaging on social media is friction. Friction is any part of the process that stresses you out. For some people, choosing photos for posting creates friction. For others, writing captions makes them stressed out. Some people don’t mind posting, but know that if they hop online, they’ll be there for hours, scrolling and scrolling. So how do you engage on social media in a way that builds your business, but doesn’t take a lot of energy or stress you out?

Approaching social media as an opportunity to lean into your local community changes your relationship with the platforms you are on. It changes what you post, how you post and what you share. You might think, “I’m a business, my only goal on social media is to increase my revenue;” and you can absolutely approach social media from that perspective. But in my experience (building businesses through social media and training other businesses to do the same), you’ll burn out much faster than if you approach social media as an opportunity to build and support your community. The sweet spot for small businesses on social media are posts that share information about you, your brand, or your product/service and support your local community. It might take you a little while to get into the groove, but once you do, this perspective will become a natural part of your social media efforts.

How do you actually engage with your local community online?

First, examine your local relationships. Who do you buy your materials from? Where do you eat lunch? These are easy and quick places to feature, tag, “like” and engage with. (Can’t think of any local businesses you interact with? That’s worth examining on its own — see what purchasing or support you can change to a local business.) Second, what is important to you? If you are passionate about the environment, find and engage with local groups, advocates and businesses, even if it’s not exactly related to your business. Third, consistency is important! You do not need to post every day, but shoot for once per week on Instagram and once per month on Facebook. (Why do I recommend a different level of engagement for these two platforms? Because Instagram is truly, truly where the magic happens.)

Lastly, use Instagram and Facebook differently — because they have different strengths and tools. Here are a few specific ideas of how to find and engage with local businesses and potential customers:

On Instagram:

· Don’t follow everyone! Follow people and businesses that you actually want to see in your feed, and who you want to support. Consider following a hashtag that relates to your location — this allows you to see relevant, local posts in your feed without following a ton of people.

· Your bio should be short and clear — a digital version of your elevator pitch. The longer it is, the more it pushes your feed (images) further down the page.

· Hashtags can be overwhelming. At a minimum, research what hashtags people use to talk about your neighborhood, city or region, and use 3–10 local hashtags at the end of a post once a month. Can you dive into hashtags and use 30 different hashtags for every post? Of course! But you’re probably going to get burned out really quickly.

· Improve physical wayfinding. Include your city in your bio, and if you have a physical location, include your address and open hours. Share pictures of your space, the entrance to your space, and the building you’re in. Share about transit options, carpooling, and bike storage at or near your store or event venue. If people complain that they couldn’t find parking, show images of where you recommend people to park.

· Improve emotional wayfinding. If you get the same question over and over, e.g. “how much does this cost?” or “where can I buy this?” answer it preemptively! If the purchasing process is unclear or takes a lot of steps to, you will lose some customers.

· Host a giveaway, but instead of requiring people to follow you, ask them to tag their favorite local coffee shop, or business, or inspirational speaker. This not only makes people feel good, it gives you input on trends and great local businesses to look into! If you don’t have a physical product, purchase an item or gift card to a local business!

On Facebook:

· Engage with local groups, e.g. posting on Small Business Saturdays, but follow the rules! Consider adding a calendar item to post to a specific group once per month or once per week — this removes the ‘what day can I post in that group?’ friction.

· Use Facebook to tell people about events — if your business doesn’t typically have events, you can host an open house, sidewalk sale or networking event. This gives people the opportunity to meet you, but also allows you to use the event feature on Facebook, which can increase organic exposure.

· Run a fundraiser for a local charity, either through Facebook’s built in fundraiser tool, or share that you’re giving a percentage of sales (e.g. for one month) to a specific charity.

· Share events hosted by partners and other local businesses and organizations.

· Improve physical and emotional wayfinding (see tips above.)

One more thing: weirdness is wonderful

Be your weird and wonderful self on social media! Your uniqueness and your passions are what create thoughtful, deep relationships with your customers and community on social media. Plus — it’s a lot more fun to show the world who you really are, than trying to be a perfect “professional” character all the time! Think about your favorite feeds: are they small brands that excel at sharing their values and perspectives? Or are they large companies with pretty pictures of fancy clothes? Using social media to share our true selves and our values invites our customers and community into a trusting, educational relationship. Try doing that with a newspaper ad!

This article was previously published on Medium.com in Feb, 2020