Looking to improve your businesses digital presence and better promote your products and services online? The “Businesses Helping Businesses” series features Digital Main Street Vendors located in Hamilton, ON. This new blog series is curated by Hamilton’s talented pool of digital professionals looking to lend a hand in improving the small business community’s online presence by highlighting tips, tactics and strategies you can start to use immediately for better results online!
By: Lisa-Marie Kiss, lisamariekiss.com
“1 billion people use Instagram every month. Of the social networks, only Facebook and YouTube have more people logging in. And of Instagram’s 1 billion monthly active users, more than 500 million of them use the platform every day” (Hootsuite Blog).
Your customers and clients are using social media
If your target market is using social media then you need to be too! If they’re younger maybe opt for developing a strong Instagram Strategy. However, if your audience is a little older than Facebook would be your platform. I recommend having both and executing a different strategy on each platform because every platform is meant to do different things. However, only focus your energy on what is actually getting you results. One tip so you’re not constantly staring at a screen is taking a day to batch all of your content. Read more about batch content and content calendars below.
Brand Presence and Awareness
If you’re not visible online then how will your potential customers or clients find you? Make yourself visible and allow yourself to be found by potential customers. Even if you create a Facebook Page or Instagram Account and write an engaging bio, have a few posts and the correct links, it may not be necessary to post a lot. However, you need an account to be found.
Build Brand Loyalty
Let your customers become your marketing reps. Get them to post about your business! In return, you receive brand awareness and can use the User Generated Content; saving you time on your content creation.
Some ways to get your customers talking about you on social media:
- Start a movement to get your customers engaged
- Run a contest or giveaway
- Create your own mini brand community on Social Media and your own Hashtag
How to Set Yourself Up for Success:
1. Use the Batch Content Method
What is “Batch Content”?
Batching not only saves you time, but it will also help streamline thoughtful content that can work better with all of your marketing. The mad rush of getting content on your social media platforms might hurt your ability to thoughtfully connect content pieces for a holistic experience.
To be able to batch your social media content effectively, you need two core things: a schedule and a system. Your system may vary depending on if you do everything on your own or if you have a team, but knowing the steps in advance will help you create an approach to batching that works for you.
How to start batching (weekly or monthly):
- Have a Brain Dump and Research Day
- Set a number of posts you need to make
- Set quality standards for content being produced
- Make a content plan
- Outline your month (are there important dates and sales you need to map out?)
- Schedule your content in a free scheduling tool. I use the free version of Buffer.
- During the whole process remember to get creative
Why you’ll love it!
As you can see, batching your content can have tremendous benefits for your sanity and your business. Instead of sliding by, you can now slay content! By following these tips, you can save time and make valuable content continuously by streamlining your time, creative and sharing! By having this mindset, it can also help you build lasting habits that carry over into other aspects of your business!
2. Use Content Calendars
What are content calendars?
Content calendars are tools used to organize, strategize, and schedule posts. It may seem like adding another tool to your arsenal can be overwhelming but content calendars have the exact opposite effect once you’ve implemented yours. The best content calendars are intuitive to understand and give you a broad view of how your content will play out.
Why are content calendars important?
Although content calendars are time-savers, we are still busy-body professionals with 100 things on our minds. Now imagine the peace of mind you will achieve if your content was none of those 100 things because all of your content was already created and scheduled… And the benefits go beyond that of your peace of mind!
Help turn broad ideas & strategies into actionable campaigns: Broad ideas and their potential impact can be hard to visualize, especially over time. Scheduling two weeks to a month’s worth of content in advance shows you the range of topics you cover, how many times you talk about each topic, and the different perspectives you’ve taken.
Help strategically schedule content: Following people through a funnel i.e. Brand Awareness > Engagement > Conversion allows you to create content for specific audiences in their respective place in your funnel.
Help organize content so that you can visualize your strategy: See how your content plays out over time. Do two large pieces of content fall on the same day? Is this a problem? Are you regurgitating what you’ve said already 4 times this week? Remember critical dates; international days, holidays, events, local dates. Every month has a different theme and as do most days. Finding niche holidays your audience can celebrate with you is a great hack to creating trust between you and your audience.
Help to fine-tune your digital and social media strategies: Optimizing release and posting times for when more people will be online to see, interact and share your content. Further, define your target audience by analyzing who engaged with your content and how. Going back into your schedule to see what content worked, why and how you can replicate the process. If you stick to your schedule and post as consistently as you want to, your schedule will become the voice of your brand. Everything you want to say as a brand will all be scheduled and you will be able to go in the past to analyze what strategies worked.
As business owners, we have so many tools that help us organize our ideas, strategize and take action against them. A content calendar is one of those tools whose effects are felt immediately after implementing it because it lets you visualize your strategy and know that it will be executed. Especially nowadays when content is becoming a brands main way of communicating with their audiences, we need comprehensive tools that will allow us to better
strategize and execute our campaigns.
Lisa-Marie Kiss is a Hamilton, Ontario-based Social Media Marketing Strategist specializing in Organic Social Media and Content Creation. Find Lisa-Marie Kiss online at www.lisamariekiss.com. Lisa-Marie Kiss is also a Digital Main Street Vendor for digital services in Hamilton.
