8 Steps To Grow Your Business Using Social Media Marketing

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Billions of people visit social media websites each day. Facebook currently has over 2 billion daily active users. YouTube has almost 2 billion active users. Instagram has 1 billion. Twitter has approximately 330 million, LinkedIn has 303 million, and Pinterest has 250 million.

To make one, powerful point: your customers and potential customers are DEFINITELY on at least one, if not more of these social media platforms.

Your customers are active on social media… but are you?

Is Social Media Marketing the Most Powerful Way To Grow Your Business?

With such a staggering number of people using social media every single day, it is one of the most powerful ways to grow your business.

Social media platforms allow you to attract new customers and connect with audiences that you never could have otherwise. Rather than relying on a local audience alone, you can reach people who connect with your content all over the globe and share your brand with a vast audience who might otherwise never have the opportunity to hear of you

Follow these eight steps to grow your business using social media:

Choose your platform
Optimize your social media profile
Create a posting schedule
Start posting on social media
Engage with your followers
Follow the right people
Use #hashtags
Experiment

You can establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry by regularly posting new, insightful content.

Important questions to ask yourself:

What is the best platform to use?
What tactics should you use to be seen by the most people?
Are there certain types of content that perform better than others?
How can you regularly post content?
What etiquette rules do you need to follow?

Many business owners think that if they simply start posting on social media, they’ll be successful and attract new customers. But it doesn’t work this way.

In order to build your business through social media, you need to have a strategy in place.

You need to know where you’re going to post, what you’re going to post, how often you’re going to post, and where are you going to post each piece of content. It’s important to have a strategy for engaging with your audience. Simply put, you need to have a plan.

It’s not enough to post across a variety of social media networks. Without a definitive plan for how you’re going to use social media, you won’t get maximum results.

However, with the right strategy, you’ll find yourself quickly building an audience.

Here you will find a step-by-step guide to a social media marketing strategy for building your business. We’ll guide you through the what, why, and how, so that by the end, you have a firm plan in place.

8 Steps To Grow Your Business Using Social Media

Step #1: Choose Your Platform(s)

The first, and perhaps most important step, is to choose the primary social media platforms you will focus on.

Instead of trying to post on every social media platform out there, focus on the one or two that will have the most impact on your business.

In order to do this, you need to know your audience. Ask yourself these questions in order to help define the needs of your avatar:

Where do they spend most of their time when it comes to social media?
Where do they like to interact with brands and businesses?
What sites influence them to purchase?
Who are the biggest influencers in your space and what platforms do they use?

If your audience is younger, you may want to focus on Instagram and YouTube, which have a strong following among Millennials. If your focus is on business professionals, LinkedIn may be a good place to focus. If you’re targeting women, Pinterest is probably a good place to start.

Think of it this way…

You want to be where your audience is.
You want to publish most of your content on the social media site where your audience hangs out the most. After all, you want your audience to interact with your content.
If you publish primarily on platforms where they don’t spend their time, they’ll never engage with what you post.

If you don’t know where your audience spends most of their social media time, simply ask them!

Send out an email to your list and ask them to tell you what social media platforms they use the most. Create a poll on several different social media sites and ask your followers to respond.

Asking is one of the most effective ways to find out where your audience spends their time.

Another great way to determine where your audience spends their time is to look at the content you’ve already posted on social media and see what has gotten the biggest response.

Are there more comments, likes, and shares on one particular social media site? That may be the one you want to focus on.

One other thing to consider when choosing your social media platform is what you’re selling. Depending on the products or services you sell, one platform may be better than another.

For example, if you sell physical products, a visual platform like Instagram or Pinterest might be the best option for you.

On the other hand, if you’re primarily focused on selling services, a platform like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn might work more effectively for you since you can explain a bit more about what you’re selling.

If you’re still not sure which platform to focus on even after surveying your existing audience, Facebook is a reliable place to start. With over 2 billion users, you can be sure that your target audience spends at least some time on the site

At the end of the day, what matters most is not the particular platform you choose, but choosing one and sticking with it. When it comes to social media, consistency is almost always the most effective way to win an audience.

Pick a platform and commit yourself to posting regularly on it.

Step #2: Optimize Your Social Media Profile

If you went to a business’s social media page and saw that they didn’t have a picture, barely had any information about their business, and weren’t very active, would you want to connect with that business? Probably not.

This is why it’s essential that you optimize your social media profile. You want to make your profile as informative and attractive as possible

As Itamar Gero, digital entrepreneur, says:

"Part of your lead generation effort involves building a strong social persona. Once your social profile is up, potential clients are likely going to come across it - and not just potential clients, but also anyone within their extended network.

The last thing you want is to have a social profile that’s anything but presentable."

How do you optimize your profile?

1. Select A Professional Username

Ideally, you want your username to be either your name or the name of your company. You don’t want to create a username like TigerKingLover28. This comes across as unprofessional and won’t set you up for success.

Your username typically is also the URL of your social profile. For example, if your username is JohnSmith, your Facebook profile URL will be www.facebook.com/JohnSmith.

Ideally, you want to keep your username the same across all the social networks. This helps people find you on every social platform.

For Facebook, set up a business page in addition to your personal profile. This page will be dedicated solely to your business and building your brand with niche content.

2. Use A High Quality Profile Picture

Whether you’re uploading a picture of yourself or your logo, use a high-quality photo. Ideally, the photo will have been professionally taken or the logo professionally designed.

The profile photo is one of the first things that people see when they click on your social media profile, so put your best foot forward. If you need to have a logo designed, Fiverr and Upwork are great places to hire talent. They make it incredibly easy to get a logo designed inexpensively.

3. Write A Compelling “About” Section

This section is where you tell the story of your business. It’s where you communicate what you’re all about and what matters most to you. Make your About section both compelling and concise.

Depending on the social platform you use, you may have limited space. In that case, try to get to the heart of what makes your business different from every other business.

What is it that you do that sets you apart from everyone else? Include that information in your About section.

Also include links to your website, your other social media profiles, and any other relevant links. Make your About section as thorough as possible so that people get a good feel for what your business is all about.

4. Upload A Professional Cover Photo

Almost every social media platform allows you to upload a cover photo. The cover photo spans the top of your social media profile and sits behind your profile photo. Like your profile photo, you want your cover photo to be as professional as possible.

If your business has a slogan or motto, consider putting that slogan on your cover photo. If you don’t have a slogan, you could feature a photo of your products. Ideally, you want your cover photo to further emphasize some element of your business.

On some social media sites, such as Facebook, you can upload a cover video instead of a photo. In the video, you can highlight unique aspects of your business.

5. Enter All Your Contact Information

You want to make it as easy as possible for potential customers to contact you. In the Contact section, include as many possible ways to contact you as possible.

You will want to include your business phone number, email address, physical address, and any other possible ways of contact.

You can also invite people to message you directly on the platform.

6. Be Professional

As you optimize your overall profile, think about how you want to represent yourself and your business online. Your social media profile will be the first touch point for some potential clients, and it’s critical that your profile demonstrates professionalism.

If your social media profile isn’t optimized and doesn’t feel professional, there’s a good chance you’ll turn away potential clients.

Step #3: Create A Posting Schedule

Once you’ve optimized your social media profile, it’s time to map out what you will be posting and how often you’ll be posting.

Ideally, you want to do this before you actually begin posting on social media. This will help you determine exactly what you want to post while staying organized and on brand.

The easiest way to keep a posting schedule is to create a social media calendar.

In a social media calendar, you can schedule what you will post each day, as well as when you will post it, for as far in advance as you need.

When creating your social media calendar, ask yourself these questions:

How often will you post? Ideally, post at least once per day. This will keep your social media profile active and show your followers that you’re engaged.

What sort of content will you post? Your business will shape the types of content you share.

For example, if you're a life coach, you may want to regularly share inspirational quotes and photos. If you’re a health practitioner, daily health tips could be incredibly helpful for your audience.

When it comes to determining the types of content you’re going to post, think of what will add the most value to your audience.

What formats will you use? The most effective businesses utilize a variety of formats on social media. In other words, they don’t just post text. They also use images, videos, polls, quizzes, and more. The more variety you use, the more you’ll appeal to a wide range of individuals.

You may be thinking: Why do I have to map all this out in advance? Why can’t I just start posting?

There are two reasons why you should utilize a social media calendar. The first is that it helps you to be consistent with your posting. One of the biggest challenges that business owners face when using social media is being consistent.

If you’re not consistent, you can lose the attention of your audience. After all, there are millions of things being posted every single day. If you’re not consistently posting, your audience will turn their attention elsewhere.

Marianne Litman, marketer & content creator, says it like this:

"If your social media goes dark for weeks at a time, you’re not doing yourself or your followers any favours. Waiting weeks, or even days, between posts can kill off the enthusiasm you’ve built up. This can lead to an uninterested audience or people jumping ship completely and unfollowing you. Make a schedule that suits your workflow and keep it up. It could be that you have new work every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, or perhaps you post your best work from the week on Sunday mornings.

It doesn’t need to be a huge undertaking; it just needs to be consistent."

By creating a social media calendar, you do the hard work of figuring out what you’re going to post up front. You take the guesswork away and ensure that you won’t struggle to figure out what to publish.

This makes it much easier for you to be consistent over the long run since you don’t have to constantly be trying to figure out what you’re going to post.

Second, using a social media calendar helps you to be more active on social media. You can’t use the excuse of not knowing what to post. When you’ve pre-planned your content, it’s easier to stick to your schedule and allows more time to engage with potential customers.

Step #4: Begin Posting On Social Media

Once you’ve created your social media content calendar, it’s time to begin posting on social media. This is where the rubber meets the road. It’s time to start actually putting out valuable content on your chosen social media channels.

What sort of content should you be posting?

If you want to win new clients and satisfy your existing ones, it’s essential to post content that will add value to your audience.

This is a critical point.

Don’t post just to post. Rather, make it your goal to provide your audience with high-value information that will help them live their best life possible.

You can provide value to your audience by helping them:

Think about something in a new way
Take action like they never have
Laugh or smile
Learn something valuable

Again, this goes back to knowing your audience.

If you know your audience well, you know what they will find most valuable. If you don’t know your audience, you’ll struggle to post things that resonate with them.

Consider posting things like:

Inspirational quotes
Tips and tactics
Tutorial videos
Live videos
Pictures that will motivate your audience
Behind-the-scenes or sneak peek content

When creating your content calendar and posting on social media, constantly ask yourself the following question:

Is this adding value to my audience?

If it is, then post it. If you don’t think it will add much value to your audience, then ask yourself how it can be enhanced with one of the points above.

If you’re not sure which types of content add the most value to your audience, try experimenting with different formats. You might find that videos perform better than photos, or that your audience really likes tutorials and tips.

Test out a variety of formats and see which ones resonate most with your audience.

You may be thinking: I don’t have time to constantly be posting!

The good news is that you don’t have to be on all the different social media platforms all day every day.

Using a tool like Buffer, Hootsuite, or HopperHQ, you can schedule out weeks, or even months, of posts in advance

Consider using your social media calendar in conjunction with one of these tools. By scheduling a significant number of social media posts in advance, you can save yourself hours of time.

Step #5: Engage With Your Followers

Social media is not a one-way street. It’s not enough to simply share a post and then go on your way.

The real power of social media is that it creates conversations between you and your followers.

Conversations are the key to getting more clients through social media.

It’s important to consistently engage with your followers by responding to comments, answering questions, and solving any challenges that may arise.

If you want to build relationships and gain clients through social media, you need to be having conversations, not just publishing new content.

One of the things that matters most when it comes to social media is that you be authentic. You don’t want to come across as a huge corporation who only posts on social media and never engages in conversation.

Instead, you want to authentically interact with your followers. Authenticity is attractive. It will attract new followers and turn them into new clients.

Another reason to engage with followers is that social media platforms tend to prioritize the posts with the most engagement. The posts with the most likes, comments, shares, and overall engagement get shown more frequently than those posts with very little engagement

If you want to get your posts seen by as many people as possible, then you absolutely must engage with your followers on a regular basis.

Talk with your followers
Create conversations
Answer questions
Respond to any problems that are raised

Rather than talking at your audience, your goal is to talk with them and, as much as possible, create real relationships with them.

What are some ways that you can create conversations with your followers?

Ask questions
Do live videos in which you talk directly with your audience
Conduct polls
Ask people to comment on a particular subject

Focus on being as real and authentic as possible on social media and you’re guaranteed to create conversations with your followers.

Step #6: Follow The Right People

Social media isn’t just about getting people to follow you. It’s also about following the right people and having conversations with them.

Consider following influencers in your industry.

For example, if you’re a financial adviser, follow other financial advisers in your industry. If you’re a life coach, try to connect with other life coaches. If you’re in the health and wellness space, follow other health and wellness practitioners.

Once you’ve started following them, interact with the material they share online. Comment on it, repost it, and share it with your own followers. Try to develop relationships with others and simply be part of the conversation that’s happening.

Additionally, consider being part of groups that are related to your industry. Facebook, LinkedIn and Reddit have robust group features, and there are literally millions of groups about every subject imaginable. To make the most of these groups, engage in conversation and try to be a helpful resource for others.

However, be mindful about promoting yourself and your services in groups. When you join a group, focus on building relationships and adding value, not selling yourself. The more value that you add, the more you’ll become known as an expert in your industry. This will naturally attract clients to you.

In addition to joining online groups, there are also several platforms that focus heavily on answering questions that are posed by users. For example, Quora is a forum that allows users to post a question and get input from other users. Quora is a great place to share your expertise without being overly promotional.

It lets you speak directly to a person’s challenges, offer helpful advice and answers, and build relationships online, which can lead to more clients.

Step #7: Use Hashtags

Hashtags are words with the “#” symbol before them.

For example:

#MondayMotivation
#CrossfitLife
#ChiropracticCare
#Vegan

Hashtags are used as a way of grouping posts by subject. If you add a hashtag to a post, it will be grouped with all the other posts people have made using that hashtag.

If you see a post with a hashtag, you can click on that hashtag and see all the other posts with the same hashtag.

Some sites, such as Twitter, highlight the most popular hashtags, giving you a sense of what’s trending at any given time.

You can also follow hashtags so that you regularly see posts with a given hashtag.

The power of hashtags is that they allow you to get your content in front of a broader audience. In other words, you can have your posts seen by more than just your followers. By adding the appropriate hashtags, you can get them seen by thousands, if not millions of others.

How exactly do you use hashtags?

Typically, it works like this. You create a social media post. At the end of the post, you add a hashtag that is somehow related to the post. For example, let’s say you’re a health coach and you want to post a tip related to Crossfit workouts.

You would create your post, and then at the end, put your hashtag(s). It might look something like this:

Before you do any Crossfit workout, spend at least ten minutes getting warmed up and stretched out. #Crossfit #CrossfitLife #CrossfitWorkout

Notice that you can add multiple hashtags to a post. Depending on the platform you’re using, you may be limited by space in terms of how many hashtags are appropriate.

Generally speaking, you don’t want hashtags to dominate the post. Instead, share them toward the end of a post, or add them as a comment to keep the focus on your content.

When using hashtags, be careful to keep them closely related to the content you’re posting. If your hashtags aren’t directly related to the content of your post, you’ll miss out on reaching your maximum target audience.

There are a number of websites that can help you find the right hashtags to use with your social media posts:

Step #8: Experiment

If you truly want to succeed on social media, you’ll need to experiment to see what works best.

Different types of content will resonate with your audience. You may find that videos work really well while inspirational quotes don’t perform as well. Or you may find that asking questions generates a lot of discussion, but polls fall flat.

Experimentation is especially critical since social media platforms are constantly changing.

Currently, Facebook gives preference to posts that keep people on their site, such as videos. These posts show up in people’s news feeds more often. Facebook doesn’t give nearly as much exposure to posts that send people off their website, such as links.

But this could change. In the future, Facebook may give preference to some other type of content.

The moral of the story?

Be constantly testing to see what works most effectively.

As you test, you’ll discover what adds the most value to your audience. Then you can post more of this type of content, which will generate significantly more engagement.

It ends up being a virtuous cycle that helps you connect with more and more people on social media.

Summary

If you’re not regularly using social media to build your business, you should be. The advantages of using social media are enormous. You can use it to:

Attract new clients
Build your brand
Establish yourself as a thought leader
Connect with new audiences
Create meaningful relationships
Connect with other influencers
And so much more

The opportunities are endless, but it doesn’t need to be intimidating. You can easily start building your business through the power of social media. ∎