One of the easiest ways to boost your business is to have a social media presence. However, if you’re not familiar with social media, or how to market yourself on social media, then you might find that the only option you have is to throw money at the issue. This isn’t the case at all as there are so many ways to maximize your presence on social media without forcing you to spend a dime. These ten tips will help you to enjoy the social media element of your business without forcing you to spend thousands to get where you would like to be.
1. Keep Up to Date
When it comes to the world of social media, one of the most important things you can do is keep up to date. Platforms are always changing, which means it is going to be up to you to stay on top of the algorithm and come up with a plan to create the best possible schedule for your brand. Luckily, there are so many pages that are dedicated to helping you stay on top of things. You will find social media news everywhere and there are even social media accounts dedicated to helping you understand what is going on while offering pointers about the business. When you start your social media pages or choose to get serious about them, one of the best things you can do is find a couple of these social media pages/blogs/websites to subscribe to and check in with them weekly so you can stay on top of the changes.
2. Don’t Just Post
A lot of brands will get on social media and think that it is okay just to post their content. While this is a great start, it isn’t going to get you the followers that you want. Rather, before you post something on social media, you might start by engaging with followers or potential followers to help them feel encouraged to interact with your brand. Just a few minutes of engaging with others can actually help the algorithm work out in your favor, which can earn you more followers, engagement, and so much more. You may even earn some loyal fans doing this, which can help your brand out immensely.
3. Utilize Free Trials
When you are looking for assistance with keeping up with everything then one of the best things you can do is check out free trials. Whether you’re trying to find assistance for scheduling, or you’d like to make templates to help your business stand out, utilizing the free items can truly take your business to the next level. Some of these services are free of charge for minimal or limited use, while others will offer a free trial that will definitely come in handy. By utilizing free samples, you can get a feel for what you like while putting off the bill for some time. If you’re lucky, you will be able to get by using a minimal service so you can enjoy not adding to your social media budget.
4. Know What Your Customers Use
The world of social media can be incredibly frustrating. There are so many pages out there that you can use, which will definitely make it hard for you to choose where you should focus your energy. Rather than devote all of your time and energy to all of the platforms, you might want to choose one to concentrate on. So, understanding your customers can help you to choose where your energy should go. By focusing on one platform, you will be able to gross your following in one area, which will help improve your business. Later, you can move on to grow other platforms. Of course, this doesn’t mean you have to limit yourself to only one platform. Rather, you should just concentrate primarily on one instead of spreading yourself too thin.
5. Free Tools
There are a lot of free tools that you can enjoy when working on boosting your social media platforms. One of the first places you should begin your journey is hashtags tools. These will help you grab the hashtags you need to help you get noticed while you work to boost your business. Another option is to schedule your posts, so you don’t even have to worry about putting them up yourself. Facebook Business Manager actually allows you to do this for free, which might help you to easily take care of your business without having to work around times. Canva is another must-have when it comes to businesses, especially since it will allow you to make colorful posts that grab attention quickly.
6. Repurpose Content
When you’re working to get your social media up and running, you don’t have to have new content for every single post you put out. Not only is that time-consuming, but it will also mean that a lot of your great content will be buried, and many followers will miss out on it. So, while you’re planning out your schedule, make sure you take a bit of time to repurpose some of your old information. You might swap up the copy a bit or add a fresh graphic, but other than that your old content will definitely help to save you time, energy, and money while appealing to your audience.
7. Outsource When Needed
As your social media grows, you might not be able to handle all of its needs. This is a great time to outsource the work if you can. There are companies that specialize in social media growth, but there are also freelancers that will work for cheaper. Students are especially keen to take on jobs such as this as it will help them to earn a bit of money doing something that will look good on their resume. Of course, you can also outsource the job to someone that is already on your staff. Interns, especially, can really shine here which can help you save some money.
8. Set Clear Goals
A lot of people go into their social media with no goals to be had. This can be a little chaotic as they try to grow and figure out how they would like to use their social media pages. If you’re looking to make sales on your page, then you might consider setting up your posts to showcase a product while still building a community around the items that you sell. If your social media is designed to help you engage fans while understanding their feedback, then you might offer more engaging posts that will help you get a feel of where your product stands within the community. A plan will help you to make the most of your time and your platform though, so make sure to use it wisely.
9. Promotional Credit
When you sign up for a platform as a business, there is a good chance that you are going to be offered the opportunity to use some promotional credit. Some websites will even offer as much as $100 in promotional credit in hopes of roping you in to purchase more. There is no harm in using this credit, just make sure you cancel the service before you begin to be charged for any extra credit. Using this credit will allow you to see if the promotional credit will actually help you out, which can definitely save you some money or help you make the executive decision to purchase promotional credit to run ads. This will also allow you to check out which platform your ads work best on.
10. Know Tags
Getting your content out there is the main reason for being on social media is to get your content out there. The best way to do that is to know how to get the content out there. That is, you need to use hashtags and SEO content to get your messages out there. This is a lot easier than you think it is, especially since it is simple to look up the right hashtags for the job. Simply browsing around on your social media platform of choice will allow you to see what is being used and what isn’t. It can also help you avoid using tags that are way too popular, as your content will just get lost in the feed. There are also tools you can use for free to help you find keywords to add to your SEO content, which will help search engines pick up your pages.
Social media doesn’t have to be a burden and it doesn’t have to drain your budget. These ten concepts will help you to master your social media accounts without spending a fortune. As you grow accustomed to social media, you will find many more tricks that work best for you.
