What You Might Not Know About Social Media (And What Your Business Can Do About It)

03.23.2023 Sara Brasfield4 min

Small business leaders don’t need to be sold on the benefits of using social media to promote their brand. At least two-thirds of all small businesses use social media as part of their digital marketing strategy, a higher adoption rate than any other digital channel.

For local businesses operating with limited budgets and resources, social media is a free and simple tool for building an online following and engaging a local audience. And, with basic KPIs for small business marketing such as “follows,” “likes” and “shares” to track, even a tech-allergic small business owner can see the impact being made from their social activity.

But even when time and other resources are scarce, small changes to how you manage your social presence can make a meaningful difference in the performance of your social content. Read on for some easy tips and tricks to achieve more with your branded social media accounts.

Diverse Content Can Help You Drive Better Engagement

In the daily grind of running a business, it’s easy to get caught in the routine of posting the same types of content. But a mix of social content can be a great way to engage your audience in different ways, while also creating content that distributes to a broader base of consumers.

Photos, graphics, videos, polls and other social content each offer their own appeal engagement opportunities. But even within these broader categories, social platforms offer a number of alternatives your business should consider. Photos can be used to feature products in a carousel, while different lengths of video content—as well as live video streaming—can deliver a broader range of experiences.

By diversifying your social content, you can also test out a wider range of content types to find out which approaches drive the highest engagement for your business.

#Hashtags Can Increase Visibility for Your Content

Hashtags aren’t only fun, interactive tags you can place on your content. They play an important role in categorizing and structuring social content, and making it searchable and visible to a larger audience.

Consider how these hashtags might be used to broaden the reach of your content. From local events to holidays to trending topics, pay attention to how other brands are using hashtags in their social content, and try to incorporate these into your own posts where it makes sense.

Social Platforms Can Be Tools for Better Customer Service

Consumer preference has been the biggest driver of social media’s role in the customer service experience. A recent survey found that one-third of consumers prefer contacting businesses via social media rather than via a customer service phone line.

While some business leaders may cringe at having to juggle customer service queries across multiple channels, the truth is that proactive businesses can deliver a better customer experience by being responsive to customer service queries on social media. And, on the plus side, a responsive approach to these queries will reduce the phone calls and emails reaching your business through other channels.

Repurposed Content Can Maximize Your Reach and ROI

Certain content formats—such as Instagram Stories, for example—may be associated most strongly with a certain social media platform. For the most part, though, these various social networks end up replicating the formats that deliver success for their competitors.

This is great news for small businesses: instead of creating content specific to each platform, you can repurpose most of the content you create across multiple different properties. A single video can be posted to Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and other platforms, expanding your reach and social ROI—and making it easy to run a handful of different accounts, instead of limiting yourself to just one.

A Few Minutes a Day is All You Need

Yes, some businesses dedicate entire professional roles to managing social media. But this kind of commitment isn’t necessary for local businesses. In fact, your business can drive a ton of value from your social presence even with a minimal amount of content creation and engagement.

If you’re strapped for time and resources, focus on a level of social activity that you can fit into your daily routine—even if you can only commit five minutes per day. Think of creative ways you can quickly create content that is useful and helpful for your customers. Restaurants can post pictures of daily menus or current promotions. Posting a photo of your store’s holiday hours can offer a valuable service to customers, along with keeping your social accounts active.

During slow periods, consider planning out evergreen social content that you can use on busy days, such as product highlights, employee features, and/or customer polls.

Alternatively, a small business marketing consultant can help you improve your brand’s social media game while reducing the daily burden placed on your shoulders. A digital advertising partner can assist in content planning and content creation while developing paid social campaigns to boost high-performing content and expand your reach on these platforms.

Ready to achieve more with your local brand presence? Contact Cox Media today to see how we can help.

Headshot-1_Cropped-for-HS-1
About the Author

Sara Brasfield

Sara is a Marketing Manager on Cox Media’s corporate team in Atlanta, with a passion for writing and delivering relevant insights for advertisers. With more than nine years of experience in B2B marketing, Sara aims to help Cox Media’s current and future clients connect with their customers find new and unique ways to grow their business. Outside of the office, Sara loves spending time running, reading, and supporting her favorite sports teams (Go Braves & Gamecocks!).

View All of Sara Brasfield's Blog Posts

Connect with a Marketing Expert

Share Post On Social

Connect With Your Local Marketing Expert

You know your business. We know advertising. Together, we can bring your business to more people. Contact a member of our team today. We’d love to help you grow.