How to use social media for small business
Social media is a big part of any marketing strategy for a small business.
It’s easy to set up a social media account but which sites should you use? As a small business owner, you don’t have the time to spend on the wrong social sites.
You want to be sure that you’re choosing the right sites to make sure that you’re in front of your target audience. You want to be sure that you’re spending time in the right place where you’ll grab their attention and get them to click on your links.
I can spend the rest of this post writing which target demo uses Facebook, why teens are heavy users of TikTok or why men’s usage of Pinterest is growing … but that’s not what I want to share with you. I want to dig deeper on where to spend YOUR valuable time online.
First let’s focus on your FOCUS
What happens when you’re not sure where you should be posting online?
Maybe you’re changing the focus of your business. Maybe you’ve added in new programs or products that you want to sell or maybe what you’re doing just isn’t working.
You’re out there, you’re posting, you’ve got things up on your social sites and there’s very little engagement. There’s very few people that are following you except maybe your close friends or your neighbor or your mom.
Plus, you’re struggling so badly with your content creation and it just feels so random. Your social posts feel so all over the place because you don’t have a focus.
So you realize that it’s time to make a change.
It’s time to make a change in your content creation and where you’re showing up to share your marketing.
And I know you’ve heard this expression before:
You can’t be everything to everyone.
And that statement rings so true when it comes to finding the focus of your content marketing plans and which social platform you’ll use for your business.
Because here’s the thing, my friend … When we’re pushing ourselves to be everywhere, signing up for the latest shiny object social site, it may not be true to who we are and what’s going to work for us personally in our business.
So where should you focus your attention online?
Let’s start there … because I really think that a big part of your content strategy foundation is where you focus your attention about where you are showing up online. That’s a really big piece of this puzzle that a lot of people don’t really talk about and how to stay focused.
So let’s talk about this shiny new object syndrome. It’s out there, we all see it. We all hear it. We all go to the webinars, we hang out in the Facebook groups.
We see the people talking about it and read their blog posts and watch them on Instagram and TikTok and wherever it is that they’re hanging out. And they tell us over and over – Oh, you’ve gotta be on this site, this is the next best thing. This is the next big thing that you need to do to make more sales online.
And everything inside of you is screaming:
“I don’t wanna do this because I don’t wanna add one more thing to my already incredibly crazy list of things I do every week!”
Maybe you don’t wanna dance on TikTok, Maybe you don’t want to take pretty pictures for Instagram. Maybe you don’t want to spend hours on Twitter.
But everybody in that Facebook group that you follow so closely is saying, “This is the next best thing. This is the thing that’s gonna be a game changer for your content. This is a thing that’s gonna really grow your business.”
So you push yourself forward and you spend hours researching and you learn this program and you follow people who are doing it. While it’s really important to learn how something works, if you’re still ‘researching’ months and months later, here’s what you’re really doing — You’re procrastinating and you’re finding excuses not to do the thing that you don’t really want to do.
How many times are you going to force yourself and push yourself into doing something you don’t want to do? And how many excuses are you going to make not to get it done?
Let me give you a flip side of this
What if this new shiny social site is something that you’re like, “Oh my goodness! This really totally lights me up. I am just feeling a rush of excitement. I’ve got these ideas that are just flowing through me and I want to jump into creating content for this platform.”
And your body is screaming at you. Yes, yes. Do it. Do it.
Totally two different reactions to showing up online with social media.
So, why are you making excuses for one thing, but the other social site is like everything inside of you is screaming yes, and that’s the thing that lights you up?
As you learn how to tap into your creativity to develop your content, it’s super important to understand that what you think matters. And I mean that quite literally.
When you start to up level what’s going inside of your body and you really pay attention to the signals and the signs and the procrastination and the dragging of the feet and the excuses versus being in the feeling the excitement and the thrill of it … there’s two different feelings that are going on in your body.
Pay attention to what your body and your emotions are telling you as a sign about where you could be showing up online.
What makes you happy?
What social programs light you up? What makes you want to schedule this time in your day, in this week or however you’re working on your content creation?
I had to be honest with these questions myself and I backed away from certain social sites. I stopped utilizing certain programs that I know were working for other people. It just wasn’t working for me because I constantly made excuses about why I didn’t do the work to post in those sites.
Before you even react to what I’m saying about the way you feel regarding social sites, give it a moment to marinate in your thoughts. Think about where you plan to show up online and how does that make you feel?
For you to be consistent with your content creation, you need a plan to practice bringing more of that good energy into your body. You need to be clear on knowing when you’re in the right place to share your marketing messages.
Commit to paying attention to how your body feels, those good feelings of joy and excitement. Pay attention to which social program you’re on when the ideas are flowing and you can’t wait to get up in the next morning and do all this over again.
That’s your body’s way of telling you that you’re moving in the right direction and you’re in the social site that you need to be online.
But when your body feels anxious and there’s a strong feeling somewhere, like your heart’s racing, your stomach is doing flip flops, take a step back and assess those choices that you’re making.
And in your head, you’re saying things like. “Well, everybody else is doing this. I guess I gotta do this even though I really don’t want to and I’m making excuses.” Stop yourself and rethink if using your valuable time on this social program is the right choice for you.
You started your business because it’s something that you enjoy, why are you allowing marketing to be this thing that you don’t want to do?
What is it about marketing on this social program that makes you feel like you don’t want to share your information with the online world?
I want you to think about the marketing opportunities out there that make you happy, that allow you to have fun with this process.
Open your mind to a new way of thinking about where you want to show up and knowing that the constant practice of making these types of changes is going to reinforce the shifts and changes with your content strategy. Being in that joyful place is an important piece for being able to stay consistent with your content creation.
So rather than just take that negative mindset and just follow along with the herd, pay attention to what’s going on in your body and what lights you up.
I encourage you to give this a try as you’re working through where to show up online with your business. Before you discount this process and decide that you can’t act this way and you can’t think this way, just try it.
Sometimes when you take a couple of steps outside of your comfort box, you’ll realize it’s not so bad out there. You’ll find yourself really, really enjoying your marketing and let me tell you my friend, there is no better feeling than to accomplish something that you thought you never could do.
I always say to the people that I work with and who subscribe to the Create Your Business program, there’s no right way, there’s no wrong way. There’s just your way. For you to decide where to post your marketing messages, you don’t have to follow what everybody else is doing.
You should follow what your body is telling you and you will know what’s the right place for you to show up online.
Want to see how this works?
If you’re tired aimlessly posting wherever and everywhere and getting nowhere. If you’re done with the weekly struggle of what to post or what site to use, it’s time to do something different to develop your custom marketing messages.
Subscribe to the Create Your Business program called The Marketing Strategy Collective and you’ll get access to exclusive tips, strategies and insights that will help you get better results with your content creation. Whether you’re a seasoned content creator or just getting started, the marketing content in the group is designed to provide you with actionable steps to develop a marketing plan that you’ll finally stick with and stay consistent with your posting schedule.
Join the Marketing Strategy Collective program and you’ll get access to a strategy group marketing program to help you improve your sales revenue in a collaborative group online experience.
The steps you’ll work through in our supportive group online space will be filled with action-packed content and the space to work through your ideas to help you learn how to show up in your online space. You’ll develop meaningful connections that lead to deeper relationships and create easy sales conversations.
The marketing tips and strategies will help you address common hurdles that small business owners face, such as writer’s block, time management and maintaining a consistent posting schedule. By incorporating these actionable steps into your routine, you’ll not only stay motivated but also enhance the quality and impact of your content.
