The (unmotivated) guide to social media for small businesses
Photo by cottonbro
During this weird time, there are a plethora of articles encouraging you to be productive (read a book — no, WRITE a book!) and at least as many giving you permission to be unproductive (mental health is more important than productivity!).
What if you’re unmotivated and feeling unproductive, but still want to keep your business afloat? Or your business is closed right now, but you want to keep up your social media presence?
If this is the case, I’d recommend a ‘minimalist’ social media marketing strategy.
The first key to successfully minimalist social media marketing is — bear with me — not spending a lot of time on social media.
It’s very easy right now to obsessively or aimlessly scroll through social media. And truly, social media has a very special place in this modern space: it can both provide information to us, teach us, and connect us.
However, most people just hop on to social media, spend way too much time thinking about whether or not to post, and if so, “what image and caption… and should I use hashtags?”
Maintaining a minimalist, less stressful social media strategy is easiest if you don’t worry too much about what other people are posting, and don’t spend hours trawling quarantine hashtags. Want to get a dose of honesty? You can find out how long you spend on each app in the settings on your smartphone.
(To be clear, if spending lots of time on social media is getting you through this time, then go for it! I suggest reducing time simply as a ‘check-in’, since it’s easy to spend inordinate amounts of time on social media.)
Once you’ve pulled back on your scrolling, think about your goals:
Would you like to sell more products in your online store?
Get new customers for your online class?
Bring more people to your kerbside lunch pick up?
Raise money for a local mutual aid collective?
This will help inform your minimalist strategy.
For example, if your goal is to maintain a simple online presence whilst your business has to be closed:
Update your business page/profile bios to say that you are closed.
If customers can support you by purchasing a gift card or prepaying for services, include that link as your Instagram bio link, and tell them what they are clicking on.
Publish a ‘thank-you’ post, explaining that you are closed, and how customers can support you right now.
Continue to post once or twice per month. If you don’t have original content, you can do throwbacks, behind-the-scenes content, show people what you’re currently focusing on, or highlight great organisations in your area that are working hard right now.
If your goal is to increase sales:
Update your business page/profile bios with your current hours or ordering process.
Post at least once a week; reminding people how to order, what makes your product special, and how your product is especially useful during this time…
If you’re struggling for new content ideas, how about sharing images or quick videos of:
Yourself or your team (even your staff’s pets)
Your new home office setup (or new cleaning procedures, if you’re in retail/leisure)
Yourself saying “hi”, thanking customers, and re-introducing yourself and your origin story
You could even post relevant photos from a free stock photo site like Unsplash or Pexels.
Creating trust and building a following
One of the best types of content to create trust with your customers is content that supports other businesses. Share about your suppliers, collaborators or businesses that inspire you. Donate a portion of your sales for a specific week or month to a great local organization (or direct giving, if you’re able.)
If your goal is to gain new followers or customers:
Make sure your profile photos are crisp and clean, and that any cover photos (aka your page/profile’s ‘banner’) are evocative, eye-catching, and give the customer a good impression of your business.
Spend 15 to 30 minutes each week (or month) engaging with potential customers, through locally-focused hashtags, ideal customer research, or calls to action (CTAs).
Post once or twice per week; toggling between introductions, sharing info about your day, and sharing information about your product (use the content ideas from the section above to fill out your feed!).
Share some of your feed’s content in any Stories you produce. Add additional content to Stories, little “hello” videos, home office tours, silly pet videos, or you could even share other people’s posts to your stories (Instagram/Facebook: use the little paper airplane button.)
If your goal is to get more local people to shop for delivery or kerbside pickup:
Lean into using local hashtags — and really engage with people who are interested in similar or complementary products/services.
Explore ‘location pins’ (search a business name, and then click the ‘upside-down teardrop’ instead of their username.) You can see any public posts of those who tagged themselves at the location.
The idea is not to do this on your competitors’ businesses, but on businesses that complement your own. For example, if you own a coffee shop, you can do location research on a local floral shop, gift shop, or a popular park.
Prioritise posts that improve wayfinding. ‘Wayfinding’ is an urban design term that refers to how easy it is to find a place.
I use this term for social media — so, how easy is it for customers to find what they need: whether it’s your website, ‘shop now’ button, kerbside pickup spot, etc?
Share content that brings people into your shop/office, building exterior, parking/kerbside situation, local landmarks… even other local businesses (this has the added bonus of reminding people that you’re in the same neighbourhood as this business, and supports that business at the same time.)
Tag other local businesses in a Story that you think they might want to share. For example, how people can purchase meals for first responders or a fundraiser you are doing. Tagging someone in your Story allows them to add it to their Stories (which shares on a mention of your brand with their customers — creating additional exposure.)
Think about going ‘Live’, or film short videos of your neighbourhood stores and local sights.
No matter what your goal is during this continually challenging time, social media marketing can be accomplished in less than an hour per week if you’re organised in the right way.
If you’re struggling with content, take a few minutes to select photos you can use for the next few weeks and save them to a special folder, so you know exactly where they are.
If you’re a visual person, write out a draft calendar of what you’ll post over the next six to 10 weeks (for example, ‘Week 1: Monday Intro, Thursday product detail; Week 2, Tuesday neighbourhood view, Friday fundraiser’, etc.)
If you survive by your calendar, actually add a 15-minute slot on the days you want to post. Start the entry with “Post to Instagram” or “Post to Facebook” and then include a possible content idea.
If someone else has been handling your social media for you up until now, or you haven’t been very active to date, you’ll need to get comfortable filming yourself, taking selfies, editing images, and writing captions.
Do your posts need to be perfect? Not at all. Perfection is not the goal here. Connecting with customers, getting views on your website, building trust with customers… these are the true goals.
Don’t be afraid to show your quirky side too! In fact, it’s one of the best things you can do on social media to create trust and nurture a following.
Bottom line: only you know how much bandwidth you have for social media marketing. If you only have a little time, make it count by taking minimalist, strategic online actions.
If there were ever a time to try a new approach, it’s now.
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