The overwhelming wealth of information on social media optimization makes it difficult for small business owners to find their path to success. They often try too many things simultaneously in order to quickly gain followers on multiple social media channels. 

Instead of discussing specific tricks or hacks, in this post, we’re going to go back to the basics. These 4 tips will help form the foundation of your entire social media marketing plan. 

Don’t Try to Sell on Social Media, Invoke Curiosity

People visit social media pages to find shareable stories, funny videos, and cat memes. No one gets up in the morning and opens Facebook thinking, “I am going to buy XYZ product today.” If they were already convinced about buying something they would go to Amazon, not Facebook. 

For someone looking for funny and interesting content on Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms, a post that directly sells a product is a nuisance. They quickly scroll past it to find the next post or video that captures their imagination. This is why almost all direct sales pitches on Facebook fail miserably. 

Unless of course, you have a product that everyone wants to buy. For example, if you are selling the latest PlayStation a few days before Black Friday, you are better off with a post that highlights the discount percentage. However, that’s the only time you can make an exception. 

According to most social media services experts, you should try and get customers curious about the benefits of the product. Maybe sharing a story or a video. The post in itself needs to be interesting and fun to watch or read. Refrain from mentioning the name of the product until the very end or don’t mention it at all and just include a link that leads to a landing page.

Quality Over Quantity When Sharing Posts

People routinely unfollow businesses that keep sharing boring posts. You cannot blame the business owners as they hear marketers say things like, “posting consistently is the key to success.”

Posting consistently while important is not as critical as sharing quality posts. A consistent barrage of subpar posts will force people to ignore your feed. Once you gain a bad reputation, people will ignore your shares even when you post something interesting. 

Do not force yourself to churn out a post every week. Instead focus on creating quality content that is guaranteed to generate likes, shares, and comments. The following are the 4 things you need to incorporate to ensure your posts are not boring. 

  • Triggers an Emotion (Happiness, Shock, Fear, Sadness, Anger, etc)
  • Your Target Audience Finds the Post Relevant or Interesting
  • Professionally Written or Edited
  • Audiences Find the Information Valuable

If you check all of these four boxes, the chances of your post being a success increase substantially.

Hire a Company that Provides Social Media Marketing Services 

A lot of large companies, especially ones that have a huge online presence have dedicated social media marketing teams. For small businesses hiring a full-time social media marketing expert may not be practical or even necessary. They can hire digital marketing firms specializing in social media management services. 

This way they save the time and effort that would otherwise go into setting up a social media marketing strategy from scratch. These agencies hire experts who promote your brand on various social media channels. They usually have in-depth knowledge about the pitfalls and know what types of posts are likely to witness more engagements than others.

Being a hit on social media requires a combination of a lot of skills. Amongst others, you need to be a great writer, video editor, have SEO skills, and basic marketing knowledge. If you own a brick-and-mortar shop and have none of the above-mentioned skillsets, you are better off hiring an expert. The trial and error method may work for some, but for most, it leads to failure.

Stop Directing Social Media Traffic to Product Pages

People on social media hate it when they read a great story or check out an awesome post only to be directed to a sales page. That’s when they quickly click the back button and go back to Facebook or Instagram, instead of checking out the entire site.

There needs to be a bridge between great social media posts and your website’s product page. This bridge needs to cautiously introduce the idea of buying the product without sounding too sales-y. This is why most social media marketing experts recommend creating a landing page that starts off where the story ended. The continuity of the post keeps the audience engaged.

The page needs to be engaging, entertaining, and informative. Adding videos, animations, humorous and easy-to-read text all adds up. The landing page needs to end with a call to action, but not before highlighting all the benefits of the product or service you are trying to sell. It’s also a good idea to add stories of customers with relatable problems that your product helped to solve. 

If you don’t have a landing page, then direct the social media traffic to your contact us page or simply ask readers to send you private messages.  This way you get to interact with real people and encourage them to buy your product or service.