Small business owners can often underestimate the importance of organic social media marketing. Surely there are better things to be spending your time on, right?
Firstly, what is organic social media marketing? This is the marketing method that uses social media activity without any paid promotion. Although paid social media has grown over the years, organic social media marketing is still so important for small businesses. With organic social media, you don’t have to spend much (if any!), as you can grow your following naturally. This all comes down to effective quality content that your audience wants to see.
With these tips, we will show you how to use organic social media for your small business and answer the crucial question ‘Why is social media important for small businesses?’
Research your audience
You NEED to know who your audience is. Take a look into your current customer demographic. How old are they? What are their jobs? All of this type of data will allow you to create content specifically for your target audience. Another great way to find out your typical audience is to look at social media analytics. Social media analytics will help you create a consumer persona to also help with future organic content. For example, if your customer audience is of a younger demographic, your content should be tailored towards this age bracket and it is more likely that you will be using more slang terms than you would if you had an older demographic. You can do this through Google Analytics or analytics within a business page on socials. Once you’re set-up, you’re golden!
Choose the right platform for you
So, why is social media important for small businesses? With more social media platforms popping up every other day, it is so important to put your efforts into the RIGHT platform for you and your business. There’s no point running a social media account on every platform you’ve ever heard of if your customers are solely Facebook users (and stressing yourself out in the process…). This is why researching your audience is essential for small businesses; You will be limited with your time and understanding how to use social media for a small business will improve your organic reach. For example, if you are a business with a younger demographic, TikTok and Instagram are likely to fit your business better and therefore you can use organic social media more to your advantage. It is also important to consider your goals and what you want to achieve through using organic social media.
Use online tools to create quality content
There are SO many social media management tools available to help you with creating content for your social media. It can be so overwhelming to find the right tool for you and your business but it is important to remain consistent on social media. By planning your posts, you’ll have more time to engage with your audience. The content that you create should be of good quality but it does not have to take a large amount of your time. Using these platforms will also help you understand what organic social media marketing is.
It’s an ongoing joke within social media marketing that Canva is life, but it’s genuinely a great tool to design your social media posts. From templates that you can customise to your branding to PDF editing, it’s incredibly useful for small businesses.
Engage, engage, ENGAGE
Engagement is KEY when it comes to organic social media. This is mainly to please the social platform’s algorithm to encourage the algorithm to allow your posts to reach more people. The algorithm is constantly changing and obtaining high social engagement is a good way to reduce how much you will be affected by it. Consistent engagement also allows you to build relationships with accounts similar to yours. Likes, comments, shares, saves, mentions, are all great metrics to measure if your content is performing well. By constantly engaging and checking your analytics you can understand the importance of social media marketing.
Hop-on trends and international days
Trends and International Days are a perfect way to increase visibility and reach more people as a small business. By getting involved with trends, you can build more relationships with other accounts. However, make sure the trends that you get involved with are relevant to your business and, more importantly, your customers. You should also try to get ahead of trends and international days that would be relevant to your business. For example, using a hashtag for #InternationalDogDay would be relevant for a Pet Charity to use. This will also increase your understanding of how to use social media for a small business and this may even give you more content ideas!
By using organic social media in the RIGHT way, it can really grow the reach of your small business. Don’t forget to follow our Instagram for the BEST social media tips.
