How Social Media Can Help Grow Your Business

How Social Media Can Help Grow Your Business

Liking. Sharing. Posting. Responding to comments. Engaging with followers. Creating quality content. Yikes is a word that you might say when you think of social media and using it for your business. It’s a lot, and we get it. However, social media can help grow your business. 

We say this because it’s true. We work with clients daily who are seeing amazing results by having an active social media presence. We can’t stress enough how important it is to use social media as a benefit. So, consider why you need it when you start thinking about it being too much to handle. 

Social Media Benefits to Your Business 

Increased visibility: Social media platforms offer a large audience that can help your business reach more potential customers. You can increase your brand’s visibility and attract more leads by posting regular updates, sharing relevant content, and engaging with your followers.

Targeted advertising: Social media platforms allow businesses to target their advertising to specific demographics, interests, and behaviors. This makes it easier for companies to reach their ideal customers and increase their conversion rates.

Improved customer engagement: Social media provides businesses with a platform to engage with customers and build relationships. Companies can improve customer satisfaction and build customer loyalty by responding to comments, messages, and reviews.

Brand building: Social media allows businesses to showcase their brand values, personality, and culture. By creating a solid brand identity, businesses can differentiate themselves from their competitors and stand out in the market.

Cost-effective marketing: Social media platforms offer affordable advertising options to help businesses reach a large audience without breaking the bank. This makes it easier for small businesses to compete with larger businesses and grow their customer base.

Social Media Considerations 

No matter where you are in your social media journey, there are some things you should keep in mind when using social media. 

Audience: It is essential to know your target audience and their social media habits to create content that resonates with them.

Platform: Each social media platform has its unique features and audience. Therefore, selecting the right platform that aligns with the business’s goals and target audience is essential.

Content: The content posted on social media should align with the business’s brand and values. It should also be engaging, informative, and relevant to the audience.

Consistency: Posting regularly and consistently on social media helps to build a loyal following and keep the audience engaged.

Interaction: Social media is a two-way communication platform. Therefore, businesses should engage with their audience, respond to comments and messages, and promptly address any concerns or issues.

Metrics: Measuring the success of social media efforts is crucial. Therefore, businesses should track metrics such as engagement, reach, and conversion rates to evaluate their performance and make data-driven decisions.

Need Help with Social Media for Your Business? 

Your business should start using social media as soon as possible. Social media platforms allow companies to connect with their customers, build brand awareness, and drive sales. With over 4.9 billion people using social media worldwide, it’s essential for businesses to have a presence on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and others. 

Social media allows businesses to engage with customers, respond to queries, and build relationships. Additionally, social media provides businesses with an affordable way to advertise their products or services to a large audience. 

If you’re overwhelmed, don’t know where to start, or don’t have the time to manage your accounts, contact us. Our team of experienced social media experts can take your business to the next level!

Top Seven Social Media Content Ideas For 2023

Top Seven Social Media Content Ideas For 2023

As the new year approaches, we wanted to give you some of our favorite social media content ideas that you can try in 2023. 

We know how much time social media can take up. Especially in today’s world, you must constantly develop new ideas and content to keep your audience engaged and entertained. We’ve compiled a list of our favorite ideas you should try when planning your 2023 social media content. A lot of these ideas can work on every platform as well. 

Recurring Daily, Weekly, or Monthly Content

If you haven’t already started doing content like this, we highly suggest it. It’s easy to knock out tons of content in one sitting when you’re planning for the new year. A great way to make an impression on your audience is to name the series you’re planning. Tip Tuesday, Testimonial Thursday, Fact Friday, and Motivation Monday are great weekly ideas you can use for your company. 

These recurring ideas can be something other than ideas involving your company. For example, you can do monthly videos of something fun and creative with your team!

Share Your Reviews

Whether your company provides a product or a service, sharing reviews is a great way to connect with your audience. Sharing your client or customer reviews on social media shows your followers that you read and care about what they say. Another great way to connect with your audience is to respond to their reviews! Whether they’re positive or negative, responding and connecting to your customers shows others how much you care. 

Repurpose Your Content

This is a great way to save time when trying to create content. First, review your content over the years and pick the best top-performing posts to share. Then, we recommend spreading out the repurposed content in case some followers remember specific posts. Although it’s good to be repetitive, sometimes it can be seen as annoying and spamming to your audience. 

Go Behind The Scenes

Going behind the scenes can mean many things, so we’ll give you some ideas! If your company provides a service, taking a video or pictures of the process is a great way to show your customers what happens behind the scenes. Maybe there isn’t a way to show your customers what happens on the other side of the door, or perhaps it just isn’t entertaining, but you can still show personable things. For example, you could have a company dinner or lunch and have some tasty food for everyone, take a picture and post it! You’d be surprised at how people on social media like seeing relatable posts. 

Highlight Your Employees, New Hires, or Promotions

Going along the lines of being personable in our last tip, this suggestion is another excellent way to show personable or relatable content. Not only does it show that your company appreciates its employees, but it’s a great way for your audience to see who works there!

Ask A Question To Your Audience 

Engaging with your audience is a great content idea for the new year. Showing your audience your reviews and asking questions shows that you care about them! These questions don’t always have to be related to your company or business. It could be #NationalDogDay, and you can ask your audience what their favorite breed is, or it’s Thanksgiving, and you can ask everyone what their favorite food is. Asking your audience for feedback about your product or service is a great way to level up your engagement, and again, it shows you care about them. 

Post Memes or Gifs

What more can we say? Humor is a great way to connect with your audience and increase your engagement rate. Sometimes people will reshare your post if it’s funny enough, which will help with your brand awareness. We do want to warn you about posting too many, though. This can sometimes look a little unprofessional, so post sporadically and make sure it’s all good-hearted humor! 

Are You Looking For Your Brand’s Best Social Media Strategy For The New Year? 

If you need help with your social media strategy for your brand, you’ve come to the right place! Social media is our jam. And we would love to be a part of your team and help your brand stand out. So get in touch with us!

Why Loomly is Our Favorite Social Media Publishing Program

Why Loomly is Our Favorite Social Media Publishing Program

Why Loomly is Our Favorite Social Media Scheduling Tool

Loomly prides itself on being “not your average social media management software.” And we agree. In fact, it is our favorite social media publishing program, and for several reasons.

What is Loomly?

Loomly is a calendar-based content creation scheduling tool for small to mid-sized businesses. 

With Loomly, you can manage all your social media content—organic posts & ads—from one platform. Plus, you get notified every time someone in your team updates or comments on a piece of content, with email, push, Slack, and Microsoft Teams notifications.

  • List View & Calendar View
  • All Calendars
  • Post Overview
  • Notifications (email, push, Slack, Microsoft Teams)

Here’s What Our Founder Had to Say About Loomly

Our founder and CEO did a video review of Loomly on Capterra, and here’s what she had to say.

>User-friendly. For starters, we find Loomly to be very user-friendly. Not only from the contributor and editor standpoint but also from the client’s standpoint.

>Streamline teamwork. One of the primary reasons we use Loomly is because it is easy for our team to create and publish content, and you have a really beautiful snapshot of what your content will look like on all of your social platforms.

>Client interface. Our clients easily learn how to use the program with a quick onboarding session—and then they’re off and running!

>Pricing. Loomly is very affordable for small businesses, and we like the features for the price.

>Customer support. Loomly’s customer support team has been nothing short of amazing.

Interested in Using Loomly? 

Loomly is by far one of the easiest social media publishing programs, which is why it is our favorite. It was so simple to integrate into our company and our business, and our team members and clients love it. The onboarding process is very straightforward. For the price and for what you get, we highly recommend Loomly. Of course, if you find you need some help managing your social media, we have you covered! Just get in touch with us.

Social Media Seasonal Content Marketing

Social Media Seasonal Content Marketing

Why Holiday Social Media Posts are Crucial to Marketing

Seasonal content marketing produces relevant content around the current season and finds ways to capitalize on it. It’s a perfect way to reach your target audience by promoting a specific product or service your business offers that interests your followers during a particular holiday or season.

In this article, we tell you how best to incorporate holiday posts in your social media marketing campaign.

Need help with your holiday social media content marketing? Connect with us!

How do I incorporate holiday posts in my social media marketing campaign?

Seasonality-based content marketing supports just about any strategy. What’s more, it’s relatively easy to create―and it’s sharable, which increases engagement and, ultimately, can increase page likes.

Use relevant hashtags and implement them into your content strategy and calendar

See what holiday or seasonal hashtags are currently trending and determine which ones best relate to your business. Craft social media posts with the relevant hashtags a few times a week to increase the reach of your messages.

You could also make a unique hashtag for your business that’s relevant each year the holiday season approaches. For instance, you could use your brand name followed by a special offer#BrandnameHolidaySpecialOfferto showcase your products and services. Some other relevant hashtags for 2021 include #BrandNameGiveThanks, #BrandNameGrateful, #BrandNameInstaHoliday, #BrandNameHolidaySavings.

Share social media posts relevant to the season

Share tips and tricks relevant to the season. If your followers find your content valuable, they will be more likely to engage with it and share it with their network.

Let your customers and clients know what you and your team are grateful for this year. Emotional connection is one of the most powerful ways to build trust and engage your audience, especially during the holidays.

If your company is giving back this time of year by doing a toy drive or helping at a local food bank, share that with your followers or write a blog post about why you believe in giving back to the community.

Write a blog post that correlates with the season and your business

Look for opportunities to use seasonal topics and traditions to engage your audience in a timely and relevant way. This can humanize your business and help customers and clients connect with you in a whole new way.

Always keeping up with the trends will allow customers and clients to see you as an industry expert and a credible source that cares about delivering the freshest content to viewers. This will encourage followers to engage and seek out information from your business.

Create a social contest revolving around the holiday or season

Giveaways are a great way to create exposure and promote your product, service, or brand. A contest that matches the season is a strategic way to capitalize on a trending topic. Make a contest that requires users to enter an email address to help build your email list so you can update subscribers on future contests, promotions, announcements, etc.

Email marketing has a steady track record in terms of delivering ROI. Behind social media, email marketing is the second most used channel and delivers the highest ROI.

Need help planning your social media seasonal content marketing?

Holidays can be the best time of the year to reach your customers and clients. What’s more, planning and executing a content marketing strategy during the holidays is a great way to promote your business to your target audience.

If you need help with your seasonal content marketing, give us a call!

Why You Should Consider Using Canva

Why You Should Consider Using Canva

Using Canva for Social Media

No matter the size of your business, you should consider using Canva because it enables you to create engaging and unique content on social media, even if you have little to no graphic design skills.

Canva has thousands of free templates professionally designed and ready to be customized with a few clicks. 

Free vs. Pro

Small businesses often have smaller marketing budgets, and every dollar counts in your bottom line.

With the free version of Canva, you have everything you need to start designing, with hundreds of thousands of free photos and graphics. For some small businesses, that’s enough. 

With Canva Pro, you gain unlimited access to premium tools and content. You’ll also gain features like saved brand colors, team members, additional storage space. 

Work Smarter, Not Harder With Canva for Social Media

When your business enters the social media realm, you need to provide engagement-worthy content to resonate with your target audience. Canva makes it simple and provides the tools necessary to create aesthetically pleasing graphics that will grow your social media profile and your brand.

Resize Designs

Each social media platform has its own preference for image size. No matter what type of graphic you are creating–Instagram story, Facebook post, and even business cards–Canva has a template already set up. There is also an option to customize dimensions if needed. 

And, if you have the Pro version, you can even resize a design to another template instantly. It saves hours of work and is great for all types of social media campaigns you may wish to run across multiple platforms.

Create Design Folders

After you design your graphics for your social media, you’ll want to keep them organized by setting up folders. Organize the folders in a way that’s best for your business to help you easily find your graphics when you need them. Not only does Canva Pro give you unlimited folders, but you can share them with your entire team.

Need a Social Media Team?

For more tips on growing your social media profile and your brand, connect with us!  

 

Use LinkedIn Like A Boss

Use LinkedIn Like A Boss

LinkedIn is an amazing networking tool. It presents many opportunities and benefits to business professionals, like helping to build awareness of your brand.  

Your brand is the essence of your business. In this blog, we are going to show you how to use LinkedIn like a boss! So, get ready to make the most out of your LinkedIn profile and start building your brand.

How to Be a Boss on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is said to be “the world’s largest professional network with nearly 740 million members in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide.” So, it’s time to get serious about using LinkedIn to grow your brand.

#1 Complete Your LinkedIn Profile

Your profile can be a powerful part of your brand. Social media profiles, like LinkedIn, almost always show up on the first page of search engine results for a business’s (or individual’s) name. Therefore, it’s important to put in the effort to complete and optimize your LinkedIn Page. 

Here are some key points to make your profile stand out:

  • Add a Professional Profile Picture. People are more likely to view and interact with profiles that have a professional headshot as a profile picture. You’ll also want to add a background image (often called a “banner”) that reflects your personality and your profession.
  • Use Keywords. Keywords are the words and phrases users and industry leaders search for online. Use keywords in your headline, summary, and experience for an added advantage, especially for networking. To determine which keywords should be featured on your LinkedIn Page, think about your key offerings. Your industry, location, and specialties are all important keywords to make prevalent throughout your LinkedIn Page. 
  • Write a Strong ‘About’ Section. Your LinkedIn profile is like your resume, so make sure you have a strong headline conveying what you do and who you serve. Include your previous work history, education details, and at least four skills or areas of expertise. Be sure to include your website URL on your LinkedIn Page to drive traffic to your site.

#2 Start Connecting and Engaging

After your profile is complete, you need to start connecting and engaging with other users. The more connected you are, the more likely you are to appear in search results and the higher you are to appear in search rankings.

LinkedIn displays the number of connections you have on your profile, with a cap of 500. Having 500+ connections on LinkedIn gives you a greater chance of users being directed to your blog or website (this is why it is important to include your website URL on your LinkedIn Page). 

If you have a Premium account, you can also use InMail. InMail allows you to send private messages to (most) LinkedIn members without any prior introduction or additional contact information.

#3 Join LinkedIn Groups – And Stay Active

Participating in LinkedIn groups that are relevant to your industry can be a valuable source of information, ideas, and support. Communicating regularly with other group members is a great way to develop your professional network. 

To find relevant LinkedIn groups, you can use the search bar at the top of your profile page or find new groups via the ones you’ve already joined. 

#4 Share Quality Content

Post high-quality content regularly! Why? Because consistent fresh content gets indexed and helps the search engine recognize your LinkedIn Page as “active” and as a valuable source of information.

We want to emphasize that LinkedIn is for business professionals, so make sure that your content is useful, informative, and relevant to your profession and professional connections.

Let Us Help You Stand Out

LinkedIn should be a part of your business’s social media marketing strategy if it’s not already. If you need help building or optimizing your LinkedIn profile, we’d love to chat! 

At Social Creative, we help businesses creatively use social media to help build their brand. We don’t believe in inconsistently posting ordinary content. That won’t work. We strategically develop a social media plan for your business. Let’s get social!