Disclaimer Text
Not all products, pricing and services are available in all areas. Pricing and actual speeds may vary. Internet speeds based on wired connection. Restrictions apply.
Acquire new customers
by Spectrum Business
The following questions can help you find the right social media tool(s) to achieve your small business’ marketing goals. Just answer each question and you’ll have a roadmap to follow for more effective social media results.
The beauty of social media is it can accomplish a lot of things for your small business. It can help you build awareness and make a name for your company. It can also help you find people who are ready to shop or dine. And, of course, social media can help you engage with your customers to potentially create deep and lasting bonds.
-
-
Bring visitors to my website
-
Build customer loyalty
-
Create awareness/visibility
-
Increase foot traffic to my business
-
Provide customer service
-
Sell more to current customers
-
Other
One of the most important aspects of the tool you choose is that your customers are using it. For example, if you’re addicted to Pinterest, but your customers are on Instagram, all your great pins may go unseen. Likewise, if you love to blog, but your customers spend their time on X, your posts may be for naught.
The simplest way to find out which social media channels your customers use is to ask them — at the cash register, on the phone or even with a short poll on your site. Be sure to ask which social platform they are most likely to use to find your kind of business — for example, they may spend a lot of time on YouTube, but when it’s time to find a restaurant, they go to Yelp. If you can, ask if they use different social media sites for different things, like using Facebook to check out new companies and X for customer service.
Here’s a quick overview of the major social media platforms small businesses use. Your challenge is to determine which of these tool(s) will best help you achieve your primary marketing goal.
A blog can be an effective way to demonstrate your passion and expertise, raise your visibility and bring customers to your website.
Here are the major pros and cons of blogging:
Visibility
A blog is a good tool for spreading the word about your business. Your position as an authority can attract prospects and build customer relationships.
Site traffic
Sites with blogs tend to get more visitors than those without because blogs can help a site appear higher in search engine results. Blogs also have the potential to attract a following of people who are interested in what you write about.
Customer loyalty
A blog can be a great tool to provide helpful information to customers about the products or services they buy from you. You can write about delayed shipments, upcoming product enhancements or other topics that help current customers feel informed and supported.
Customer engagement
On your blog, you control the user experience — you aren’t competing with ads or information about other companies. As a result, you have the reader’s undivided attention.
Development effort
A well-executed blog requires a significant commitment, to either write the posts yourself or solicit posts from others and edit them as needed. To appear well-maintained, a blog should be updated at least weekly.
Facebook provides a good forum for building customer loyalty and raising your brand visibility. By posting photos and information on your company’s Facebook page, you can stay close to customers and demonstrate your knowledge and value as a business. With targeted ads, you can also reach out to prospects based on demographics and attract buyers who are enticed by what you post.
Here are the major pros and cons of Facebook for small businesses:
Visibility
Actively posting photos, videos and other content related to your industry on Facebook demonstrates that you are an authority in your area. Your visitors’ likes and shares can also spread the word about your company organically throughout Facebook. You can contribute to a Facebook group — or start one yourself — to share your passion for a particular topic like vintage clothing or handmade pasta.
Customer acquisition
You can buy ads on Facebook to target prospects based on their interests, age and other specifications.
Customer loyalty
Posting industry news, providing helpful advice for getting the most from your product or service, or asking questions about your offerings can demonstrate your customer orientation.
Experience
Many Facebook users are on the network to socialize with friends and family and may not be as receptive to ads there compared to elsewhere online.
We’ve grouped Instagram and Pinterest together since both are focused on visuals, whether images, photos or videos. Because these social networks are great for sharing imagery, they are natural homes for pictures of your restaurant or store, staff, décor and, of course, the food you prepare or the items you sell.
Here are the major pros and cons of Instagram and Pinterest for small businesses:
Visibility
Posting or pinning images, photos, videos and other visual content on these sites demonstrates your passion for your business. You can brand your Instagram account with a logo or headshot and link it to your Facebook account to boost engagement on both networks.
Customer acquisition
You can generate site and/or foot-traffic through the awareness you build on these sites. “Rich pins” on Pinterest allow you to show prices and other product information.
Customer loyalty
The images you share are a great way to demonstrate your company’s personality and creativity. While neither site is the ideal forum for news on delayed shipments, for example, you can develop a bond with customers by sharing great images.
Experience
Instagram and Pinterest both began with a strong image-sharing ethos — Instagram for applying filters to smartphone pictures and Pinterest for hobbyists. As a result, neither is highly “transactional” in the sense of being able to help you make a sale. However, they are great for defining and evolving the personality of your business.
Location-Based Services such as Google Business Profile, Yelp and Foursquare help consumers find local businesses like stores and restaurants. They showcase your company when people search for businesses similar to yours and they’re designed specifically for mobile devices. Due to their popularity, LBSs are an important tool for finding and attracting customers and maintaining a healthy brand profile.
Here are the major pros and cons of LBSs:
Visibility
Like it or not, your restaurant or retail store is probably already on one or more LBS with ratings and reviews from your customers. Almost everyone uses mobile devices to search for local businesses — and your business needs to have a presence.
Customer acquisition
LBSs are a terrific tool to bring customers to your door because they can provide a detailed preview of the experience you provide along with hours and directions. They are especially powerful since consumers are generally using them when they are ready to buy. By encouraging customers to post positive reviews, you can get higher rankings in the LBS search results. You can also pay to appear above the organic (unpaid) search results.
Customer loyalty
LBSs are really all about finding businesses, rather than maintaining relationships. While your customers may occasionally visit your listing to see what others are saying about you, LBSs are not the place to wax poetic about your passions or notify customers about out-of-stock items, for example.
Experience
LBSs are directories and — by definition — your listing competes with those of similar local businesses. You have limited options to control the experience visitors have with your listing (other than generating five-star reviews through your great service and responding to negative comments).
Posts on X can help you attract attention and maintain customer loyalty. When people follow you on X, they provide you with an ongoing opportunity to remind them about the things that make your business great.
Here are the major pros and cons of X for your small business:
Visibility
X can boost your visibility if your post goes viral through shares, likes and replies — especially from those who have large followings. This is much easier said than done, however. A more reliable strategy is to grow your audience with consistent content that engages your audience. Paid options are also a great option to target prospects by interests, location and other factors.
Customer acquisition
Paid lead generation tools on X allow followers to provide you with their contact information.
Customer loyalty
The real value of X may be in developing relationships with customers. Posting about your expertise, a new product shipment, delivery delays and other important company updates can help to keep customers informed and feeling positive about your business.
Experience
Posts on X have a short lifespan. Even if your posts appear in your followers’ feeds multiple times, they can be missed easily if your followers don’t check in regularly or if they follow many accounts.
YouTube has become an important resource to look for businesses. Some people rely on YouTube as their exclusive search engine to find the products and services they seek. At the same time, some businesses have seen fantastic results from fun videos involving their staff or diehard fans. With this in mind, consider crafting short videos that showcase your product, service and/or company personality.
Here are the major pros and cons of YouTube for your small business:
Visibility
YouTube can be a terrific way to build a brand because the site gets so many visitors every day. Popular videos can generate fantastic word of mouth — think Gangnam Style — and as a result, great exposure. However, your video faces a lot of competition on the site, so it’s important to keep it interesting!
Customer acquisition
Creating videos and posting them to YouTube can help introduce your products and services to prospects likely to buy. Videos can showcase your store or restaurant, communicate passion for your business (through a cooking demonstration, for example), showcase your personality and encourage viewers to become customers.
Customer loyalty
YouTube can help you engage current customers. For example, you can provide tips about how to get the most from products you sell along with troubleshooting assistance. You can also indicate your commitment to customers by having staff address customer service issues.
Experience
Although you’re competing with countless other videos, the impact of each video you post is limited only by your creativity. Images, text and graphics, voiceovers, special effects and music all give you limitless options to create something unique and compelling. And videos stay up permanently, so an effective video can generate goodwill for your business for years to come.
In some small businesses, the founder is the social media manager (in addition to all their other duties); in others, someone (or even a team of people) is assigned full-time responsibility for maintaining all social media channels, perhaps even with outside assistance. So, be sure to consider your time and capabilities — for example, could your business more easily produce written pieces such as blog posts or visual pieces suitable for Pinterest or YouTube (which may require special editing tools and skills)?
The attitude and information you bring to social media should be a factor in your decision about which platforms to use. You may love writing blog posts, taking photos or drafting short messages. Or you may feel like you never have anything particularly newsworthy to share.
There are no hard and fast rules, but your posting frequency may vary by the nature of your business. X, for example, tends to favor frequent posts, such as daily specials or menu updates. You can get away with posting videos to YouTube less frequently. They key factor is how often you are able to commit to maintaining your social media presence. Whichever network(s) you choose, you want to ensure you keep them active.