Small businesses often have a difficult time breaking into the world of advertising. However, the internet has created more opportunities than ever before for anyone to advertise to any demographic of people you wish. Social media advertising is one of the most powerful tools that every company can use for free, and many of those platforms also sell advertising space available to any company for any reason as long as you follow their policies. Here are five ways to grow your small business through marketing strategies that are attainable almost entirely through social media platforms.

Basic Advertising

If you do not already have at least one social media page that customers can visit to learn more about your business, you are missing out on so much free advertising. Make social media posts promoting any sales, events, or other reasons potential customers may want to visit. You can also use it as an extra customer service venue. Encourage your customers to send you messages on social media. It is quick and easy both for them to send and for you to respond.

As mentioned above, you can also buy as little or as much advertising space as you want from various social media companies, such as YouTube and Facebook. You can make an ad yourself and then select for how long you want to run each ad campaign so that it fits your budget. Most of these platforms will then provide you with analytics so you know how many people saw your ad, what demographic those people were in, and how many people clicked.

Brand Ambassadors

The number one job that kids want to have when they grow up today is social media influencer. Regardless of how that fact makes you feel, you can probably capitalize on that desire. There are millions of social media profiles on various websites run by people with dreams of becoming influencers. If you find someone who exemplifies the image that you want your company to project, try reaching out to him or her to see if he or she is interested in working with your brand.

The best part is, you can offer them products in exchange for their services instead of money. There are hundreds of small companies who pay their brand ambassadors in products or store credit, and there are thousands of people willing to work with you for minimal payment. If you have ever wondered how to start a brand ambassador program, you can start easily as long as you are following the laws in your jurisdiction.

Medium

You may have wondered at some point why there are so many social media platforms that all seem so similar. Most of the time, the answer is either specialization or medium. Certain subgroups within social media platforms break off from the larger platforms to create smaller communities that specialize in certain topics, and each social media platform has a different medium of content that its user expects to consume. When you visit YouTube, you expect to see long-form videos.

When you visit Twitter, you expect to see short text posts that might have pictures or short videos attached. When you visit Instagram, you expect pictures to be the main focus. Learn which platforms appreciate which types of posts and curate your content to fit the whims of that platform’s algorithm. Also, keep in mind what websites your demographic is more likely to use. Older people tend to use Facebook, young adults spend time on YouTube, and, right now, children and teenagers use TikTok.

Engagement

When you open your social media or website statistics for the first time, you might be confused about what you are looking at. If you are only looking for a surface-level understanding of the numbers, the three most important figures to look at are views, engagements, and followers, and of these, engagement is the best indicator of your success.

The number of views a post or webpage gets is the most self-explanatory of these. It is simply the number of people who have seen your page or post. Sometimes, these figures will be separated into total views and separate viewers. Followers are also easy to comprehend. The people who follow or like your page, depending on the platform, have signed up to see everything that you post soon after you post it. Engagement tells you how many people have interacted with your post after seeing it. This could include liking the post or clicking a video, and you can usually check what these interactions are.

Brand Recognition

Brand recognition has been important for as long as brands have been around, but that rings even truer now. Logos are plastered everywhere you look today on billboards, on clothing, and, of course, on every screen you interact with. A company with a logo that imprints itself in the mind of its customers is likely tied to a successful business.

There are countless studies pertaining to which aspects of logos are the most effective, but as a general rule, your company name or the equivalent should be displayed in a custom font, and it should use a vibrant, eye-catching color, preferably blue or red. If you can afford to get your logo designed by a professional artist, you should do that, but there are also several online resources that can help you create your own professional-looking logo. Make sure you put your logo somewhere on everything you produce including your social media profile, flyers, and merchandise, especially clothing items.

Social media is one of the most efficient marketing tools that any company, especially small businesses, has ever had at its disposal, so do not brush it off as a fad. Successful businesses need to keep up with the ties, and that means embracing trends as they come, even if they disappear after a few months or years. Do not allow your arrogance or hubris that discriminates against new trends to prevent your business from becoming the best it can be.