Are you exhausted by keeping up your businesses’ social media accounts? Small Business BC connected with Ashley “WriterGal” Doan, Owner and Head Caffeinated Copywriter at WriterGal Marketing, for her tips and takes on promoting your business through social media.
Ashley’s been in the publishing, marketing, and copywriting industries for over 17 years. She specializes in writing for business blogs, social media, website content, and other written content marketing. For the last five years, Ashley’s been teaching BC’s small business community strategies to succeed online.
“Being active on social media shows puts you in front of your customers, who are already spending hours a day on social media,” said Ashley. “With more traditional advertising platforms falling the wayside, digitally reaching your customers is a trend I expect to stay,” she said.
Essential social media for small businesses
According to Ashley, most businesses in BC are active on two to three social media platforms, usually LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. “Other companies with more visual brands and the ability to create video content are expanding their reach by including TikTok and YouTube,” said Ashley.
“The social media platforms you should be on will depend on where your customers are hanging out online and what you have the bandwidth to create content for,” she said. “For example, most B2C businesses struggle to find success on a platform like LinkedIn because it is more professional development focused. However, a B2B company can excel on Linkedin.”
The platforms you use will also depend on the kind of content you create. “If you have no desire to post videos or reels, perhaps a platform like TikTok isn’t right for you,” said Ashley.
The first thing to do if your business is new to social media is to reserve your business name on all potential social media platforms, even if you’re not sure you’ll use it.
“When possible, make your usernames the same across all platforms so it’s easy for people to remember and find,” said Ashley. “Then, pick one to two channels to start with and create a strategy for those first.”
Social media missteps
For small business owners who are struggling with their social media strategy, Ashley says it’s important to keep in mind that social media is not advertising.
“Some businesses use their social platforms to promote themselves in every post, which is not what your followers want from you,” said Ashley. “Instead, I always recommend that your social media strategy include a mix of promotional “salesy” content (around 25 percent) and content that is either educational, community-building or that solicits engagement,” she said.
Streamlining processes and driving results
“You must please the social media algorithms if you want them to show your content to your followers,” said Ashley. “I’ve had many clients who have hundreds of followers, but only 30 to 40 people regularly see their posts,” she said.
The best, low-cost strategy is to post often and consistently.
“Decide how many times you can post every week (or every day) and stick to that schedule as much as possible,” recommends Ashley. “Other factors are in play, but this is always my first step with new clients. Then we begin focusing on content that will get you engagement (likes and comments) because the algorithm favours popular posts like these.”
Ashley says that cross-posting content on all channels is helpful. “Your followers on each platform will be different, and it’s okay if someone sees your content more than once,” said Ashley.
Work smarter
Ashley says that cross-posting content on all channels is helpful. “Your followers on each platform will be different, and it’s okay if someone sees your content more than once,” said Ashley.
“My biggest tip is to remember that you don’t have to be on ALL social media platforms! That’s not sustainable for most businesses. Consistency is more important than being everywhere sporadically,” said Ashley.
“Instead of doing many platforms poorly, focus on the two to three platforms where your ideal customers or clients are currency spending their time. Execute your strategy well on these channels, and in the future, you can consider adding other platforms or mediums as you need,” said Ashley.
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