~ by Haziqa Ishtiaq ~

Entrepreneurs, “solopreneurs,” top businesses, or newbie startups like PennySaviour, all need the power of social media to get their word across to the thousands of people in the world.

We are not in the Stone Age anymore; we are in the world of the Internet where it is possible to reach millions without spending tons of dollars as an investment. You don’t need excessive campaigning strategies or fliers and pamphlets to get people to know your name.

Instead, you can have others do the work for you for free.

The power of social media can do wonders for your business if used to its maximum potential. Thus, I outlined a few tips for new entrepreneurs to exploit social media and boost your profits.

Follow a Schedule

Spending every waking moment on the Internet is not how you are going to run a business.

If you were online 24/7, who is going to look at all the other details and processes that go into running a company?

But, you can’t be completely inconsistent in your posts either. You need to build your following, which can’t happen if you are only online once in a blue moon.

Thus, you need a schedule!

Keeping a concrete plan in mind of what you are going to post and when you will post will save you from randomly surfing the web.

Plan your social media calendar and decide what to post according to the trending topics and seasons for maximum responses from your audience.

Be Original

People respond to posts that are more natural, not promotional.

If your content is too much like a sales-pitch, it will get lost among the other voices on social media. People will skim over your content rather than read through it.

Thus, you need to find a balance; write content that is relevant to your company niche but also what your consumers need.

Listen but Don’t Always Obey

If you are new in the corporate world, it is great to listen to the advice of the more experienced players.

A little help to assist you in reaching your business goals never hurt anyone. But keep in mind no one knows your ideal better than you.

If you want your business to prosper, it’s better to take the advice as guidelines, not rules you need to follow.

Even for social media marketing!

Every platform has its set of rules that make them different from the others; and regulations that you need to adhere to if you want to succeed on that particular social media platform.

However, depending on your company niche, your goals, audience, product, and your reputation, you can alter those rules to best suit your requirements.

Engage With Your Audience

Your followers are real people with real lives and troubles; getting to know them will make you appear as more than just another face in the corporate world.

Few tips to increase your presence on social media are:

1. Follow conversations or start one.

People want to share their opinions and thoughts, and the best interaction is when you ask people for their insights and views.

Start polls, surveys, or just everyday life questions to get your audience to know your brand.

Not only will you increase your consumer base, but you can also use their reviews to improve your customer service and company standards.

If the people know you value their opinion, they’re more likely to look to your brand than your competitors.

2. Share your insights on diverse topics.

If you want to keep your followers active, then give out a few fun facts or theories they’ll find interesting.

Adding a little trivia game to your posts will intrigue your readers, especially if there is a small reward for the first to answer correctly.

Curate Great Content

Social media is the perfect tool to increase your customer base, and the best way to do that is to provide content that interests your followers.

If you make it meaningful for them, then they are more likely to share or retweet to their followers.

I mentioned before that you need to find a balance between relevance and usefulness, let me explain it further.

Content is crucial to any successful marketing strategies if you intend on gaining more followers, then put yourself in your audiences’ shoes and think of what they would like to see.

However, going completely off track of your niche will confuse them.

So, what you can do is, for example, if you have a company that sells skincare products, then you can tell your readers the best ways to care for their skin or the benefits of a specific product.

Engaging with your audience on social media will help you get to know them on a personal level and help you improve the quality of your content.

Another thing to note is that you need to be diverse in what you provide your readers. If you have great diversity in you content, you can reach people of various social standings, ethic, culture, and religion.

In short, be creative, original and fresh for successful social media marketing.

Employ Videos or Infographics

“A picture speaks a thousand words” is more than just a phrase\ in social media marketing.

To keep your audience from dying of boredom, you need to break up your content with videos, images, or infographics.

Short videos will make your content lively, engage your readers, and keep you from delivering repeated content.

You can also add gifs and infographics to make it more exciting and to increase the visual appeal of your content.

Check Where Your Audience is

Yes, there are loads of social media platforms today, and more keep popping up. However, that does not require that you create an account on every platform.

Perform social media analytics to see where most of the consumer base is, then target that.

It won’t benefit you if you’re juggling multiple accounts but not able to excel in any of them.

If you know the general age of your consumers, then research where they are most active and aim for those social platforms instead of being spread too thin over all of them.

Not every social media will help you in your goals, so knowing where your customers are will also help you send out targeted ads.

Learn by Observation

Key to success is learning by observing your competitors. They are the big dogs who know all the ins and outs of social media if they have been there longer than you.

So, learn from them!

See what they are doing, how and when; observe their strategies and try to apply them to your own social media marketing.

Keeping an eye on your top rivals will also let you know the shift in marketing trends, and what changes to make in your content to keep up with your audience.

Final Note

Social media is relatively cost-effective, which makes it really handy for small startups.

Being in the digital age, makes it comparatively easier to grow your brand then it was in the old age.

If you want to reach new audiences and increase your consumer base, it is imperative that you harness the power of social media and use it to your advantage. These few tips are sure to help you move along in the right direction.

Meet the Author: Haziqa Ishtiaq

Haziqa Ishtiaq is a rising blogger on the block and an active content writer for PennySaviour. She has written blogs on many diverse topics including travel, business, tech, fashion, etc. Follow her on social media to stay tuned to her insights on your favorite genres.