Social media 101 for small businesses

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Social media allows your business to reach a larger amount of potential clients, and to communicate and interact directly with them before they've even set foot in your physical building (if you have one).

When you consider that one billion people use Facebook every month, 284 million people use Twitter per month, and 5 million photos are uploaded every hour to Instagram, you can see the vast potential social media can offer any business. A huge draw of social media is the instant and accessible nature; anybody can access a social media site from their phone and post a question or send a message within seconds. Gone are the days of waiting for a response to your email, when you're not even sure if it got read.

Social media can seem daunting for small businesses, because it can be challenging to gain new followers and fans, but a solid social media strategy can do nothing but good for your business. Even if you have very few followers, making important information about your business and products or services readily available on social media means you are easier to find and learn about. Aside from this, there is undeniably a huge benefit in that it is a highly cost effective way to market your business and increase engagement with your target market.

How to best use social media for your business

The emphasis should be on relevant, shareable content for social media. Provide good value by posting only content that is interesting to your audience, and is likely to draw customers in and be shared within their personal networks. Social media requires regular attention, although the frequency of posts will depend on your business and your audience - it may require weekly updates with specials and discounts for your hairdressing salon, or daily picture updates for your dog kennels' Facebook page.

It is key to know your market. If your target market is young adults, there are multiple social media platforms that are incredibly popular and you should consider using at least the three main ones - Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. If businessmen are your target, then LinkedIn is probably a better bet. If you're looking at age 50+ as your target market, you could probably forego Twitter and Instagram and stick to Facebook, for instance.

Consider running a competition of some sort requiring engagement with your chosen social media platform. Like the page and share the post is a common strategy for Facebook competitions, along with retweets, follows and hashtags on Twitter. These kind of competitions can be useful to increase your presence on social media platforms.

Identify key community players. This could be bloggers, local Twitter celebrities, community centres or anything local that your audience would be interested in, engage with them by following them, sharing their content and comment on their posts. This could lead to reciprocation on their part, making their network of followers aware of your presence, and therefore more easily accessible.

Use pictures. Social media is interactive, and users enjoy pictures. They like to see 'behind the scenes' and feel involved with you and your business. Post funny pictures or videos to encourage sharing.

There you have it; our guide to getting started on social media as a small business. Hopefully these tips will help you dip your toes into the sea of social media!