Figure out your objectives: before even creating accounts on social media websites for business and commercial purposes, it is best to first identify your goals, objectives and what you want to achieve out of it.

Each social media website is built for a different purpose and has different kind of audience and you should know what kind of audience you can reach with each of them and what your aims are so as to get off on the right foot.

For example, there’s a huge difference between the audience that you will find on Facebook compared to Linkedin.

Interaction is the key to engage the audience: Customers love to associate with the businesses that they can relate with and therefore it is advisable that you show your audience your professional as well as softer side.

You can show your audience your softer side by interacting with them quite often by responding to their posts and interact with them when they show interest.

When your audience sees your softer side, there will be a sense of connection and they want to associate with your business or brand.

Be consistent with your posts: consistency in posts and creating great content should be your primary focus if you intend to grow your business using social media as that helps audience to stay informed about your business and brand.

Always try to be consistent with your posts, messages and the frequency in which you use various social media websites that are valuable for you.

Always schedule your posts in advance to ensure that you stay consistent with your updates, posts and statuses to help audiences stay informed.

We suggest you to adopt a system of posting a few times a day or in a week.

Being inconsistent with your posts make your business appears unprofessional in the eyes of your audiences and will definitely disengage them.

Be Present on every social website: Once you have planned to create a social media presence then go for each and every popular website because as mentioned above not everyone uses the same social media website.

One of the most common mistakes that are made by small business owners is that they try to use only those websites that they themselves are most comfortable with, forgetting that many potential customers may not feel the same way.

If you want to grow a small business using social media, then you should spread the buzz on all the major social media websites that are available such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram.

Customize your posting approach according to the audience on each platform: Just having an account on all the major social media websites does not mean that you can post the same things or information on each of the websites.

You should customize your posts to meet the needs of each of the platforms and feed the audiences.

For example, if you want to share pictures or infographics then go for instagram, for long posts and articles LinkedIn is the best, Videos and memes can go on Facebook and Short announcements can go on Twitter.

So even if you have the same content in mind, they should be bespoke for each platform.           

Try to identify the needs of your audience: The key to success is identifying the needs of your audience and if you can figure it out then you can feed them the same type content that they are looking for.

For example, you need to test with pictures, videos, infographics, article, stories, games and other meaningful content and then identify with what type of content you are getting maximum engagement and then you need to intensify your efforts in creating the same type of content.

Once you have a clear idea of their needs, you will be able to use this to your advantage and grow your small business using social media.

Work more on social websites where you get better engagement: Although, we encourage you to use as many social media platforms as possible, you will find out that some may be working out better for you than other networks and you should work on those platforms.

Once you have identified the platform that works better for your business and brings you customers, it is best to increase your efforts on that platform in order to take advantage of that opportunity.

We do not encourage you to abandon all other social media platforms that are not working out too well for your business but we suggest you to put more efforts on the one which is working for you compared to the others.

Create content that delivers your brand’s message: Remember social media is vast and beyond just likes and followers it is easy to get swept away with the numbers but number of fans, likes and followers doesn’t translate into business always.

However, you should look beyond the number of response that each of your posts gets in the sense that you should not just deliver content that draws attention without actually being in line with your brand.

For getting customers and business you need to focus on targeted audience and for this you have to create content and posts that is aligned to your business.

Entrepreneurs often make mistakes by posting content which brings likes and followers but not customers because that content maybe engaging for the audience but it doesn’t relate to the brand or business.

Remember everything needs to fit within your brand identity and promote what it is that you are trying to say to your audience.

Post content which is important without worrying about getting shares, likes and followers: don’t care too much about shares, likes and followers as we are talking about targeted audience since beginning and your aim is to turn your audience into loyal customers.

You should always focus on posting meaningful content and keep in mind that certain types of content such as testimonials, charity pots, press features and even some important blog posts do not usually get those many likes or shares but important means that it needs to be posted.

Customers often want proof, references and want to read testimonials and reviews before closing a deal with you or making a purchase and while testimonials, some blog posts may not be very popular but they will work in your favor by giving your business credibility, it needs.

Since, now you have a clear idea about how to use social media for growing your small business it’s time to explore some great social media marketing tools that will make your job even more simple and easier.