I’ve met plenty of small business owners that consider social media marketing an unproductive use of their time. Meaning there are plenty of companies out there still not participating in social media. 

In this blog post, we’ll describe five ways social media is working for small business owners that recognize the vital role it plays in marketing.

Recruiting Top Talent In A Tight Market

A great company can’t function without great employees. Small businesses face the same problem large companies do: finding and keeping talented employees. In September 2019, the unemployment rate reached a 10-year low, making it harder for employers of all sizes to compete for skilled job candidates.

Good candidates consider screening a two-way street. Job candidates are scrutinizing the prospective employer just as much as the employer is scrutinizing them. They seek unbiased reassurance that company values and culture align with their expectations. 

An empty news feed on a company’s social media channel tells potential candidates the company has nothing interesting to say. This also portrays that the company doesn’t care about communicating with the outside world. Worst of all, it tells them the company doesn’t have any tech-savvy. These factors lessen the company’s competitiveness in attracting strong candidates. 

Count on social media marketing to show off your company’s outstanding culture and company values. Post the great things your employees are doing, from company events to volunteer activities. Want to demonstrate how your Mission Statement is alive and well? Show folks how on social media.

Overcoming Reluctance to Use Social Media Marketing

I had a client that was reluctant to use social media. They custom-build highly technical, engineered control systems in the industrial space. After some reticence, we posted company team-building events, pot luck gatherings, Halloween costume contests, and blog posts written by the company president about his business philosophy and company values. It paid off. He was sold on social media after hearing a desirable job candidate tell him how impressed she was with their Facebook page! 

Social platforms are also a great place to advertise your company’s job openings. According to research by Betterteam, 70% of hiring managers say they’ve successfully hired with social media. Also, according to Career Arc, 91% of employers are using social media to recruit talent today. In a harsh recruiting environment, it doesn’t pay to be in the 9% not using it!

Getting The Word Out About Selected Causes

Employees tend to respect companies and leaders that give to non-profit organizations, promote volunteerism, or support causes that align with their values. 

Events are perfect for social media. Moreover, since most fundraising is event-oriented, it’s a great way to get the word out. That includes events like organized walks or runs, silent or live auctions, and blood drives. 

I admire campaigns that tie in a simple visual. For example, the Red Nose campaign conducted by Walgreens raised more than $18 million. According to the website, doublethedonation.com, “The six-week campaign starts with Walgreens customers purchasing red noses and wearing them for group pictures and other Red Nose Day fundraising events. The proceeds from the red nose sales and additional fundraising events orchestrated by companies and individuals during the campaign will go towards helping lift children out of poverty in the United States.”

You don’t have to be a large corporation like Walgreens. Does your company give back to the community in some way?  It’s a practice that benefits both parties, and social media is perfect for promoting it.

Engaging Employees As Brand Ambassadors Via LinkedIn

Sometimes the best social audience for a company is its employees. In many cases, employees have more credibility than the top executive.  Target audiences are more likely to believe employees than the company president!

Employee engagement with the company’s social pages delivers several benefits. First, it will help foster a community’s atmosphere and shows that the company is relevant. It also demonstrates to prospective employees that the company is worth engaging with when they see current employees participating.

It also extends the company’s brand reach to new audiences, thereby growing the company’s followers.  For example, on LinkedIn, every time an employee likes or shares their employer’s post, it creates a new impression for the company. It shows up in the employee’s news feed, so their connections see it. 

Targeting Your Message With Social Media Marketing

Great marketing is all about getting the right offer in front of the right people. Most social platforms offer advertisers the opportunity to target their promotional messages and marketing content based on things like consumer demographics. 

For example, LinkedIn Company Pages are effective at getting branded messages in front of targeted audiences. The filters include the location, industry, title, number of employees of the pages’ followers.

You can target paid ads on Facebook to people that like certain pages. Demographics include age range, language spoken, and gender.

Hashtags are a passive way to target your message. They help put social posts in front of the right audiences and help build engagement.  They were first created several years ago to organize the multitude of discussions that were on Twitter. The other social platforms adopted their use. Now marketers include hashtags in their social posts to ensure those posts can be found by their audience looking for specific types of content. 

The goal is to have your content toward the top of the discussion for any given hashtag. Content at the top of the hashtag is the most visible. Hashtags can be monitored manually to gauge their effectiveness. There are also services available that track engagement for a company’s primary hashtags.

Strategic use of hashtags is essential. That means each one has to be aligned with your content and your audience. 

There is no formula for the right number of hashtags to include in a post. However, I recommend to clients that one to three is a reasonable quantity. Any more than that and the post appears cluttered and unprofessional. Hashtags can be included in the caption to save space, but having them at the end of the caption works well.

Growing The Business

Not impressed yet by social media marketing? Want concrete evidence that social media works as a business development tool? Check out these two examples.  

Fullmoon Graphics uses Facebook to show off its unique vehicle wraps, banners, and truck lettering service. Shannon Norwood, the owner, reports that 80% of his business comes from Facebook and he doesn’t place ads. His business growth from social media comes organically, which means it doesn’t cost him anything but his time. 

Another small business, which manufactures close tolerance, laser-cut steel rule dies, uses LinkedIn to expand its business outside of Wisconsin, which is where it is based. They leverage the power of LinkedIn by geographically targeting their ideal prospects with business development outreach (cold calling).

Conclusion

If your small business isn’t using social media marketing, it may be time to consider it. Small business owners who market their products and services on social media enjoy numerous benefits.

Sources:

https://everyonesocial.com/blog/social-recruiting-statistics/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/05/03/unemployment-is-year-low-it-might-drop-lot-further/

What is ROI?

Return on Investment. You’ve probably heard the term many times in business. Simply put, it’s the profitability of an investment compared to the original cost. When it comes to advertising, it’s important to evaluate ROI so that you can invest more of your budget into the channels that are reaping the highest return.

We know that social media may seem overwhelming or unnecessary to some small business owners. However, we can promise you that it is neither! Social media needs to be a part of your marketing strategy because it is both an inexpensive and effective way to attract paying customers.

Read: Social Media Strategy for Small Businesses in 2018

Often, the only numbers attributed to social media success are vanity metrics – followers, likes, comments, and shares. While these may be essential for a healthy social media presence, we know that they don’t necessarily translate to the bottom line. The most valuable metrics (click-through rates, conversions, bounce rates, session lengths, traffic sources, etc.) can be obtained through backend applications, like Facebook Pixel and Google Analytics. In addition, when you combine a few of these metrics with some commonly used KPI’s, you can calculate a simple social media advertising ROI.

To do so, you need to answer the following questions:

• How much money are you spending on your ad?
• How many people fill out and submit the form on your website?
• What is the average value of a lead for your business?
• How many people are sent to your website from your ad?
• On average, how many leads convert to a sale?
• How many of those people reach a form on your website from your ad?

To illustrate, let’s walk through a real-life example of ours. Recently, we worked with a local flooring company to run a Facebook advertisement promoting their hardwood refinishing special.

Read: 4 Benefits of Facebook Advertising for Small Businesses

Step 1: Determine your budget

We created a Facebook advertisement for the flooring company with some before-and-after images of recent refinishing projects and included a short description of the special they were running. We built a lookalike audience based off of their website visitors and email list to strategically target people who are more likely to be interested in their product. Running this ad for a month equated to a lifetime value of $250 which is included in the $1500/month social media plan they’re on.

Step 2: Analyze the results of the ad

The goal of this ad was to have as many people as possible, within our client’s service area, click through to the website and fill out the contact form for an estimate on their floor refinishing project. At the completion of the ad, we had 17,225 impressions with 481 clicks through to the website.

Next, we dove into our Google Analytics account to identify how many people filled out our contact form for an estimate. Under “acquisition”, filter by your goal completions, and then look into the source and find Facebook. Of the 481 people that clicked through from the ad, 23 of them completed the contact form. That’s a 4.8% conversion rate.

Step 3:  Find out the value of a lead

Our client estimated that the average value of one floor refinishing lead is $2000.

Step 4: Identify how many leads turn to sales

Our client estimated that 3 out of 10 leads will convert to a paying customer. Translating to an estimated 30% close rate.

Step 5: Put it all together

Information we have:

• $1500 total monthly investment including Ad and Social Media Management cost
• 17,225 impressions
• 481 clicked through from the ad to the website
• 23 completed the contact form and qualified as a lead
• Average lead is worth $2000
• An average close rate of 30%

With this information, we are able to do some math with the numbers that do actually contribute to your bottom line.

23 leads x 30% close rate = 6.9 sales but we’ll round to 7

7 sales x $2000 average sale value = $14,000

Now, for the ROI. (Drumroll please!)

With our client’s initial investment of $1500 (total monthly investment including Ad and Social Media Management cost) and their potential return of $14,000, their return on investment calculates to a whopping 834%.

Want us to help your business? Contact us today to chat about our social media packages and how we can help you increase your social media ROI! Our office is conveniently located in Milwaukee, near Wauwatosa, just a few blocks south of Mount Mary College.

Should B2B Companies Use Social Media?

Do you have a B2B business and struggle with whether or not you should invest resources in building a social media presence for your company? Perhaps setting up a LinkedIn page is intimidating, or you’re not sure how much of your marketing budget to invest in advertising on Facebook. Ultimately, you wonder if there is value in establishing a social media presence in the B2B space. For the answer, let’s look at the numbers.

As of spring 2017, over 65 million businesses had a Facebook page, and in 2015, 41 percent of small businesses used Facebook. Almost 2.8 billion people (that’s a 37 percent penetration) were active on social media. And social media isn’t going anywhere soon. The number of social media users increased tenfold from 2005 to 2015 and has increased 21 percent between 2015 and 2017. Data shows the question, “Why should my B2B company invest in social media?” has a simple answer: Companies can’t afford not to establish a social media presence. Here are more reasons B2B companies should establish themselves on social media. (more…)

Your Social Media Liaison in 2018

Today, one of the best tools we have available to help you reach customers is social media. Social media is everywhere. Now, businesses can use it to know and target their customers better than ever before, from their zip codes to the websites they regularly visit to the products they are interested in buying. Are you ready to make the most of this tool for your small business?

Today, we encourage you to set aside just 10-15 minutes to let more people know about your business on social media.

Here are 5 easy steps you can take today to reach more customers through posts on your social platforms: (more…)

Many businesses find Instagram confusing or a waste of time. However, with 600 million monthly users it remains an extremely popular, visually centered social platform that is fun, fast and easy to use. If your business isn’t using the platform or is having a hard time building a following, this post is for you. Here are the 2 important steps your company needs to take to grow an engaged audience ready to buy your product or service.

Effectively Use Hashtags

This is the most important element of a successful Instagram page, especially in the beginning when your company page may not have many followers. Hashtags are simply keywords that relate to the picture being posted or your company, industry, etc. When using hashtags, it is important to include ones that are active and have many people using and viewing them. For example, using your company’s name as a hashtag will not be very effective in getting your brand in front of user’s eyes unless you’re a behemoth like Coca-Cola or Walmart. Instead, substitute it with a popular hashtag within your industry like #searchengineoptimization or #interiordesign. A simple search within the Instagram app will show you the best hashtags people are using and viewing within your industry. Try searching “Web Development” in the search bar and going over to “tags”. Instagram will show you how many times that hashtag has been used, and other hashtags similar to the one being searched. Another very important tactic is to use quality over quantity with hashtags. Even though Instagram allows you to post 30 unique hashtags with a photo, studies have shown that 9 hashtags are optimal. The more hashtags you use, the more channels there will be for people to find your brand on the app. A good way of not seeming “spammy” when posting hashtags is to type them in the comment section of the picture or video once posted. By putting the hashtags in the comments section they are essentially hidden from view on your followers’ feeds but still actively pushing your posts to more channels through Instagram. Experiment with different hashtags to find out which ones fit best with your company!

Visual Consistency

Instagram is a very visually focused platform, obviously. The most successful pages have a visual consistency when you look through them. They use the same font, same quality photographs, and same color palettes to add a sense of unity to the page. If your company isn’t doing this, you’re not setting yourself up to gain followers. For example, let’s pretend Greg is browsing Instagram and sees a great looking photograph; he is naturally going to be inclined to check out the page that posted the photo. If he goes to the page and it looks like a cluttered mess with many different colors and different quality photos, Greg is less likely to then follow the page. If he lands on the page and sees a sense of unity with a consistent theme throughout, it will display professionalism and most likely lead to a follow. Focus on coming up with a color palette that fits your company and always post high-quality photos to keep customers coming back for more!

Take a look at our Instagram page to see what we’re talking about in action @brewcitymarketing and check out this great study from Buffer on how to grow a massive Instagram following.

Interested in one on one help? Give us a call at 414-208-0700 or fill out our contact form at brewcitymarketing.com. Contact us today to learn more about how to grow your Instagram page!

When it comes to social media, every business wants to have an engaged audience and extensive reach. You work hard to get your brand in front of potential customers so likes, comments, and shares feel great. Contrastingly, a lack of likes, comments, and shares makes you feel like you’re doing everything wrong. If people are unfollowing your brand on social media, there’s a good reason why. Check out our top four reasons why users may be unfollowing your brand.

#4 Your Content is Too Boring

Buzzfeed and Factl conducted a survey with 900 social media users to help better understand what companies should avoid. 21% of respondents stated they would unfollow a brand if the content was repetitive and boring. Are you keeping up with the latest marketing trends and taking advantage of new social media platform features? If not, reconsider your content strategy.

#3 You’re Not Engaging Your Followers

It’s never been easier for brands to interact with consumers and vice versa. Social media is a two-way street, so engage your following by asking questions, liking posts, offering help, or leaving a meaningful comment or tip. Portraying yourself as an entity rather than a business could exponentially boost your social success.

#2 Your Brand Image and Social Media Image Don’t Align

Law firms don’t post memes and photographers don’t post financial reports. Although those might be extreme examples–you probably get the point. Focus on posting content that engages the type of people you want following your pages and buying your product or service. If you’re fun, then keep it fun. If you want to be serious, then focus on a serious tone and serious topics. In short? Don’t try to branch into social segments that differ from the image you want to portray.

#1 You’re Promoting Yourself Too much

It’s easy to blast out promotions all the time on your social feeds but don’t forget that social media is just that, social. No one likes the boastful person and the same goes for business. Try posting some fun content that still focuses on your brand identity but makes people want to follow and engage with you. While it’s essential to highlight achievements and what you do as a company, make a point to balance those posts with more fun or personal posts.

Need more social media advice? We’d love to help out. Call us anytime at 414-208-0700 or fill out our contact form. We offer a full suite of social media management services to help your business succeed today.

For the uninitiated, LinkedIn is a social network for the business community. LinkedIn provides a way for professionals to connect, making for a frictionless exchange of ideas, knowledge and job opportunities. Should your brand be on LinkedIn? Yes – unequivocally. Here are just a few of the reasons why.

It’s Not Dying

With 433 million users and an average of 2 new members joining every second, LinkedIn is the third most popular social network on the web. With a fresh new desktop redesign, smarter messaging, a richer news feed, more intuitive search, and better insight into who’s viewing your profile, LinkedIn is geared for growth in 2017. Over 40% of users check LinkedIn daily – is your content reaching their screens?

B2B Goes Great with LinkedIn

Increasingly, marketers are using LinkedIn to find potential customers and sell. According to “The Sophisticated Marketer’s Guide to LinkedIn,” the platform is one of the best for new businesses. With half of all users saying they are more likely to buy from a company they engage with on the platform and 45% of all LinkedIn members in positions of upper management, the platform is proven to generate more leads for companies than Facebook, Twitter, or blogs.

Groups

LinkedIn has recently revamped its “Groups” feature with a fresh redesign and the ability to add images and mention other users in posts. If your brand isn’t taking advantage of the direct marketing the Group setting can offer, you’re missing out. New behind-the-scenes features effortlessly mitigate spammers, making groups more authentic than ever. Additionally, group members are now thoroughly vetted, which means that those without a professional, fully fleshed-out profile may not be accepted to join the conversation. Further, LinkedIn groups still remain one of the best ways to directly market to a group of engaged individuals. With over 2 million groups currently on LinkedIn, the options are almost limitless for your brand.

Long-form Posts

Have you ever wanted to start a blog? Long-form posts are a great way to get your feet wet in the world of blogging. Not only are they an excellent way of broadcasting your expertise on a subject, they’re also proven to boost engagement and attract followers to your profile. Long-form posts are shared directly in your follower’s newsfeeds and on your professional profile, allowing for high visibility and high traffic.

Professionalism

But the biggest reason your brand should be on LinkedIn? It’s a social network built strictly for professionals. In practice, this means that your audience will be a consistent stream of affluent and professional consumers, and folks looking to do business. Use your company page to give users a reason to follow your brand by posting interesting and relevant status updates–and the leads will follow.

Whether B2B or B2C, LinkedIn is a fantastic tool to reach new business partners and direct them towards a great company like yours! Need help harnessing the power of this awesome platform? Call us today at 414-208-0700.