How to Use Social Media for Local Business?
The benefits of using social media to advertise business locally are a key reason that many people succeed in their efforts. Being able to utilize social media for your own ends is a tremendous way to grow!
Table of contents:
- Social Media Marketing for Local Business – Why Your Business Needs to Be Present in Social Media?
- 8 Benefits of Using Social Media to Advertise Your Business Locally
- So Which Social Media Platform Is Best?
- No Local Business Can Neglect Social Media
Social media for local businesses is quickly becoming one of the more important things you can do online in order to get the word out about your products and services. From Facebook to Instagram, social media marketing for local business growth is an aspect of engagement that you can’t afford to miss!
This article will show you the best practices to utilize social media marketing, local business integration, local advertising, and more. With these tools, your engagement rates will skyrocket and your social media presence will be huge!
Social Media Marketing for Local Business – Why Your Business Needs to Be Present in Social Media?
There are many benefits to maintaining a social media presence in order to better your establishment in real life. Brick and mortar spaces need all the help they can get in this day and age, and social media provides the venue to get more people into your store!
An important part of marketing, maintaining an active and fleshed-out social media presence can bring many favorable results to your business: from free advertising to social proof, getting personal with your community has tangible benefits you will see almost immediately.
Not only that, but an active social media presence will also support your SEO efforts indirectly. While it’s best to understand all the trends involved with SEO in particular, you can’t go wrong with more backlinks and comments!
Do you own a local business and want to grow your presence online? We can help you with our local SEO service!
SEO thrives on engagement and the benefits of using social media to advertise business locally will show you why.
If you want to know more about the impact social media has on SEO read these 2 articles:
8 Benefits of Using Social Media to Advertise Your Business Locally
While there are many more benefits to using social media marketing for local business ventures, here are some of the top reasons to start posting!
1. Facebook Recommendations
Often times when people are looking for a new establishment, they go to their friends and post online. Recommendations like these are all over social media, but Facebook in particular.
If your brand has a profile on FB, you give anyone searching for you a sense of who you are and what you do.
Besides, if people can’t see your presence on Facebook, they may come to think that you’re not legitimate! Social media marketing, local business profiles, and more will all lend authenticity to the public near you.
2. Facebook Social Proof
By getting reviews written about your company, you will encourage other people to try your business. This is because people trust reviews and they trust their friends – exactly the things that social media excels at!
This is also a great opportunity to show that you care about all your clients. Answer reviews, reply to comments, and show everyone who you are!
3. Local Advertising
Local ads on social media are an effective way of getting local traffic for your business and maintaining an active store. By targeting locals specifically, you can lower your marketing costs since the net you are casting is a lot more specific to the region you work in.
4. Building a Community
Creating a great community on social media has almost the same effect as creating a dedicated fan base in real life! Communicating with customers is easier than it has ever been before and gone are the days when owners and operators are working in the shadows with the public left in the cold.
Many communities are active on the internet and provide a great benefit to the greater public (and the organizer in particular). It pays to get your name out there! Facebook provides some tips and ideas on how to grow your community in groups.
Of course, Facebook is not the only social media you can create a community in. Instagram is also a very popular tool to engage people and create a loyal group of fans.
5. Promoting New Products
One of the easiest reasons to convince anyone to maintain an active social media profile is that you can immediately announce new products. This capability is extremely convenient and easier on the wallet than more traditional means. Instead of paying to get ads hosted in a variety of places, just post a tweet about your new offerings!
Not only that, but you can also show stages of development as you produce a new project – get audience feedback immediately and showcase every step of the development of a new product and you will gain a ton of relevant information.
Don’t forget – audience interaction like this also means that you’ll generate a ton of excitement as you plan! Getting people involved is what social media is all about and it works very much in your favor.
6. Source of User-Generated Content
Getting the help of your customers is a great way to get free advertising for your business. The best way to do this is by engaging with your audience and giving them a glowing representation of your brand!
Having a list of social media accounts that can be tagged by your audience is a fantastic opportunity to get new people interested in what you have to offer. Getting to repost fan-made content is also a great way to get the word out!
7. Connect with Local Influencers
No matter where you live, there is someone with enough fame to get your business recognized. While huge influencers are massively expensive to work with, smaller ones can focus on smaller businesses for a fraction of the cost.
This means you can leverage their audience to create a new source of potential customers ready to come to your store!
8. Sell Direct Through Social Media
While obviously not a sound strategy for huge corporations, small businesses can truly excel when it comes to making sales online. Many jewelers, for instance, love Instagram, because they can show off their creations and immediately get DMs asking about them!
Small businesses can leverage the intimate nature of social media to their advantage and generate business entirely online.
So Which Social Media Platform is Best?
So, you know that social media marketing for local business is worth considering if you want to grow your business. But which platform is the best? This depends entirely on your business. While choosing the right platform for you focus on:
- the services you provide,
- the products you sell,
- the type of clients you have (or want!),
- the style of communication you want to use.
For instance, if you’re a jewelry store, creating a presence on Facebook Marketplace is a good idea. You can also use Instagram for your pictures and Etsy to sell some of your wares.
If you’re a restaurant, having a YouTube channel offering cooking tips might be a fun and clever way to get more interest in your business. Instagram will also be useful – people can post pictures of their meals and tag your restaurant, so you get more recognition online.
And if you’re the type of business that wants to attract a more serious clientele and pass them important information, Twitter, with its character limit, might not be the best way to go about it! In your situation, LinkedIn is a go-to place for your business.
No Local Business Can Neglect Social Media
Social media for local business is a crucial element if you want to grow your presence online! Neglecting it will only hurt you in the long run! Just like how SEO takes time in order to perfect and optimize, so too does your online presence. Not only will it positively impact your SEO, but it will also generate more sales in real life.
If you need help with your online presence, contact us and we will help you make an impact!
