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In the small business world, you are always looking for cost effective ways to increase sales, connect with your customers, and maintain the reputation for the company you’ve worked so hard to build.

Social media can be a powerful marketing alternative for small businesses – if used properly. The challenge is understanding how to leverage social media to grow your business.

The following six tips will help you make the most of your business’ social media marketing efforts.

1. Choose your sites wisely

Although there are hundreds of social networking sites available, you don’t need to use them all. When using social media for business, you must choose the ones that will best showcase your product or service, and are followed by your target audience.

For example, if you run a small company selling handcrafted jewellery, focus on social media that emphasize visuals, such as Instagram and Pinterest. Pinterest would also be great because your main customers are likely women, and it is a platform dominated by female users.

2. Be professional

Keep your personal and business social media separate. It’s okay to promote your business via your private accounts, but avoid uploading personal pictures, discussing your political views, and sharing what you ate for breakfast on your business profile.

Also, think about the language you use. While you don’t have to sound overly formal, steer clear of text shortcuts like, “We r having a sale! Come by 2day.” Proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation increase your credibility.

3. Post valuable content…

This applies to the images, videos, quotes, articles, blog posts, and anything else you create or share. Aside from being high quality, they must also be relevant to your business and target audience. While most people love kittens and puppies, videos of them won’t help grow your business (unless you’re a veterinarian or a groomer!).

4. … and frequently!

People are drawn to fresh content. If you haven’t posted in 36 weeks your customers will lose interest, or worse, they could think you went out of business. We’re not saying you have to post daily at 3:00 p.m. sharp, but decide how many times a month you plan to post and stick to it. Doing so will increase brand awareness.

5. Respond to customers

The ability to engage directly with your customers is a major advantage of using social media for customer service. When people comment on your page – be it a praise, criticism or question – make it a priority to reply quickly.

6. Analyze your efforts

To plan for future posts, identify what resonates with your followers. Most social media platforms have analytic tools, which are great for measuring social media efforts. These tools allow you to gauge audience trends and the times they are most responsive. They can also provide valuable geolocation and demographic data.

If you just want to learn about general trends, this sheet outlines the best times to post on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram.

Do you know people who could benefit from these social media tips for business? Click below to share this blog post with them!

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