Marketing Mythbusters: Social Media is FREE advertising

by Ren Slavin January 01, 2024

Welcome back to the Marketing 101 blog, we hope you had a great Christmas!

The nature of marketing brings many different opinions and misinformation. And unless you have the background knowledge, you won’t know any different. This is why we’re here – to help you understand everything there is to know about marketing so that you can make informed decisions about your marketing strategy.

There is no dispute that being on social media increases awareness of your brand. Unfortunately, it’s not an overnight miracle.

Social media is a fantastic way of connecting with customers and audiences, collecting new leads and generating brand interest and loyalty. But you have to attract an audience to begin with. Then you have to create compelling content that resonates with that audience and maintain a relationship with them through engagement. Sounds exhausting, right?

How do I get followers?

Different social media platforms serve different purposes. Instagram is about showcasing your products and services. Facebook is about building a community around your business. LinkedIn is about networking with like-minded professionals.

What we’re trying to say is that you don’t need to be on every social platform to succeed, but you do need to be on one to start getting your business out there. Figuring out your audience is the first step.

Here are some blogs we’ve created before that may be of help:

Marketing Mythbusters: You DON’T Need to be on Every Social Media Platform

Big Steps: Choosing the Right Social Media Platform to Market Your Small Business

So you’ve found the right platform for your business, but now what? Start focusing on following brands similar to yours, or checking out the profiles of people who follow these brands. Send ‘follow’ invites to friends and family, and ask them to share your social page around. Link it to your website or put a sign up in your physical store.

What do I post?

For social media to work for you, you’ll have to create content that is authentic, on-brand and engaging.

Think about how you want your products or services to be presented. How are you going to bring your branding into your content so that users start recognising your content?

You’ll then need to decide how you’re going to create this content. Will you get a professional photographer to take some photos of your products or you and your team working? Will you focus on creating text posts and graphics?

Once your beautiful content is complete, you then have to ensure you’re posting regularly, at least two times a week, to make sure that the social media platform you’re using continues to push your content to your followers (and potential new ones). This involves creating catchy captions, researching relevant hashtags and even exploring trends to keep your content up to date.

After this, you have to engage with your audience, replying to comments, liking posts and following some people back.

All of this takes dedication, and it’s something you have to commit to.

And no, organic social media (content created and uploaded by a user that isn’t boosted/turned into an ad) does not guarantee sales or new customers.

So why is it important if it won’t guarantee sales?

Because you’re not only giving your brand a voice, but you’re building a sense of community and brand loyalty, something that will help position your business in the best way to start gaining more traction.

You can find out the things people are saying about your business, the things that are working well and the things customers aren’t getting on with.

Seems like hard work.

It is.

Look at this from a different perspective. You’ve found two sustainable clothing brands online and are looking to make a purchase. You see that brand A has a social media profile, but hasn’t posted since 2020. Their website is up-to-date, but they aren’t posting anywhere outside of this. Brand B posts regular content a few times a week, including images of their new stock, discount codes and even video content to show off their products. Do you see where we’re going here? We know who we’d most likely make a purchaser from.

The hard work is worth it.

But I don’t have the time.

Time is a valuable tool, and sometimes all of the above just seems too much on top of a heavy workload.

There are tools out there that let you schedule content beforehand, which means you can set yourself aside a day or two a month to plan out what you want to post on social media.

Or, you could hire a social media manager. This person will create the content for you, generate captions that will connect with your audience, research the best hashtags and trends for your business AND monitor your engagement – how amazing is that?

That’s what we do by the way.

BUT if you’re not quite ready to bring on an agency like us, we have created a 30-day content planner to help small businesses boost their social media. It’s completely FREE to download, just click here now for your complimentary copy.

If you want to find out more about setting up a social media plan for your business, get in touch with us by just clicking here.