If you are a service business owner, entrepreneur, or coach, there’s a good chance your social media marketing strategy is a two-step process that looks like this:
- Post content on social media
- Pray something happens
If that’s you, you can do better. Indeed, you deserve a much better social media marketing strategy than that.
Instead of continuing with the same-old, same-old, let’s look at how you can build a social media audience by crafting an intentional journey and laying the groundwork for meaningful engagement.
I’m going to walk you through a practical approach to marketing on social media that takes you from having just a few followers, through growing that audience, and finally to leveraging social media to sell your products and services.
Let’s start with how social media marketing can help you promote your business.
What are the Benefits of Social Media Marketing?
I think a lot of people see social media marketing as hanging out on Facebook or Instagram all day long, wasting time liking pictures and sharing what they had for breakfast. That may be the case for many individuals, and they may think social media is one big waste of time for a business. But, in fact, social media marketers have shown that using social media right can drive business performance through the roof.
If you are a small business, you definitely want your brand on social media. This particular form of digital marketing makes small business marketing easy and affordable, which means being able to compete with larger, more established players.
Let’s look at some of the benefits of effective social media marketing.
- Humanizing experience. People don’t buy from businesses, they buy from people they know, like, and trust. As your personality comes through your social posts, people learn to trust your brand voice as coming from a real human being.
- Enhance brand visibility and recognition. As you post and comment publicly on a regular basis, people get used to seeing you in their everyday lives. Consistent public appearances and regular connection keep you front of mind, which means your audience thinks about you when they are looking for help.
- Economical ads. I don’t know of a better place for ad spend than Facebook. Not only are they affordable, but you can take advantage of their algorithm and pixel for retargeting more ads.
- Leads and conversions can come from your social activity. Yes, you can use ads to push visitors to landing pages. But, I’m also thinking about those posts that announce your new products and services, or those coupons that you drop into your feed.
- Social listening. Social media is a great tool for keeping your finger on the pulse of your Ideal Client.
- Possibility of going viral. This is what every social strategy hopes for. If you can get just one post to go viral, the attention can be priceless.
What are the Disadvantages of Social Media Marketing
I’m not even going to pretend that getting your business on social media is all roses. It’s not. It’s definitely not.
There are some major downsides. And these are the downsides that often make coaches, service business owners, and entrepreneurs like you wonder whether it’s really worth the effort. Let’s look at a few.
- Social media marketing efforts take time. Sometimes, even a lot of time. At first, it may seem easy because you have a lot to say. Eventually, the tank runs dry and you struggle for inspiration for that next post. Then there’s the time spent on analytics to assess what works best. Reply after reply after reply. The list of time-consuming activities goes on.
- Regular updates can throw a wrench into everything. Talk about taking time. After you’ve spent all that time figuring out how things work, you have to start all over if the most recent update is a major one. You may literally have to relearn how to best use the platform.
- You don’t own your audience. Social media companies can change the way they operate at any given time and there’s nothing you can do about it. They may effectively cut your exposure in half, and the best you can do is try to adapt. (Compare that to an email list that you control.)
Don’t let that list of disadvantages scare you too much, though. I just want you to be aware of common issues before you jump right in (if you aren’t in already). I still consider social media marketing campaigns to be a vital part of growing a business.
So, let’s put those downsides behind us for a while and focus on the benefits as we begin to look at how you can use social media to your advantage.
Before we begin even looking at how to leverage your presence on social media, however, we need to lay the right foundation, which is…
Demystify your tribe
Having a conversation requires at least two different people: you and the person you’re talking to. If you’re not talking with someone else, it’s not a real conversation.
Notice how conversations change based on who your conversation partner is. I want you to think of a topic that is both important and personal to you. Now, imagine how the content of that conversation would change if your conversation partner were…?
- Your boss
- Your employee
- Your significant other
- A complete stranger at the store
There’s no way to determine the actual content of the conversation outside the context of the other person. If you don’t know who you’re talking to, you don’t know what to say to connect with them. Instead, it’s going to be a lot more like singing in the shower. While that might be fun, it’s not going to land you any singing gigs.
This means you need to…
Get clear on your ideal audience.
Step into their shoes and figure out what makes them tick. What motivates them? What attracts them? What repels them? Look at demographics, such as age, gender, finances, and location.
Now, since we are talking about social media today, make sure to find out what platforms they are on. If those platforms use hashtags, learn which ones relate to your audience. This will help the algorithms place your content where it can have the most impact.
Determine how you will use your social media
A couple of years ago I came across a marketer who said there was no good reason for anyone to follow him on Facebook. He never posted anything on his business page, other than the introductory post. The only reason he has a Facebook page in the first place is to create ads and leverage the Facebook algorithm. When people clicked on ads, they went to his landing pages. No need to ever use the Facebook business page itself.
Sometime later, I came across another marketer who was all in with Twitter/X. He posted multiple times per day and spent a lot of time replying and having conversations on other people’s tweets. He built up a huge following, and whenever he posted something for sale, even low-ticket items, he made bank.
The point is that there is no “one right way” to use social media. Overall, however, I think you have a couple of main choices, which come down to…
- Spend money
- Spend time
If you have the budget, there’s nothing wrong with buying ads to promote your content rather than relying on your established audience.
If you don’t have the budget, you probably have to opt for spending time. That means your social media strategy will be radically different than if you were to rely on ads.
Thankfully, this isn’t an either-or situation. You can do both. But, the question I want you to look at is, “What kind of money and time do you have in your budget?” That may determine how you approach your social media marketing.
Pick Your Social Media Marketing Platforms
Should you be on one or many social networks?
Well, that depends.
If you are new, you might want to focus on just one to start. Don’t overwhelm yourself as you are learning the ropes. Over time, however, I recommend branching out to an omnichannel approach.
When it comes to choosing which social media platforms you will be on, go back to your Ideal Client research. You want to be on the social media platforms your audience is on. There’s nothing wrong with being on a platform for personal reasons if it brings you joy. But, from a business perspective, you want to be practical while allocating precious resources. Choose the spaces for your social media presence according to audience preferences. Leverage what has proven to work best.
The top social platforms right now include:
- YouTube
- TikTok
- Threads
Yes, I added Threads. Why? It’s new. While it isn’t the most popular social network right now, it has the backing of Meta and is rising quickly. If you want to get your foot in the door early and get established, now’s the time. If you aren’t familiar with Threads yet, it’s similar to Twitter. The type of content there is primarily micro-blogging.
Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy
I’m a huge fan of intentionality in your marketing. That means I’m not a huge fan of posting social media willy-nilly when you feel like it or just happen to have the time.
Be intentional and don’t skip over creating your social media marketing strategy. Use a content calendar. Plan out in advance as much as you feel comfortable with. That may be a single week, a month, or even a quarter. The more you plan ahead, the better you will be able to align everything toward common marketing goals.
Make sure your social media marketing plan is an extension of your content strategy. Overall, I recommend creating long-form content that you can repurpose across your social media networks. Driving traffic to your content needs to a primary social media goal.
Build your social media audience, then share social content with them
A major key to successful social media campaigns is recognizing the extent to which they are all about brand awareness through consistent exposure.
(Of course, if you’re using social media just for their ads, you don’t need to worry about this. But since this is an article about social media marketing, I assume you want to build an audience.)
You have two main ways to engage on social media.
- Engage other people in conversations
- Broadcast your content
If you are starting your social media push, I recommend you focus on conversations more than broadcasting. In the beginning, people won’t know who you are, so they won’t be interested in following your account. Broadcasting on your page will be met with crickets.
This brings us to the conundrum everyone faces when they begin…
If people aren’t engaging with your content, how are you supposed to have conversations with them?
Easy. Join conversations on someone else’s feed. Follow others in your niche and join related groups. Reply to threads to get your name out there so you can become known.
When I say “reply”, by the way, I’m not talking about posts that say, “Nice article” in response to their most recent blog post. Rather, say something unique that adds value. Without criticizing, add to what has been said. Have productive conversations through social media so all viewers can see what you have to offer and benefit from it. This may cause people in that audience to check out your account to find out who you are and maybe even follow you.
Interacting with others like this is a great way to start building your audience. Until you’ve done that, anything you post on your business page won’t even fall on deaf ears because there won’t even be any ears for it to fall upon in the first place.
So, first thing is: Build that audience.
This is not to say that you should neglect posting on your social media account. Emphasize interactions over broadcasting in the beginning. Once you have enough people following you (let’s say around 200 or more) then you can start shifting gears a little bit toward content generation. After all, the number of people following you may affect the algorithm determining what kind of people should see your content.
So, in the beginning, post somewhat regularly, but focus on cultivating an audience first. Once you reach a point where you have a large enough audience that it becomes self-generating, then you can back away from interacting elsewhere and spend your time interacting on your own threads. At that point, you may find it beneficial to post up to 2–3 times a day on your accounts, depending on which platform you are using (excluding long-form content, of course).
Social media marketing platforms for businesses
The most efficient way to share across multiple social media channels is to use a social media management platform, such as Buffer or Hootsuite. These platforms enable you to schedule future postings across all your social media at once.
Right now, if you want to schedule posts for Threads, the only option you have to automate posting is Publer. Using Publer isn’t a smooth process. When your post is released, you have to approve it with your phone. It’s inconvenient, but right now the only game in town.
If you have evergreen material that you want to continually push to your social media accounts you might consider platforms like Meet Edgar or RecurPost. These management systems add a continuous cue. Once you get to the end of the queue, it starts over, so you never have to spend any more time or energy on it. The number of posts you can have in your queue typically depends on the platform and subscription level.
What to post on your social media page
What you post will depend on what members of the social media platform expect. Pinterest, for example, is highly visual. So is Instagram. Twitter and Threads, however, are microblogging platforms, so more text-based.
That said, here are some general recommendations to select from for your social media platform of choice.
Memes. I’m starting here because the internet was made for cats. Cat memes rock. Memes, in general, can be a great way to have fun on your page. Or, the right memes can be a great way to support your message.
Links to your newly released content. This is an important one. Once you have created your content, you want to distribute it to your audience. Don’t be bashful about sharing your creations regularly. Just because you shared your new blog article on Monday doesn’t mean you shouldn’t also share it on Wednesday. Remember, it’s social media and it won’t be pushed out to everyone the first time around.
Polls. If people just have to click a button, they are more likely to respond. Polls have the added benefit of teasing viewers with the option of finding out what everybody else voted for. So, if you want to see what’s behind the curtain, you have to interact.
Questions. Asking questions is a great way to start a conversation. The trick is asking questions that are meaningful to your audience. Keep in mind that they are less likely to answer the question if it is their first time or if they have to think about it.
Specials and sales. Is it Black Friday yet? People love a good sale. If you have someone on the fence about whether or not they should buy from you, that additional 10% off could tip them over the edge.
Share relevant content from elsewhere. If you’ve recently read a blog article or came across a podcast that you think your audience will like, post it. It situates you in the context of your wider niche and increases your authority as a curator.
Personal stories. Have you ever seen those somewhat random posts on social media where a business posts, “Today I go to the dentist! Believe me when I say, I’d much rather be doing my taxes.”
They’re telling a personal story that lets you into their life. Their hope is probably to get you to say, “I feel your pain.” or “Is your appointment at tooth hurty?” Stories are a great way to humanize your brand, and it’s one of the ways leaders connect and build influence.
Celebrate wins. Do you have clients who have excelled because of your help? Make sure to tell those stories on your social media. It has a two-fold effect.
First, the client feels awesome because you are showing them off to your audience. This could even lead to them getting more work in addition to the status boost.
Second, it’s social proof. If you can help this person, what’s stopping others from thinking that you can help them?
Sprinkle in some controversy. People find the experience of novelty rewarding. Show that you are not like everybody else. Say things that go against the grain. Offer insights unavailable anywhere else that challenge the status quo. If audience members want more of that, they need to tune in regularly.
Selling on social media
Before people are willing to spend money on you, they have to trust you and be hungry for what you offer. That means laying the foundation for the sale first. And that’s what you’re doing with all of your social media posts.
Imagine that you have an amazing offer. However, you only have 50 followers. How well do you think your offer is going to sell? Probably not very well.
Before you start selling, work on building your audience. Work on generating interest from your audience. Look at the way your audience responds to you around certain topics to help you know what kinds of products will sell best when you present them.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying don’t try to sell anything to your audience at all while it is small. I’m simply saying don’t have high expectations.
That said, social media is a great place to announce certain kinds of offers.
- Early bird specials can give discounts to those people who know they want in and need that extra incentive to buy now.
- Limited-time coupon codes or discounts can appeal to those who are interested, but not sure if they want to spend the money. These limited discounts can tip them over the edge.
- Free lead magnets are fantastic. Often, your social media audience will like you, but they need to know that you can help them before they buy. A free lead magnet gives them a quick win without any risk. Plus, it gets them on your email list.
- Free strategy sessions are an easy way for you to give personal feedback and advice and start a discussion about how you might be able to help them with your services. (If you didn’t know this already, Heather will offer you a free clarity call right now to give you insights on how you can move from stuck to unstuck and start barreling forward.)
- New offers or programs need to get out there. Share your excitement with your audience. You worked hard on this, and you’ve tailored it specifically to their needs. Tell them about your new product or service and invite them to the landing page that details how it works.
Measure performance
At the end of the day, using social media is a matter of pragmatism. If you enjoy the use of social media platforms, that’s wonderful. But, the real reason to engage people on social media is you want them to become leads and conversions through social interactions. You are using social media platforms to promote your business, and that always needs to be your focus.
How well that is working isn’t measured by feel, but by data. Keep an eye on the analytics within each social platform to make sure your marketing endeavors are on task.
Social media metrics that matter (depending on the platform) include:
- Reach: This tells you how many people saw it. It’s mainly helpful to establish context for other metrics.
- Views: People who actively viewed the content. This is more applicable to videos.
- Likes: Positive responses to a post. When people interact with a post in this way, they signal to the algorithm that it should show them more from this creator.
- Shares: If you get a share, that’s great. Now people are pushing your content in front of their audiences.
- Watch time: Again, video related. This will give you an idea of how much of your videos people are watching before they leave.
- Clicks: Very handy for measuring ads. If they clicked through, the ad worked well enough to get them to jump to your landing page. This is probably the best one to keep an eye on.
Which social media analytics you should measure depends on the kind of post you make and your goal for the post. Let the data tell you what is working and what isn’t. Focus more on what works, and let go of what doesn’t.
Conclusion
I realize that social media marketing requires a lot of work. But the power of social media to build connections more than makes up for it. Of course, if you want to rely on paid social media advertising to promote your business, most of what I’ve said becomes irrelevant. But, if you use what you’ve learned here to build a significant audience on multiple social media platforms (even in a competitive niche), you will establish a strong brand in the online marketplace.
Of course, social media is only part of the equation when it comes to marketing. Yes, an important part, but only one part nonetheless.
If you want to learn how to market your business in a very personalized way, I encourage you to sign up for the Automagic Business Academy.
This program is designed for coaches, entrepreneurs, and service business owners who want to grow and scale their businesses in the most efficient and effective way possible.
Let’s face it, if you are in that category, you probably live your life feeling overwhelmed, scattered, and like you aren’t fulfilling your potential. Your ideal vision of success constantly seems just out of reach. You can see it on the other side of the chasm, but can’t figure out how to get there.
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The question isn’t whether the program is good enough. It is.
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What Should You Read Next?
Bo is the community manager for Wise Owl Marketing. He also helps with email marketing and content creation. Outside of Wise Owl, Bo owns his own dog-training business. When it’s time to relax, he prefers to simply spend time with his two dogs, Loki and Lugh, aka the “#McBuppies.”
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