Do you have a knack for social media and feel like you could help businesses with their marketing? Starting your own business in Social Media is not as difficult as it might seem.
The first step you’ll want to take is to make sure the platform you’re looking at has a consistent customer base. This will help give your business longevity and, more importantly, ensure that there’s enough work for you on the site. It would help if you also spent some time researching current hot trends in social media marketing so that you can have the edge over other businesses whose staff are less educated about today’s digital landscape.
After you have a solid business plan, it’s time to start marketing your new company. One of the best ways to do this is by going on social media sites such as LinkedIn and creating an account that promotes your own personal brand and advertises recently completed Social Media campaigns. You can even post some of these projects in progress for feedback from prospective clients before they are finalized.
The perfect place to advertise your services is LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram or Quora because those platforms will allow you access to thousands-sometimes millions-of potential customers who are all interested in either running their own Social Media campaign or hiring someone else with expertise. Simply reach out through one of these channels and ask if anyone would be willing to pay to have their campaign created.
What do you wish you knew when you were starting out a Business in Social Media?
Here are great ideas to help you start your business on social media:
- Create original content and optimize it for search engines
- Build relationships with influencers in your industry
- Partner up on projects or event sponsorships
- Create a blog, publish content on it regularly, and post links back to your website or landing pages for increased visibility and SEO rankings. Or use other blogging platforms like Tumblr, Medium, etc.
- Promote events and engage with attendees through targeted Facebook ads or Twitter chat
- Create a podcast and publish content on it regularly, post links back to your website or landing pages for increased visibility and SEO rankings. Or use other blogging platforms like Soundcloud, Youtube etc.
- Develop packages and offer services at an affordable price point
- Start by offering social media management if you are new to the industry and build up your clientele and knowledge of the business. That way, when it comes time to start a full-service agency or branching out into other forms of marketing, you have some experience under your belt.
- Keep in mind that social media is a long-term commitment. The results won’t just happen overnight, so have patience when it comes to your return on investment.
- Offer “social media consultancy” services for small businesses or people who are not sure how they want to utilize social networking but have a strong desire to do so.
- Social media is not just about Facebook and Twitter anymore; make sure you are on Instagram, Pinterest, etc. Some of the most successful social agencies have diversified their marketing efforts by offering this type of service for clients who don’t want to be pigeonholed into one form.
What are some common mistakes we encounter in Social Media Business?
Lack of a defined business plan. Have this ready when trying to raise any funding to start and grow your social media company. A detailed roadmap is essential for building momentum with investors, partners, employees, etcetera.
You are not taking enough time out of each day for marketing (sales) activities. Most of our team’s effort should be dedicated to sales and marketing – not just development or design work. Therefore, we have two leads on that side instead of one – they share responsibility 50/50 between them, so there can always be someone available working on outreach and “getting new customers through the door.” If you’re only focused on developing products or designing interfaces without paying attention to marketing, you won’t grow very fast.
You do not understand your target market and who is interested in the product or service that you offer. I recommend doing an extensive analysis of potential customers to get a sense of their needs before designing anything at all – including business models, marketing strategies, etcetera.
Having too many targets when trying to acquire new customers leads to confusion about which customer groups to target with specific products and services. Draining resources by targeting too many different areas without seeing any results from one particular group first (this can lead to quickly running out of money). While it’s important not to focus on only one type of customer because everyone has something unique they’re looking for, try to focus on one group or another and then move to the next.
Customer acquisition costs should be assessed before any other work is done; this way, you can get a sense of how much money you will need to gain new customers so that all efforts are focused on acquiring them at an affordable price. I recommend looking into advertising options like Google AdWords (and others) because they’re usually not too expensive with good results for social media marketing campaigns. However, don’t spend your entire budget there if it’s going to leave nothing left over for customer retention strategies later!
If you want strong customer relationships, pay attention to interactions between company personnel and their clients/customers. Interactions must go both ways, with both parties benefiting from the interaction.
Keep your customer list updated as well, so you can stay in touch with them and provide timely information about any of their concerns or issues while they’re still interested in what you offer!
What are some steps to set up your business in social media correctly?
Naming your company: People like to see the name of a business when they are scrolling through their feed. Make sure that you come up with a creative and catchy title for your page to be memorable.
Location/time zone: Some people may not want to shop from an online store if they find out that the person running it lives on the other side of the world or in another time zone than theirs. Keep this in mind while setting up your account location, and make sure that you have set up different shopping hours for viewers who may be located outside of those time zones.
Pricing structure: If someone does buy something from one of our pages, then we need them to feel confident in the purchase. Make sure to have clear and transparent pricing information either on your social media page or through a linked website that will show them prices, offers or coupons they are eligible for, etc.
Product descriptions: You want someone to buy something from you, so ensure that all of the details are laid out clearly before they do! A good way to ensure this is by making it easy for people who visit our site/social media account to find what we offer simply by reading product description text. This includes pictures, titles (make these catchy!), descriptions about sizing and shipping costs if there’s anything special about those like rush processing options, etc., as well as links where applicable which will help visitors quickly get any questions answered without having to search for it.
Promotion: Promoting your site or social media account is a key part of any business, but you can’t just post all the time about how great your company/product is! You have to mix in some posts where you’re giving promotions and giveaways, offer discounts on certain items, provide informative answers that don’t sound like marketing pitches. It’s important to stay active and engaged with those who visit our accounts regularly as this will make them feel more loyal.
The customer first: It doesn’t matter what type of product we sell if people aren’t happy, they won’t buy from us again. That being said, be sure to listen carefully when customers reach out with issues regarding their purchase or about the company in general and don’t wait to address their needs.
Know your audience: It’s crucial that we understand who our target customer is before using social media as a marketing tool. If you’re trying to reach young adults, it makes sense that Instagram would be best. If people over 50 are what you want, then Facebook might work better for you. Knowing this will allow us to create content that caters specifically to those audiences–something they will enjoy reading instead of something generic which doesn’t fit them at all!
Inspiring others: Social Media can be used not just for promotion but also inspiration from other brands like ours. This opens new opportunities where we can engage with them on Twitter by following each other.
How do you reach out to potential clients on social media?
Be aware of what’s going on in the news and relevant topics around your industry.
Share posts from other sources (that you have permission to share) and add commentary, insights or reactions to these posts. By providing perspective and information not available elsewhere, you offer value that can generate engagement with followers who may want more conversation about a specific topic.
