Social Media Marketing for Entrepreneurs

With more than 4-billion active users at any given time on social platforms like Facebook and Instagram to LinkedIn and Twitter, Social Media Marketing is the leading way to establish your brand's presence in today's market.

Learning to leverage social media to efficiently market your business, product, or service offers tremendous opportunities for you to give unique value to your target audience, expand your brand's awareness, and maximize conversions.

While we're on the subject, Social Media Automation is in high demand for one reason: convenience. Social Media Automation is like putting your posts on autopilot. With social posts for your business automated, you're free to focus on other priorities while simultaneously and effortlessly building a solid online presence for your brand.

Offer Unique Value

At the onset of my entrepreneurial journey, a wise man told me, "everybody has an audience." At the time, this statement made very little sense to me but as my business grew, it became clear that he was on to something.

What he meant is although your brand, product, or service isn't for everybody, each one of us has a market—a select group of potential prospects—who would benefit from the value we offer and who want to do business with us if they were only aware of our brand and the benefits they receive from the service or product we offer them.

Experts agree that if your business offers unique value other businesses in your niche or industry fail to offer, you successfully position yourself to attract ideal prospects who are eager to take positive action with your brand. With so many people active online, it's impossible for your business to fail if you know your target audience, are keen on what their pain points are, and are an expert at offering valuable solutions.

Note that value doesn't always have a monetary equivalent. When considering the value—not the cost—your brand, product, or service offers your target market, it's important to highlight those values for them to see. Develop a clear picture of who your targe audience is (ex. what is their age, gender, social status, income level, etc.), if you haven't already, and identify 3 key benefits your ideal customer/client stands to gain by doing business with you.

You accomplish this by uncovering common problems your target audience experiences and pinpointing specific ways your brand, product, or service offers solutions. Be very specific about the solutions, do not harp on the problem. Think in terms of your target audience by considering what you would expect your brand, product, or service to resolve for you if you were your own customer.

It's important to think in terms of your prospect—not yourself—when broaching this subject. Identify & list 3 key benefits your brand offers your target audience that brings them a sense of ease or satisfaction. For example, what does your ideal customer stand to gain by doing business with you? What is your target customer's cost-to-benefit ratio? What makes this a win-win for you and your prospect?

If content creation or writing is not in your wheelhouse, hiring an expert will make all the difference in the world since the skills, expertise, and knowledge of the writer are all put to use for the success of your brand.

Though it can be pricey depending on the level of expertise you require (and the results you're expecting) the ideal writer will have a strong foothold in the field or industry of your interest, advanced marketing strategies, as well as the ability to evoke "emotional motivators" from your prospect so they take positive action with your brand.

Expand Brand Awareness

Expanding brand awareness ranks as one of the leading objectives for businesses around the world. The truth is, if no one knows what your brand is or how it benefits them, why would they do business with you over your competitor?

One tip I always share with my clients is, "if you want to be seen by the right audience, you must put yourself where they can see you," and the same is true for your personal social posts as well as your business. Broadening awareness about your brand has several direct benefits for you as an entrepreneur.

Reaching a wider audience is the obvious top answer here. A wider audience means more eyes looking at your brand & content. The Rule of 7s in Marketing states "most customers must see your message at least 7 times before feeling comfortable taking action".

This is the foremost reason for marketing efforts: to get your content in front of your target audience at least 7 times or more, thereby effectively increasing the propensity for those individuals to take positive action with your brand. Social Media Automation is an excellent set-it-and-forget-it way to accomplish this.

Hashtags are another huge way to position your brand where the largest number of consumers will see & engage with you through likes, shares, and comments. Using trending hashtags rather than leveraging the power of relevant hashtags is a mistake many of my clients make.

People only want to see the content that is relevant to them and their interests or needs. For example, if you sell press-on nails, it's senseless to use #MadeWithKAContest tags—which are specific to a trending Kitchen Aid (home appliance) contest—just because it's trending right now rather than using popular tags for your market or industry such as: #custompressonnails #pressonsforsale #nailsonfleek #nailsofinstagram.

Relevant hashtags will guarantee your content only appears in front of the audience who is looking for what you offer. And while it's possible to convert consumers who weren't looking for your brand into customers through trending hashtags, bear in mind that trends change.. often, which makes them nearly impossible to keep track of.

It's wiser on your part—and easier for buyers who are looking for what you offer—to locate your content quickly when your hashtags are relevant and consistent. Consistent, in this instance, meaning choose 5-7 of your 20 hashtags that are unchangeable (don't change them for every post).

These can include your business name, your core values, or your business tagline. For example, mine are: #megtheetiger #braceforimpact #ibraceforimpact #alignment #ambition #actualization. These tags remaining unchanged guarantees when anyone searches those hashtags, all things related to my brand are at the top, giving me the edge in my industry.

Using the same example from above, the remaining 15 tags should revolve around the relevancy of the content you're posting (e.g. #rednails, #holidaynails, #summerreadynails). Consistently automating your social posts and including SEO-Rich captions are the quickest way to work in harmony with the algorithms and see measurable growth on social media. An automation expert is the best person to accomplish this for you in the easiest and most profitable way.

Think about it, do you have the time to post 30 times a day on social media (roughly every two hours), accomplish other business-related tasks, live your personal life, care for your family, and work your day job? Chances are, like most business owners and entrepreneurs, you just don't. And like other business owners and entrepreneurs, adding an automation expert with industry-specific marketing skills to your team is the best decision to make in this capacity, hands down.

This strategic approach guarantees your brand appears at the top of the results for your tags when they're searched. The more consistently you include them, the more concrete your presence in that niche will be and the more cooperatively the algorithm will work with you to show your content to more & more people.

Growing metrics is another popular reason many entrepreneurs rely on Social Media Marketing. Metrics are the "data points that show how well your social media strategy is performing." Examples would include engagement, impressions, and shares.

The higher these numbers are, the better your content is doing. If they're trending downward or have plateaued, it's time to reconsider your strategy and implement one that's more efficient or create new content.

If you, your content writer, or marketing expert are not monitoring your metrics or if you have no idea what I'm talking about, then it makes sense that your content isn't seeing massive growth. To remedy this, it helps to hire a professional who will not only set continuous targets for your metrics but dedicate time to monitoring those metrics regularly and determining where to adjust for improved performance.

An additional tip would be to celebrate your wins. When you meet a metric or performance goal, celebrate with something small. A common way entrepreneurs celebrate their wins is by posting it on their social platforms. One thing for certain, two things for sure, positive results—if nothing else—will always sell.

For example, if I post a picture showing my bank account at a negative balance and 30 days later I post a picture of nine-figures in that same account, you'll be eager to know what I did as a determining factor on if you, too, can do it & achieve the same results. You would instantly be sold on the results. So, share your results, no matter how small; and as they grow.. so will your audience and, by extension, your income.

Show me an entrepreneur who doesn't want to increase their client base and I'll show you a liar. Business owners and entrepreneurs are almost totally reliant on customer acquisition and sales to maintain the profitability of their business. The larger your pool of consumers, the better your odds of offering value in exchange for its monetary equivalent from those consumers.

Satisfied customers are an excellent way to maximize your reach in the market. A client who has had an enjoyable experience with you, on your website, or through use of your product or service, is a client who will pass the word along (for free) to their friends, family, and even their social media following (which can stretch into the tens of thousands or millions for some).

In like manner, a client who is dissatisfied and is able to express this publicly offers your business an opportunity to make things right (as much as possible) to satisfy that client. And this has some huge upsides when done well. Companies like Disney, Nieman Marcus, and Publix prove that a top-tier customer service experience creates a loyal consumer base.

Offering an option for your customers or clients to leave feedback about their experience is an ideal strategy to leverage in expanding your client base. Without this, you cannot build credibility for your brand online and will miss out on the 79% of shoppers who rely on reviews before making a decision to purchase.

Offering a Feedback or "how did we do?" option through a form on your website, your Google Business page, a link included with your customer's invoice, or through your own social post by tagging your customer and thanking them for their business will position your brand for greater levels of success in the social media space.

Maximize Conversions

Conversions refers to the tipping point where a visitor to your site or shop converts to a customer. In other words, they see the value in what you offer and choose to conduct business with you. Maximizing conversions is at the tippy top of every business's checklist, and for good reason.

If 100 people visit your website but none of them choose to do business with you, that is an example of a poor or unfavorable conversion rate. However, if 100 people visit your site and 10% of those visitors choose to do business with you, that's a pretty decent conversion rate and, depending on the cost of your products or services, could prove to be a very good day for your business.

The leading way businesses have, for decades, successfully converted visitors to customers is through their targeted advertisements, well-written web content, and (more recently) relevant social posts—with mentions [@] and hashtags [#]—and feedback forms, among other things.

Tracking and monitoring your metrics and KPIs is the most efficient way to remain focused on achieving your professional goals. Details like taking note of how the psychological effect the colors for your brand are influencing your prospects as well as conducting analysis of your target audience's peak online times to be sure your posts are going up at these specific times are two other major ways to see growth on social media.

Any components of your strategy which are underperforming can be eliminated or replaced with something more efficient. And if any of this is over your head or outside of your scope of expertise, hiring an expert will give your brand the best chances for massive success on social media.

Social Media Marketing, when done skillfully, will instantly highlight your brand's unique value, improve your brand awareness, and maximize conversions all in the name of offering value to your target market in exchange for a monetary equivalent.

We believe a win-win situation is the only way to conduct good business and hiring a professional Social Media Marketing expert to handle the growth of your social presence is your best bet for achieving massive success in our digital world.