Social Media Tips for Small Businesses

No one wants their business’s social media to flop, especially if you’re a new brand. Learning to make the most of social media for business in this tech era is well worth the time and effort.

In order to give your small business the best chance at growing a large customer base, it's essential you're active across a variety of popular platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube and TikTok.

Luckily, we’ve put together some tips on making running a business social media account more straightforward and productive.

How to do social media marketing for small businesses:

Get the basics down

We’ve spoken before about the importance of creating a strong brand identity. However, it’s also essential to reinforce your brand image through brand continuity. One way to do this is via social media. Before you start looking at a social media strategy, first you need to ask yourself:

• Is your brand name available on all social media platforms?
• Does your display picture represent your company, e.g., a logo?
• Are your profile bios/ descriptions consistent across all platforms and accurately describe your business?
• Have you included your company’s location?
• Have you included relevant contact information?
• Are your social media channels linked to your website and vice versa?

Choose which platforms to promote on

While you don’t need to be present on all social media platforms, it’s beneficial to be on a few to give your customers more ways to engage with your business. “But which platforms should I use?” we hear you say.

Well, you can figure this out in a few ways:

• Survey your current customer demographic
• Read up on consumer psychology
• Communicate with your mailing list
• Research what channels your competitors use

For example, if they prefer to share your products visually, Instagram might be the best option to focus on. Similarly, if they prefer watching tutorials or video content, TikTok could be a great shout.

Create engaging content

Most of your competitors will be active on social media, so standing out from the crowd can be difficult. One way to help differentiate yourself from your rivals is by creating relevant and engaging content. Here are a few ideas:

• Blog posts about the latest industry news, product launches, gift guides
• Giveaways that require followers to enter via your website
• Discount to followers that repost your social media picture or share a brand video
• Sneak preview photos of new products that can be found on your site
• Offer free shipping for loyal followers over on your website

Social media accounts also allow your store to interact with customers via direct message. This can help build a positive reputation and increase brand loyalty.

You can speak to the Interparcel team across all our social media channels if you need assistance with your booking, seven days a week!

Be consistent

Starting a social media account as a business and not updating it can damage your brand’s image and make your business seem inactive. That’s why posting regularly is important so your customers know you are easily accessible. It’s a good idea to look at how often your competitors post for guidance. Busier shopping periods like Christmas will naturally require more engagement to drive sales.

Show your personality

What will your social media voice be? Will you follow the trends on that specific platform? Are you going to be educational? Or do you want to incorporate humour into your posts?

Brand personality is critical in differentiating yourself from competitors, and how customers feel about your product or service. Whatever you decide, ensure it’s suitable for the platform and your audience.

Plan social content in advance

Posting regularly on social media might seem like a long or overwhelming task, but that’s where a content plan comes in. Planning ensures your posting is consistent to encourage regular engagement. Most platforms allow you to schedule content in advance or post at “optimised times” to help boost engagement.

Automating tasks helps to save time and provide reliability, which is vital when running a busy eCommerce store. It might sound cliché, but we understand that time is precious, so we offer many free shipping tools designed to fulfil orders quickly and reduce the risk of manual errors. All you need is an Interparcel Account to get started.

Let us take the stress out of shipping

To give you more time to focus on boosting your social media presence, let us take the stress out of shipping!

Organising your parcel deliveries is easy with Interparcel. With our multi-carrier shipping solution, you can import orders from multiple eCommerce platforms and manage them in a simple dashboard. To make the process even quicker, our helpful features like Rule Manager and Print Manager speed up manual processes, giving you more control over your deliveries.

We’ve helped countless small businesses drive conversions through free shipping. Our low-cost shipping solutions help you to save money on postage and offer discounted shipping on your social platforms.

Plus, we work with big delivery companies to offer discount courier services within the UK and internationally. You can compare and book a low-cost delivery service using our online quote tool in seconds.