When it comes to running a small business, you undoubtedly have a lot on your plate. There are so many ways to promote your business online and through mobile apps that sometimes it’s hard to tell which platforms are worth your time.
As you’re trying to find a place for your business online, here are some things to think about that will help you find a strong following and keep building your influence. Study these three steps that will help grow your business online.
1. Interact with your customers
There are always ways to improve your online habits. You want to build up a good reputation for your business, and one way you can do that is by producing interesting and shareable content and actually having a conversation with your followers.
Often, just being visible on social networking sites isn’t going to make a difference. You have to interact with your followers, respond to comments, and encourage people to give their opinion. Online, potential and actual customers have even come to expect businesses to respond to them, and become upset if they feel ignored.
2. Try a new social networking site
Everyone’s on Facebook and Twitter, but those are by no means the only social networks out there. They’re great sites if you’re trying to reach a broad audience, and you should be on them simply because your customers are going to expect you to be.
However, it’s easy to feel like you’re just a drop in the ocean on those huge social media platforms. You might find a better following on one of the smaller social networking sites.
For example, you might find that your business gets a better response on Tumblr, Instagram, Pinterest, Youtube, or Vine. You never know what’s going to grab people’s attention, and the more you can experiment with new media and new platforms, the greater the chances that something’s going to stick.
You might just find that you or one of your employees has a talent and a passion for creating a specific type of content that’s successful in getting attention. Just remember to have all your social media profiles connect back to your business’s main website so prospective new customers can easily find all the information they seek.
3. Track your growth
It’s totally normal to feel like you’ve hit a plateau on social networking sites. You might see a lot of growth at first, as your business finds its niche online; but your activity and growth may also level out after awhile. There are a lot of ways you can reignite that buzz around your business, but first you have to know what was working and what isn’t worth your time.
There are lots of analytic tools at your disposal that are totally free and super helpful. To track the effects of your company’s Facebook page, check your page insights to see which tweets got the most attention.
Use a service like Klout, and other analytic tools to track things like Youtube views and click-throughs on your newsletters and emails. With all this information at your disposal, you can determine your main demographic, what type of media gets the best response, and what time of day is best to share content to specific websites.
If you can adjust your content to try to recreate some of your most popular posts, you’re sure to see a more positive response and watch your following grow.
