Social Media for Small Businesses: How to Use Free Platforms to Attract Customers

Social media can be a versatile, powerful and valuable marketing tool for small businesses. 

While a Diploma in Data Analytics or a similar degree can help you become an expert in forecasting trends and creating content accordingly, you don't need to be an expert in social media to be able to use it to your advantage.

Keen to learn more about using social media to attract more customers to your small business? This article aims to give small business owners a basic guide to leveraging social media as a free marketing tool.

The Power of Social Media for Small Business

Some of the many benefits of using social media for small business marketing are:

It raises awareness of your brand

Eager to raise awareness of your brand? Social media marketing can help with this. 

By building an online presence via social platforms, you can get your business name out into the virtual marketplace. The truth? If people haven’t heard of your brand, they are less likely to buy from you.

It helps you connect with your customers

When you connect with your customers via social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X (formerly known as Twitter), you can receive feedback about your product directly from the horse’s mouth.

Direct access to feedback from customers also enables business owners to more effectively manage feedback by responding to customers in real-time.

It enables you to identify industry trends

What’s trending in cyberspace? Being connected to socials as a small business owner helps you keep your finger on the pulse of what’s going ‘viral’. 

Even better? You can tap into these trends to market your products to your target audience.

It’s relatively user-friendly and mostly free to use

Virtually anyone can teach themselves to use social media - as long as they are even just a little technology literate.

Platforms like Instagram, TikTok, X and Facebook are relatively easy to sign up for - all you really need is an email account. For the most part, utilising these platforms is also free of charge - making them a valuable tool for small businesses looking to maximise their marketing ROI.

^{This may interest you: Infographic: 10 Ways To Maximise Social Media Impact For Your Business}

How to Leverage Social Media Marketing for Business

Some of the steps you should take to leverage social media marketing as a small business owner include; 

Creating your social profiles

Step one in business marketing via social media is creating your online profiles. 

Be sure to stay consistent with your brand voice and image when doing so. This will enable customers to easily identify who you are across each of your platforms.

Knowing who your audience is

Next, you’ll need to do some market research to understand who your target audience is. 

Who do you want to be speaking to via your social media campaigns? Understanding this element will help you better direct your marketing messages to the right people.

Understanding algorithms and how they impact your reach

What are social media algorithms? For many of us, they remain an enigma. But for small business owners, understanding how they work can have a dramatic impact on the success of their brand’s audience reach.

Social media algorithms connect users with content they enjoy interacting with. When used to your advantage, capitalising on this technology can put your products in front of social media users who already have an interest in your product niche.

Creating and launching your campaigns

You’ve done your market research, and you’ve grasped the concept of social media algorithms. Now, it’s time to create and launch your marketing campaigns. 

One effective social media marketing strategy? Create content that is captivating, compelling and resonates with your customers. Many small business owners have started to see the benefit of calling upon user-generated content (UGC) to promote their wares, as this type of content enables customers to see a product through an authentic, relatable lens. 

^{Read more: How Leaders Can Use Social Media To Influence}

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As a small business owner, harnessing the power of social media can do great things for your brand. Better yet, it’s basically free to use. The many other benefits of social media for business marketing include being able to raise brand awareness online, allowing small business owners to connect with their customers and also identify industry trends, as well as being relatively user-friendly.

So, how can business owners make the most of social media as a free marketing tool? As discussed, key steps include setting up online profiles, conducting market research, learning about social media algorithms and, finally, using these insights to inform the creation and launch of social media marketing campaigns. 

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