Tag Archives: social media marketing

What is social media marketing and how does it work?

In this ‘back to basics’ article, I’m looking at social media marketing and how it can work for small businesses.

In a nutshell, social media marketing (SMM) is the use of social media platforms to:

  • build social networks and share information.
  • build your brand.
  • increase your sales.
  • drive website traffic.

It also gives small businesses a way to engage with existing customers and attract new ones.

Social media platforms all have their own data analytic tools that allow you, the business owner, or your marketer, to track the success of your postings and help you identify new ways to engage. As of April 2025, there were 5.31 billion social media identities across the world (DataReportal and Kepios), so SMM has the potential to have incredible reach.  

To ensure your content appeals to your audience, it’s important to post a variety of different posts, including text and image updates, carousels, videos and sharing other content, such as blog posts.

How can I make my SMM work?

To ensure your SMM efforts work and do what they’re supposed to do, it’s important to have the three core processes in place:

Strategy

I know – I hear groans! But the first crucial step to ensure your SMM words is to have a strategy. This is just about defining some goals that you want to achieve with your social media, ensuring you’re on the right platforms for your audience and determining the type of content that will resonate with your target audience. And of course, you need to know who your target audience is.

Your goals might be as simple as driving website traffic or increasing your brand awareness. But knowing these goals means you have something to focus on and aim for.

I’ve written a whole blog post on strategy, so pop over if you want more in-depth information. In the meantime, here’s a brief overview of what your strategy needs to include:

  • Clear goals linked to your business objectives or goals.
  • Know your target audience.
  • Conduct analysis on your competitors – look at their successes and failures.
  • Look at your own successes and failures – where can you improve or do better than your competitors.
  • Create a calendar so you know what you’re going to post and when.
  • Create fabulous, engaging content!
  • Track the performance of your posts and change things as you need to

Content creation and engagement

I’ve talked about this a lot on my social media pages, but creating engaging content is the key to your SMM. Content should be relevant to your business, and to the platform you’re posting on…and of course, to your audience.

Content can include blog posts, infographics, videos, images, and a host of other types of content.

I always recommend the 80/20 rule – 80% of content to be engaging, entertaining, educating, or inspiring. Only the remaining 20% should be focused on sales.

WHY?

I hear you!

If you only concentrate on what you’re selling, people will get bored as they know every time they land on your page, they’re going to be ‘sold to.’ And they won’t find this engaging. If you can find ways to be engaging with selling your products or services, it could work, but you need to be able to make your audience feel valued and that you are pleased they’re on your page, so engagement on sales posts is crucial.

Examples of posts for each category

Engaging – the best way to engage your audience is to have them join in. This might be a post that asks a question or an opinion; or simply a post that encourages people to chat about what you’ve posted.

Entertaining – This could be anything from sharing a funny story or joke to sharing an article you’ve seen and asking what they think. Storytelling comes into this part of your content, so introducing yourself or sharing how you got started, why your business has its name, or talk about a hobby you have. It’s anything that will keep your audience on your page for longer than the quick scroll.

Educating – this is an obvious one, but often one that is overlooked. As a small business owner, you have a wealth of knowledge in your area of expertise. So, share some of it, by creating an online tutorial, a checklist, or a step-by-step guide on something you do. You don’t want to give too much away, but just enough to pique their interest and keep them on your page to read more. A lot of my posts (as a service provider) fall under this category.

Under education would also come posts about your products from a ‘benefits’ point of view. You might have described the features of your product, (what it is, what it looks like and what it’s made from) but focus on the benefits – what does it do for your customer and you can make it sound like they don’t know how they lived without it for so long! Just be careful to be truthful and not rely on AI for your descriptions as they can be hilariously OTT!

Inspiring – Inspiring content covers quite a big area – it might be that you inspire people through motivational posts, wellbeing posts or posts about how to feel better/look better. Quotes are often inspirational so they would come under this category, and storytelling, especially if you have an inspirational story to tell, such as how you overcome all the odds to do XXXXX..

Planning and scheduling

This is very simple – ensure you plan your content, so you know what you’re going to post at least a week ahead. This helps you save time and effort, and you don’t have to react or think of something to post on the spot. Planning also means you can divide your posts into themes – it might be that one week you do a ‘Christmas in July’ week, or a week dedicated to a particular collection you create and the next week, have a different theme.

Once you have your plan and have created a week’s worth of posts/stories, then use a scheduling tool to schedule them to go out. I just use Meta, which I find works well, but there are other host sites out there who will do this too. Once your content is scheduled, you can get on with other tasks in your business.

Engaging with your audience

We all talk about this all the time. When you post content you will get responses, and these must be replied to in a timely manner. This can often trigger conversations that you sometimes take offline, and it may lead to a sale or consultation.

Schedule time to engage with your audience as this is where you can show your personality and have a good old chat. I try to engage this way in the morning for an hour – whenever I can find some time at lunchtime and then again for a couple of hours in the evening.

It’s not just about replying to comments on your content either, you also need to visit other peoples’ accounts and comment on their posts. The only thing I would say is to PLEASE do it in a genuine way – there are too many people just copying and pasting ‘Have a great day’ or ‘Happy Monday’ (or whatever day it is. These comments will not help the algorithm as these short, sharp sentences are noticed, so they may actually be more harmful to your page. I try and reply with a question in the hope I can get that person to engage, but it doesn’t always work.

So, visit and leave genuine comments – read the post properly and answer any questions.

You also need to make time to find new people to follow – this can be very time consuming as you don’t want to just follow anyone – they must be someone you’re genuinely interested in, or who you think may be your target market. 

Paid ads

I’ll admit, I don’t do this. I am lucky in that I find I don’t have to advertise as my business ticks along nicely for what I want it for.

But some businesses do find that paid ads work well for them. Paid ads can amplify your reach an engagement. You can target specific demographics, such as age, location, interests, and behaviours. And it can contribute to driving traffic to your website, boost your engagement and increase your sales. But you need to have a really good strategy and patience to get it exactly right…unless you want to pay a marketer to do it for you, then you’ll have an expert on board. Obviously, this option needs to have a marketing budget, and you’d need to have enough for more than just a one-off ad.

Measurement

The last point in this article about the basics of SMM, is measurement. This is something that so many small businesses don’t think about – or don’t know about.

If you use FB or IG, you can see your insights. This gives you details of your reach, how many people have engaged with a post, who is commenting and how many new followers you have. I wouldn’t get too hung up on the number of followers, but it’s important to look at your engagement. Which posts are the most popular? Have a look at those posts and the comments to find out why – then you can replicate this and get your engagement up with more popular posts.  Similarly, what’s NOT working? Again, see if you can find out why. Then you can either bin that type of post or change it slightly and try again with a different tactic.

Conclusion

Even if you’ve had your business for a while, sometimes a trip to the basics can point out something that you need to do but have simply overlooked due to more pressing issues!

I hope this has helped and if you have any questions or would like help with your social media marketing, just contact me.  

Why a website is important for small businesses!

Why do I need a website?

Ever since lockdown, people are being pushed to shop local and support small businesses – and quite right too! This is possible because of the internet. Small businesses are increasingly on social media, or have online shops, but the problem is that, as a small business, you don’t own those online sites, so if for any reason your business was banned and your social media site taken down – or if an online shop site had a problem with their servers, you wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. But if you have your own website, you own it and you run it how you like.

A website:

  • gives you the opportunity to have an online shopfront and reach customers outside of your local area and it’s a great way to grow your business.
  • Could be the first impression potential customers get about your business and all you do or sell.
  • Can be found on google and other search engines, so having your own website makes you easier to find.
  • Gives your business credibility and gives you an edge over similar businesses that don’t have a website. It also helps you compete against other businesses in your niche.
  • Means you have your own domain name so you can be more easily found online.
  • Is your online catalogue or brochure, telling the world all about you and what you have to offer.     

If I want to find out how to do something or where to buy something, the first thing I do is look online. Most transactions these days take place online and therefore some of the traditional marketing techniques have been replaced with online strategies. However, a surprising number of small businesses do not have a website.

Mind boggling stats!

According to Statista, out of the nearly 8 billion people in the world, 5.35 billion of them, (around 66%) have access to the internet.

And, on average, internet users spend six and a half hours online every day.

Every second, more than 20 million people are looking on the internet, on their mobile devices or PCs, buying everything you can think of….from books to houses, from kitchen gadgets to garden tools. If you, as a business owner don’t have a website, you are missing a trick as your business won’t be found, so you are missing out on potential sales.

There is a cost involved, but it can be cheaper if you do it yourself – there are so many easy-to-follow website hosting companies that are fairly easy to set up. I paid a web designer to do mine as I didn’t have time and prefer to have someone keeping any eye on it, as well as having someone who knows what they’re doing when there’s a problem, or I want some quick updates done. I just find it gives me peace of mind!   

I know that many small crafting businesses use online shops to promote their business, and it works very well for them. Again, there are costs for this service, and at the end of the day, you don’t own your shop, so don’t have any control over it, but I understand why some find this a better option. Your online shop is still open for business 24/7, unless they have any glitches.

Promote your business 24/7!

As the title suggests, having an online presence means that your business is ‘open’ 24 hours a day, 7 days a week….even when you are asleep. Information about your business, your services, what you sell, are there at your customers’ and potential customers’ fingertips. People are always looking online – they research products before they buy and if you have an online presence, and you happen to sell what they want, you could make a sale. If you don’t have a website, you can be almost invisible in searches on search engines…and in this day and age, you can’t afford to be.

Building reputation and credibility

A website gives you the chance to highlight your abilities, your products, and services for the world to see – they can see the quality and price, and if you have an online shop, they can buy directly from you. If you don’t have a website, your potential customers will go to a competitor.

Through your website, you can be seen as an expert in your field, and through the recommendations and comments from satisfied customers, you can be seen to be reliable, trustworthy and that your products are top notch.

When you give out your business card, it will tell potential customers a little about your business. If you’ve given them your card because they’ve seen your stall at a local market, they will assume that they can log onto your website when they get home and see more of your products. Imagine their disappointment if they get home to find no website details…and of course, this will lose potential sales.

Again, you may give a link to your online shop, but it doesn’t give as much information as a website can – and you can’t have a linked email sign up, which helps you promote your products and services even more.

First impression

Not only does having a website make you more credible, but it also shows that your business is established and that you are experienced at what you do. Even if your competitors are stronger than you, a well-built, mobile friendly website can entice customers to choose you instead. You might operate your business from the tiniest desk space in the corner of your dining room, or make your products in your tiny spare bedroom, but when you have a website, your customers don’t see this. All they see is the power of your brand – size doesn’t matter!

Advertise your business

Your website is your ultimate advertising tool. For a relatively small investment in the cost of setting up your website, you can reach millions of people. It is that one brochure that the whole world has access to – no printing and re-printing when you have new products – you just add them online at the click of a button. You can include tons more information and images than you could afford to put into a brochure.

Of course, there is a place in business for brochures and flyers and advertising in local magazines or newspapers, but your online presence is always available, not just for the limited time that you can afford, or until your product set changes. It’s a fantastic marketing tool that is constantly relevant and up to date.

Save you time

Your website can tell people who you are, where you are and what you do. Without a website, you may spend endless wasted time on the telephone or email giving people directions to where you are, giving details of the products you sell or the services you offer. Your website gives all these details in one, easy to access space, available 24/7. Not only does it give these basic details, but it also gives more detailed information about your products. Then, when people do contact you, it’s generally about something more specific or to buy from you or use your services.

Reach a wider audience

Advertising in your local paper, putting out your business cards and attending markets, conventions, and networking events, are all brilliant ways of getting your products and brand out to a wider audience. However, with a website you literally have a worldwide audience. Business often comes from word of mouth, and this is a great way to get local business, but in order to expand and reach customers that don’t know you, the internet is the way forward.

Beat your competition

If you have a business, you only have to look on Facebook or on the internet to know that you have hundreds of competitors who do the same as you. If your competitors have a website, then why shouldn’t you have one? The joy of having a website is that it doesn’t matter how big or how small your business is, it will help you reach more people and increase your sales. Through your website, you can gather information about your customers. You can use your website to host an online survey to find out what your customers want, and online forms can be used to easily contact you to request a quote or ask for further information. When you know what your customers want, you can develop products or services to solve their problems or meet their needs.

Customer Service

Your customers are the most important part of your business. You can improve the service you give them by including FAQs and a Contact Us page. Customers can not only leave comments and recommendations, but they can also ask questions. You can collect your customers email addresses, and with their permission, can send them regular updates about new products. This makes them feel valued and valued customers will come back to you time after time.

I hope that I have helped you to see the benefits of having a website. You may have thought that a website is a waste of money, but it is the exact opposite. You may have to invest a little to get your website written and built professionally, but you will soon get your investment back when new customers find you and start buying from you.

If you’d like to have a look at my website, click on the link below, and as always if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me.

Check out my website

Hashtags and Facebook

Facebook is getting harder to manage due to the ever-changing algorithms. This makes it really hard for you to make your small businesses visible to your followers if you’re not paying for ads.

One of the ways to help with your organic reach is to use hashtags as they can help you improve your content’s engagement.  

Why do hashtags help small businesses?

Here are four reasons why hashtags are worth the time and effort on Facebook:

  • Posts with hashtags can be found in a Facebook search. We’ve all used the Facebook search to find what we’re looking for – for example I’ve looked for old school friends using the search bar. In the same way, you can search a hashtag. So, using hashtags on your post to make them more visible is going to help your reach.

    Using relevant hashtags will help you with your visibility – for example, a local hashtag such as #scentedcandlesswindon, can help your local visibility for scented candles. Or if you use a hashtag such as #smallbusinessweek2024, someone looking for that could come across your page.

    The people searching hashtags may not all have a genuine interest in your type of business, but if they do, they’re likely to look at your page and content.
  • If you are using other social media channels, such as X or Instagram, and running a particular campaign, or talking about a particular product or service, using hashtags on that channel, add them into your post on Facebook to keep your channels consistent. You can use the hashtag IN the post, not just at the end, so long as it is relevant. For example, if I’m doing a marketing post about Small Business Week, I could incorporate it in my post – ‘Good morning. The week is #smallbusinessweek2024, so today I’m going to talk about …….’ You get the idea.
  • Hashtags can also help to create a community on Facebook. If you share or create a unique hashtag, you can find people who have the same interests or who are in the same group as you.

    Using your own unique branded hashtag on Facebook can also increase the visibility of your business, such as the one I use #cindymobeymarketing (which is also the URL of my website). This also makes it easier for people to find relevant related content.
  • If you host an event or regularly host events, creating a unique hashtag for that event can give people an easy way to stay updated on that event. You can also do posts about the event using your own branded hashtag for your business.   

How do you know which hashtags are good for your posts?  

To decide which hashtags are good to use for your business and your posts, you need to know that it’s relevant and popular before you use it. You can do this by:

  • Checking which hashtags your followers and customers use. This means they will relate to you and if they’re searching a hashtag they regularly use, your content could pop up.
  • Use Facebook’s recommendations – when you are scheduling posts, as soon as you start to type a hashtag, you’ll get a drop down menu that will give you variants of what you’ve typed and the volume for each of those hashtags, so you’ll be able to see which ones are popular – try and use a mix of volumes.  
  • Look at your competitor’s posts on their Facebook business pages and see what hashtags they use. They might have great engagement partly because of the hashtags they use, so you can add some of them to your list. This is not stealing their ideas, it’s just doing competitor analysis, which is all part of social media marketing.

Facebook hashtag best practice

Here are a few extra tips for Facebook hashtag best practice.

  • Use hashtags in sentences. For example, if you were sharing information about an event you’re attending, such as a night market, you’ll be doing a post about that. Instead of writing ‘This weekend you can find us at Makebelievemarket on Saturday #makebelievemarket’ – use the hashtag in the sentence, ‘This weekend you can find us at #makebelievemarket on Saturday. It looks tidier and incorporates the hashtag into your sentence.
  • Don’t use spaces in hashtags. For example, you would use #makebelievemarket – NOT #Make Believe Market – as only the first word after the hashtag will count and it will be a completely different one – and not relevant to what you’re talking about!
  • Don’t use too many hashtags. It is recommended to only use up to five hashtags on Facebook posts. If you have too many, it can confuse the algorithm as hashtags act as keywords to help people discover your posts. Using fewer hashtags is also easier for you analyse which ones work best for you, as not so many to look at.

    That’s not more than five in the whole post, including any you use in the sentences too.
  • Make sure the hashtags you use are relevant to your content and your business. This seems obvious but a lot of people use hashtags for days of the week, for example #throwbackthursday. If your post is about a happy memory or a throwback of a previous product that you remember fondly, it’s relevant. If you’re writing about a new product or something irrelevant, it won’t help you with engagement if your post is found on that hashtag and that person is searching for #throwbackthursday.     
  • Check your privacy settings. If the settings on your Facebook business page is set to followers only, then you’re wasting your time using hashtags, as you need your setting to allow non-followers to view your content. All my settings on my business Facebook page are set to ‘public’ so anyone can see anything I post. Ensure that your posts are ‘public’ too.

    Please note: If you’re using your personal profile page to test your hashtags, you’ll need to make your posts ‘public’ manually.  

Measuring your hashtag use  

You can measure how your hashtags are doing by looking at your ‘Insights’ on Facebook.

  • Go to your insights and click on ‘posts.’
  • You’ll see a breakdown of your engagement rate, type of post and total reach for each post.
  • Now, it won’t give you hashtag performance, so you’ll need to work through your posts and data to find out whether your Facebook posts with hashtags work better than those without (so some testing to do), and over time you’ll be able to see which posts with a particular set of hashtags work better than other sets – again this will be through trial and error, and a bit of insight research

At first you may not see that much difference in results because you won’t have used a particular hashtag enough for it to build a connection between the hashtag and your page/business. This is another reason why fewer hashtags are easier to manage – you won’t know the results if you use shed loads!  

I hope this has helped in understanding how hashtags can work for you and your business on Facebook.  It might seem complicated, but once you get going, it will become second nature.

As always, if you need any help, feel free to message me on Facebook @cindymobeymarketing or email me cindymobey@outlook.com

Other blog posts I’ve written about hashtags include:

Are hashtags still viable in 2024

Hashtags FAQ 

Dos and Don’ts for your business Facebook page

Despite all the hype and buzz around TikTok and other social media platforms, Facebook is still the most-used social media platform in the world.

Facebook had 3.05 billion monthly active users and during the 4th quarter 2023, Meta reported that 3.98 billion people use at least one of their core products every month – core products being Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp or Messenger. (Source – Statista.com)

This is great news for all of us small businesses who use our business page to promote our products or services. Facebook is an inexpensive, and largely free, effective way to connect with your target audience, but there are some things you should and shouldn’t do. This post looks at the dos and don’ts for your business Facebook page.  

DO

First, let’s look at some of the things that are advisable to do on your Facebook page.

  • Pick an easily recognisable image for your profile picture (either of photo of you or your brand logo). People want to know who they are interacting with. Don’t use photos of your pets for your business page – unless your business is about pets, and even then I would use a logo or you and your pet.   
  • Use your cover photo – feature an image that represents who you are and what your business does.
  • Ensure you complete the ‘about’ section of your page. This is your chance to tell your audience a little bit more about you and what you do – you could use your elevator pitch here.  
  • Develop a distinct voice for your Facebook page – so you sound the same as you do on your website and other social media pages. And don’t forget that you can use humour and show your personality!
  • Make sure you include links to your social media pages on your website, so people finding you there know where to connect with you on socials.
  • Post interesting and quality content – make sure that your content isn’t all about selling your product or service – use a variety of posts.
  • Post consistently on a regular basis. You can see from your insights when is the best time to post for your audience.
  • Post engaging images and ask questions to promote engagement, or do the odd fun post, such as those predictive text posts, quotes, or a funny meme.
  • Include links to drive traffic to your website, blog or newsletter sign up.
  • If you share other peoples’ content, ensure that it is relevant to your target audience.
  • If you are attending or arranging an event, post about it.
  • Celebrate your wins and share your successes.
  • Reply to and ‘like’ comments left on your posts.
  • Use hashtags to increase interaction – experts are currently recommending 3-5 hashtags on Facebook posts. Despite being allowed to use up to 30 hashtags on Instagram, the current guidelines (from 2023) suggest 3-5 – the same as Facebook. But you may find more work better for you on Instagram.
  • Mix up your posts with single image, multiple images, and video to gain the most engagement.
  • Check your post grammar and spelling and don’t forget a call to action.
  • This is a hard one but respond quickly and publicly to any customer that complains or leaves a negative comment on your posts. Don’t get angry or defensive and don’t get into specifics about the issue. Just respond positively and then take the complaint offline. This shows other customers that you care about your customers and are responsive to their concerns.    
  • Finally, measure your posts by checking your insights so you know which posts are the most engaging with your audience, or get you the most reach/comments/likes etc. You can then use this to plan your following week’s/month’s posts.

DON’T

  • Invite huge lists of people to like your page or get tied up in follow for follow posts. If people like what you do, they will follow you. Doing follow for follow may boost your followers briefly, but most will unfollow you after a short period, or just never bother engaging with your posts because they didn’t choose to follow you for the right reasons – and this is very damaging to the algorithm.
  • Constantly promote the sales of your products or services – use a variety of posts to keep your audience engaged.
  • Don’t completely flood your feed with posts – if you post several times a day, space them out.
  • Overuse hashtags. 3-5 is plenty per post – any more than that and your post could be seen as spammy. Put hashtags at the end of your caption rather than incorporating then into the caption itself.
  • Don’t post low quality images, memes, or information.
  • Don’t post anything that you wouldn’t like to see in your newsfeed.
  • Don’t be afraid to experiment with your posts to see which are the most popular.
  • Don’t forget to use your insights to help you plan posts.
  • Neglect to post at weekends – you don’t have to post on both days, but this is when most people are at home and scrolling social media.
  • Don’t use abbreviations or jargon.
  • Don’t ever ask for personally identifiable information.
  • Don’t engage in an argument on your business page – if someone has a problem, reply politely, and take it offline.
  • Don’t post anything that could damage the professionalism of your business or that could damage your reputation.
  • Finally, don’t get involved in engagement baiting.

Engagement Baiting

This could be a whole other blog post, but basically engagement baiting is goading people into commenting on posts without it being a meaningful interaction.

Facebook will prioritise posts that inspire back and forth discussion, but using engagement bait will be recognised and post will be demoted in the newsfeed.

Engagement baiting includes:

  • Vote baiting – asking your audience to give their opinion using a like, share or comment.
  • React baiting – Giving your opinion in your post, then saying ‘like if you agree’ – whoops! I’ve been guilty of this one without realising it!
  • Share baiting – Encouraging your audience to share a post if they agree with the content or share to win a prize or be entered into a contest.
  • Tag baiting – asking your audience to tag someone in the comments.
  • Comment baiting – asking followers to comment on the post.

I’m not sure I agree with all of these, but I guess it’s about the way you ask for things. Facebook’s guidance says that you can:

  • Ask for authentic input – asking for advice, recommendations, help or tips. And you can ask customer to share their tips for using your products or service or how they think they could be improved.
  • Ask questions as this promotes engagement and interaction. A study conducted by Hubspot found that posts that use the words ‘should, would, which, and who’ get the most comments and those that use the words ‘why and how’ get the fewest comments.
  • Post content that people want to talk about.
  • Provoke an emotional response – posts that surprise your audience or make then laugh, cry, or get angry.
  • Post a photo and ask for a caption.
  • Try and ‘fill in the blank’ post – this could be using predictive text or just from their own experience.  

There’s an awful lot to take in with this post and I appreciate it if you actually got to the end of it! As always, if you have any questions about this post or any of my other posts, or if you have any suggestions for future blog posts, please feel free to email me (cindymobey@outlook.com) or message me on messenger.

Don’t underestimate the value of Word of Mouth Marketing

What is Word of Mouth Marketing?

Word of Mouth Marketing seems like a pretty obvious one, but it is absolutely crucial to your business. It’s when your customer’s interest in your products or services is spoken about in their daily lives. In simple terms, it is free advertising generated by the experiences that your customers have with your business. This can be anything from a great customer service experience, where you have gone the ‘extra mile’ to help them with a problem, or maybe solved a problem they didn’t realise they had. Something extraordinary, or just a product or service that they are really pleased with and want to tell their friends and family all about it.

It really is one of the most powerful forms of advertising as 92% of consumers trust their friends over traditional media, according to The Nielsen Global Survey of Trust in Advertising.

Word of Mouth Marketing (or WOM Marketing) includes viral, blogs, emotional and social media marketing.

Example of WOMM

WOMM is all about creating a buzz around your business – your products or services. The more you interact with your potential target market and with your existing customers, the more the name and reputation of your business will spread. It kind of creates a snowball effect. For example, say you own a restaurant. You create a comfortable atmosphere, the food is great, the service is exemplary, BUT, not only do you do that, you make every single customer feel special. Their dining experience is perfect because you have gone above and beyond to exceed their expectations. When they leave the restaurant, they will leave a review on your social media site talking about the fabulous service they received, about what a great place it is to eat and what a wonderful time they had. That’s great, but the snowball effect is that they will not only leave a review , they’re also likely talk to their friends and family about what a great night out they had, and tell them they ought to try out your restaurant. This is part of the ‘creating a buzz’ scenario. And this can be followed up by you…

ALWAYS reply to reviews and feedback; thank customers for their comments and say how pleased you are that they enjoyed their meal at your restaurant. If you have a website, point them to the website to sign up to your newsletter, so they will be informed when you have special events on, (you might have live music nights, for example or do a special ‘Curry night’ or ‘Chinese night’). And advertise these events on your social media pages for those that don’t choose to sign up to a newsletter, (they’re not for everyone)!

Ask your customer who has left a glowing review if you can use it for your marketing. Share the review on your other social media sites, website and in your newsletter as ‘proof’ that your place is the best! If you get some really glowing reviews, you could ask the customer a few questions about why they enjoyed that particular evening – what made it special for them? Then you could turn this into a mini case study as to why your customers enjoy your restaurant…and give your customer their five minutes of fame, whilst at the same time making him feel very valued and that his opinion really does matter to you.

It’s all about TRUST

If a customer feels that they are listened to and valued, they will start to have an emotional bond to a particular business. This is the reason that most large Corporates have a whole team of people, who talk to their regular customers to discuss products, either with a personal visiting service, via a review of products the customer has (insurance products for example), or on the telephone. This works well as the customer feels that the company cares about them and is interested in what they are likely to do next in their lives. Let’s face it, this kind of interaction is not only to make sure that customer has the right insurance products, it’s also a fact finding mission to find out if there is anything else that could be sold to them in the future. But the point is that the customer feels that the company they have chosen cares about them.

No matter how big or how small your business is, TRUST is a huge issue and one that needs to be nurtured with every customer you have. If they trust that you have their best interests at heart, that you genuinely care about them and value their opinions, they will be loyal to you and will always be willing to try out new products or services that you offer. And, they’ll tell their friends that you have a new offer going on!

Can’t I just make up some great reviews?   

Yes, of course you can, but this wouldn’t really achieve very much as you won’t have that real person going around telling their friends all about you. It may help you attract new business, but you’re starting off from a deception. There is an official body in the USA that has crafted a code of ethics for the industry.

“The Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) is the official trade association dedicated to word of mouth and social media marketing. Founded in 2004, WOMMA is the leader in ethical work of mouth marketing practices through its education, such as WOMMA Summit, professional development opportunities, and knowledge sharing with top industry marketers. WOMMA’s membership is made up of the most innovative companies committed to progressing the word of mouth marketing industry through advocacy, education and ethics.”

https://expertfile.com/organizations/WOMMA-Word-of-Mouth-Marketing-Association

The word of mouth marketing strategies they promote are “credible, social, repeatable, measurable and respectful” and there is no tolerance for dishonesty.

How is WOMM different to referral marketing?

Word of Mouth Marketing is about creating that buzz, no matter what kind of business you have, how big or how small you are, or the kinds of products or services you offer. The more you engage with people, the more the name of your business and your business ethics will spread. It’s all about the snowball effect.

Referral marketing, on the other hand, is a more focused and targeted marketing media. It focuses your attention on a specific person to actively encourage that one person to refer their friends. It is a segment of WOMM, but it’s a more proactive way of generating new customers. You have control over the whole referral process to convert a particular customer to buy your products or services. This could be through the use of funnels, for example.

How to do WOM Marketing

Engage with your customers and potential customers, not just collect them. You might have hundreds, or even thousands of followers on your social media account, but are they all interested in what you do or sell? Or are they just there, not really interested, but more of a ‘follow for follow’ basis? Do they interact with what you post? Do they feel that connection with you? It’s about building engagement, building a relationship with followers that are genuinely interested in what you do and feel a connection to your business. The more passionate they are about you, your business, your products, your services, the more likely they are to share what you do, share your posts and tell people about their experiences.  

 

If you set yourself up a strategy, there are things you can do to increase the WOM around your business…things like a partner programme, affiliate marketing and using reviews.   

Your biggest marketing asset is your existing customer base, so create something worth talking about and encourage your existing customers to talk about it too.

  • People trust their friends and what they have to say. Ask customers to refer a friend…you can give incentives to encourage that. For example, refer a friend and get 5-10% off their next order or get a free gift.  
  • When a customer has bought something from you, or used your services, ask them to leave a review.
  • From the reviews that you get, identify something about your brand that has the possibility to generate a buzz or create something new that will generate that buzz.
  • Get your existing customers on board – you could create a competition, with the winner receiving your new product or service.  

Word of Mouth Marketing is a free and easy way to promote your business, but does take a bit of time and hard work. Gaining trust and engagement with your business is a two-way street, but when it works, you will have meaningful relationships with people who will become your best brand ambassadors.

Social Media Posting With Purpose

Posting on social media is an important part of any small business, and we all know the importance of having engaging content. It helps build a relationship and rapport with your followers, can drive traffic to your website, blog, or shop, and can convert followers into customers.

But what if you’re unsure of what to publish, or have just simply run out of engaging ideas? You’re definitely not alone and having a social media content strategy can help you get right back on track. This article will help you understand how that works.

Posting effective posts

How do you know if your posts are going to be effective? You can look at your insights to find out what has been popular before – and this does help you see what kind of post your audience likes to see. But there are also ways to help your post appeal to your audience.

Your caption – describe what your audience are seeing in the image you publish. Draw attention to it by using a question or a headline. Apparently, 150 characters or around 15 words gets the most clicks.

Emoji – you can add an emoji to add a bit more interest to your post – it has been found that emojis attract the eye and, if you use relevant ones, can make you more relatable to your audience. And you can use the arrow or pointing finger to point the eye to your links.

Call to action – this is important as it tells your audience what to do next. For example, if you are publishing a post about a particular blog or article, tell them they can read more by clicking on your link.  

Mention or tag other businesses – or other accounts you have (if you’re posting on FB, mention your IG account for example). Add links – this helps for added visibility and reach. Mentioning other businesses is a great way to promote engagement, not just with those businesses you tag, but encourages others to look at those businesses. It also helps to increase your exposure, as the business you mention might share your post, or do one of their own mentioning you.

Hashtags – add relevant hashtags, (ones that relate to the topic of your post) as well as hashtags related to your business. Use a variety of hashtags and don’t always use the same ones.  

Images or videos – always use high quality photos, GIFs or video clips that will resonate with your target audience.

Repurpose your existing content.

Have you thought about repurposing content you’ve used before? You can simply reuse a post you’ve published in the past or repurpose it into something else. For example, if you have written a blog post, you can take some information from that and write new posts; you can make a video from a post you’ve done before or make posts from video you’ve done before.

You can also share posts that resonate with your business from other people’s posts.

Know your social media channels.

We all have our favourite social media channels. Different people use different channels to achieve their different goals and behaviour can vary greatly between the channels.

Facebook – has the largest and most diverse audience. Because Facebook shows a huge range of content to its users, including ads, news, entertainment, and anything you may have previously shown an interest in, Facebook users tend to scroll a lot. By typically, will only spend a few seconds viewing a post, so it’s crucial to have posts that capture their attention. Facebook is also one of the best channels to put links to your website, blog, or shop.

It’s advised to post at least once a day – twice if possible, for maximum coverage and using just a couple of hashtags.

66% of the UK population and more than 70% of the US population use Facebook. Although the highest number of users are between 18-34, the numbers of older people using Facebook is growing fast.

Instagram – is a very visual channel. Colourful posts with graphics and short video are the most popular, but not as good in getting people to your website, blog, or shop. But a tip is to have your own branded hashtag and to use that as that will help your engagement…and could encourage others to use your hashtag.

More than 60% of Instagram users are between the ages of 18-34, so it’s a younger demographic than Facebook, so worth bearing that in mind when posting. It’s advised to post 3-7 times a week when you’re establishing your brand and more once you get a solid audience. And you can use up to 30 hashtags, but most advise between 5-10 as being the best number.   

TikTok – is about using short video and having fun. There is a huge number of influencers on TikTok, so your brand is more likely to be picked up by one of them on TikTok than on other channels. Sound is also a huge feature of TikTok, and users are more likely to engage with and remember your brand if they like the music you’ve selected.

Posting 1-4 times a day is recommended, and using 3-5 hashtags or more, so long as they are relevant to your post.

Twitter – is about short, sharp posts, as you can only use up to 280 characters, so message need to be clear, concise and to the point. You can post video, but it should also be clear, short and to the point.

Hashtags should be kept to the bare minimum – 1-2 per post. It is recommended to post 1-2 times a day and no more than 3-5 per day.  

LinkedIn – LinkedIn is a more professional channel, and your brand should be more business-like. Keep posts brief and use bullet points and line breaks to get your information across. Visuals and video get more engagement. It’s the norm to share links to articles you’ve written, websites you may have contributed to, or links to your own website or blog site.

LinkedIn has a targeting tool, where you can target people based on language, location, company size, industry, and a lot more.

There’s no hard and fast rule about posting, but it is recommended to post no more than 1-5 times a day (but only if you have quality content) and no less than once a month. Hashtags should be restricted to 1-2 per post.

Threads – is a brand-new channel, that only launched in July 2023. Posts are mainly text based, but you can post reels and stories. It offers a space for real time updates and public conversations.

There’s not enough data at the moment but recommended that posts are 3-5 times a week minimum. Threads doesn’t support hashtags at the moment.  

 

What type of content should you publish?

I always advise having a variety of content to keep your followers engaged. 80% of posts engaging, educating, entertaining and inspiring, with only 20% of posts selling or promoting your business.

You can achieve this by posting things like tips in your niche, FAQs, ‘did you know’ posts, behind the scenes, your story, personal posts, before and after photos, photos of your products or services, case studies, blog posts, links to website or shop, inspirational quotes or educational quotes, funny memes/jokes. The list is endless…and don’t forget you can promote events you’re going to be attending and any promotions, contests, giveaways, or specials you may have going on in your business.

You can also look at the special days each month, (which I have published on my Facebook page) to see if anything is relevant to your business – or that you can be creative with and make it relevant.

You can also use days of the week through hashtags – such as #ThrowbackThursday and do posts around those.  

Variety is the key to posting. That’s why it is a good idea to have a content strategy and content calendar, so you can plan exactly what you want to do and when to coincide with anything important happening in your business, niche, or industry.

When to post

Despite what you may read on the internet, when to post is linked to your own personal business and how you like to run your business. Most small businesses tend to post first thing in the morning – and I find I get more engagement if I post early.

But it largely depends on your audience. If you are UK based, and you have a lot of followers in the US, posting early won’t necessarily catch their attention as they’re in a different time zone, so it might be worth posting again later in the day to coincide with their morning.

You can look at your insights on each of your social media channels to find out when is the best time to post for your business – and it shows you when you’re likely to get the most engagement.

Batch create posts and schedule.

A big time saver for small businesses is to batch create your posts. That simply means creating a week’s worth of posts in one go – this helps you to be more consistent and you can choose to theme each week if you want to.

Scheduling posts is also a big time saver, as once it’s done, you don’t have to worry about it, (although I would advise checking that your scheduled posts have published as this sometimes doesn’t happen)!

Even if you do batch create posts and schedule them, I’d always advise leaving space for reacting to something, or adding in an extra post or two during the week in real time.

Reply to comments!

This is obvious, but it’s really important to reply to the comments you get on your social media posts. Social media is about being social – and engaging with your audience, so what better way to engage with them than replying to comments and getting a conversation going.

If a post of yours is shared, it’s also a good idea to go to that share and leave a comment to say ‘thank you’ for sharing.

I hope this post has been useful and has made you think about your social media posts. There’s a lot more to it than just making and pressing that ‘post’ button.

If you struggle with posting and want some help with a content strategy for your particular business, I can help you get yours up and running. Just drop me a message on my FB or IG, or email me at cindymobey@outlook.com and we can arrange a free 30 minute call to talk about your business and how I can help.   

How Social Media Marketing benefits your business

Social Media is probably the widest used platform on the internet. There are so many different platforms to choose from, and they all have millions of people using them every single day. For many of us, social media is the first thing we log into when we get up in the morning, and the last thing we check before we go to bed at night.

Social media sites can be accessed by any device that has an internet connection, including PCs, mobile phones, tablets etc. Some of the most popular sites are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Snapchat. It’s a huge advantage to any business, big or small, to be on some of these sites in order to grow business, and social media marketing is a bit part of that. 

So, what are the benefits of social media marketing?

The Time Factor

It can take as little as an hour a day to increase traffic to your sites, make sales and get your brand out there. Social media gives a massive amount of exposure to your business and social media sites are an important part of any marketing plan.  

Create social media profiles for your business on your chosen sites and start engaging with potential clients. Invite your friends, family, employees, business partners – in fact anyone you know, to like and share your page. Just having people interact with your page and your content will increase your brand awareness and start to build your brand reputation.   

More traffic

Social media marketing – posting and engaging with your followers – will help you reach many more people than if you ignore social media. Every single time you post, you are giving your business another opportunity to get a new customer. Join more than one social media site, as different platforms serve different people and different ages. Different people search differently and also like different types of posts, so mix it up with your posts – don’t stick to just selling. You also need to engage, entertain, educate and inspire your followers. The 80/20 rule is useful – 80% engaging, entertaining, educating and inspiring and 20% selling.

Social Media also gives you access to followers from all over the world, and engagement at all times of the day and night.

Search Engine ranking

Search Engine ranking

You will get seen more on social media, but of course, there is more to it than just posting every day. Search Engine Optimization is also important to get your page ranked higher with search engines, such as Google.

To give your business the best chance to be seen and found, create good quality content, use keywords and phrases, and use good quality images.

If you write a blog, share it to your social media page, do video, infographics, include the odd case study and give business information. Don’t forget the fun stuff too – show where you work, your hobbies, employee photos, stuff you do at weekends or for charity. This all helps to not only improve your ranking, but goes a long way to show that you are human and real to your customers.

Conversion

Once your business is more visible, you’ll have more opportunities for your posts to convert into customers. People like to know who they’re buying from, and social media allows them to see your personality, to engage with you on things other than business and have a little insight into the person you are outside of work. People prefer to deal with real people, so social media serves this purpose. The more of an impression you make on a new follower, the more likely they’re going to think of you when they need what you offer.

Customer satisfaction

As the name suggests, social media is about being sociable. It’s not just a business networking platform, it’s also a communication and social network too. When customers comment on your posts, make sure you reply and try to strike up a conversation. Showing that you reply to each comment personally proves to your customers that you care and value their opinions. This gives them a good customer experience and so they’ll be more satisfied.

Sometimes you will get a complaint or get asked difficult questions. It’s even more important to answer these comments – don’t ignore them. The fact that you take the time to respond publicly to a complaint or question will make the customer see you in a much better light, especially if you can turn it around and make the complaint into a compliment!

Brand loyalty

We all want to have shed loads of loyal customers who love what we do , how we do it, and who want to come back and buy from us time and time again. Social media can help with that. Customers love social media and love to interact with the company they’re buying from – they often see social media as the place they can communicate directly with you and your business. And research has shown that customers are more loyal to brands that directly engage with them on social media.

When customers see you engaging with your followers, they’ll start to see you as an expert – and regularly posting different kinds of posts makes you also appear credible. Interacting with customers shows you value them, and care about them. This will result in them recommending you to family and friends, they’ll mention your business on social media and, if they see someone asking for what you supply, they’ll put your business forward.  

 It doesn’t cost much

Social media marketing is probably the most cost effective form of marketing. You can join all platforms with a business page for free. You can post, engage, get new customers, and interact with them…all for free. It’s only when you decide to advertise on a platform that there is a cost, but the costs are really quite low compared to other forms of marketing.

Being on social media and having a huge following with loads of customers for free, gives you a bigger budget for other kinds of marketing or for investing in your business.

Market insight

This is one of the best things about social media. You can monitor and measure the activity on your sites – using the page’s insights. By interacting with customers and looking at how they react to your individual posts, you can gain valuable information about your customers.

You can find out what their interests are, what their opinions are, what they like and dislike. All information that can help you understand your audience and what they want from you.

Be an expert

I touched on this briefly earlier, but by posting well written content, quality images, and video etc., your audience will start to look to you for information and you will become an expert or leader in your particular field.

Social media platforms are the idea place to set yourself up as an expert. Being able to directly speak to your customers also creates a rapport with them, a relationship that you will both value. This could lead to you becoming an influencer.

Conclusion

Social media marketing needs to be done correctly and consistently. If you follow all the points mentioned in this article, you will find that you increase your brand awareness. Your followers will see you as an expert, will enjoy the interaction they have with your business and they will become loyal followers and customers