Anne-Marie Saint-John, Alva, Long Island City, NY >
How to Build a Social Media Presence as a Small Business
If you’ve been looking at ways to grow a small business, then you’ve most likely stumbled across social media as one proven way of marketing a small business. Whether you’ve already tried dipping your toes in the water with social media marketing or are completely new, there are a number of ways you can approach building a social media presence.
Tips to Build a Social Media Presence
Whether you run an established business looking to get started with social media or a start-up wanting to build a new audience, these tips are for you. Regardless of how you personally feel about social media, as a business you need to be active on social media. It’s where most of your customers are, and it’s where they’ll research companies they want to buy from or do business with.
Social media pages can help you boost your SEO; by investing a little time in the writing and presentation of your posts, you can make a difference for the overall visibility of your business online.
1 – Choose your channels
This is less about personal preference and more about finding out which channels your customers use. You can do this by conducting research, asking your customers which channels they are most active on, or simply looking at your competition and seeing which channels they use.
Don’t feel pressured to be active on all of them. It’s usually best to select between one and three channels to get started. The quality of the content you publish will reflect on your business, so make sure you only take on the amount of work you can realistically handle as you get started with social media.
2 – Create your profiles
Simply claiming a page and adding the standard “Contact” and “About” details isn’t going to be enough, but plenty of people do this. You need to take the time to write a profile that captures the essence of your business and gives readers a little insight into the people behind the brand. Also, include a “Contact now” button on your pages and confirm that your website and contact details are completed in full.
Don’t worry about making things perfect at the start, but do take the time to write a meaningful introduction to your business. Include nice images on your story and main profile page. If you don’t have graphic design skills in-house, you can use a free tool such as to create eye-catching, colorful, branded graphics to use online or in print.
Tip: Choose a font and a set of colors to use, and keep these consistent across all social media and website channels. Consistency is key. You want people to start recognizing the brand behind the business. Also, make sure you include your logo on all imagery for your business.
3 – Share your new pages
Now for the fun stuff. Building up a social media presence organically is the best way to get an engaged audience. Don’t be tempted into buying fake followers. While such offers might look good, it means your engagement will be low. That’s money that you are essentially throwing away.
The first step is to share your pages with as many people as you can. To make it easy, we’ve broken down a few steps you can take to spread the word about your new social media ventures!
- #1 Update your website by adding links to your social media pages. Best practice guidelines state to add these to the top of the homepage and to the website’s footer.
- #2 Include links to your social media pages on your email signature, either as part of the signature or by creating a banner that sits underneath your name.
Tip: If you haven’t designed a branded signature for your business, use this link to access Adding social media buttons is quick and easy, and Hubspot signatures look very professional.
- #3 Email your clients to let them know you are now on social media and that they can follow you for news, updates, new products, early access, offers, and more. Make the message short, sweet, and compelling. Don’t forget to include a link to your social pages in the email to make it easy for your clients to find and follow you on their preferred platform.
- #4 Get your people involved! If you are a solopreneur or you don’t have a huge number of employees on the payroll just yet, ask friends, family, and people already in your network to help you spread the word. Simply asking them to share your page on their own pages can help you significantly boost your reach.
- #5 Use a sponsored post to reach new people. Before you start thinking this is going to cost you lots of money, remember that most social media platforms offer free credit to help you get started. If you’re going to try this approach, be creative with your post. Consider what you can offer your target audience in return for liking or following your page. Think about offers, discounts, new product launches, or anything else that could entice them to follow you.
- #6 Run a competition. You don’t necessarily need to budget for your prize; you could give away a product or service that you offer or even a gift card. The key is to make it easy for people to share your offer with others. Stay active during the competition to reply to any questions that may come up. Always make sure you deliver on your promise to award a prize, and post the winner on your social media pages, along with tagging them in the announcement. This is a great way to get more organic likes for your page, thus building your social media presence.
These six steps are all very easy and affordable (if not free) to implement. Each represents a different way to share your new pages with your audience.
Bonus tip: If you sell products to your customers, include a card in the product box about following your social media pages for the latest offers, etc. At your retail store, leave some posters that indicate how to find you on social media. If you operate an online business, include a link to your social media pages on any order confirmation or completion emails you send.
Final Thoughts
All communication channels should be used to promote your social media pages. If you do this consistently, you will start to build your social media following and grow your presence online. Once you start putting in the effort, make sure to always engage with people when they leave a comment or respond to a post on your page. If you fail to follow up, people will lose interest, and you will not reap the rewards for your efforts.
