Social media is the new town square. It’s where people engage with each other most frequently, and it’s also where businesses engage with consumers most often. Too many small business owners neglect their online presence and in doing so miss out on one of the most affordable revenue boosters in their arsenal. How can you utilize social media to grow your business? Keep reading to find out 👇
Five Ways You Can Use Social Media In Your Small Business
No matter what kind of business you run, social media is an essential tool to your marketing operations. If you’re working in the liquidation or retail industry, this is especially true. Whether you are a bin store owner, flea market flipper, wholesaler, or pallet flipper - social media is the best way that you can affordably reach customers who are already looking to buy what you sell.
This is unique to social media. Thanks to platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, you have easy access to hundreds, if not thousands, of local consumers who are willing to engage with your businesses online. In fact, these consumers may very well be looking for the exact goods that you offer - and social media gives you an easy way to connect them to your products. There are many ways that you can utilize social media to boost your revenue, but today we’ll look over five ways you can use this tool to your advantage.
Use Local Facebook Groups To Engage Your Community
There are usually a good two to five local Facebook Groups for any one town. Most of these groups will allow “Pages” (like your Facebook Business Page) to join the group and even post on the group discussion board. These groups are free and can yield amazing results for your business. It can’t hurt to join as your business’ page, but also with your personal profile. You can easily post some of your content into this group to engage with your community. Don’t solely rely on posting your own original content - you can also build some quality relationships by scanning through other posts and commenting where you can provide relevant information. By doing so, you build trust with your neighbors by showing them that you are the kind of business (and business owner) who cares about and is engaged with your neighborhood.
You just might come across posts from people who are looking for exactly what you offer - whether that is bin store deals, pallets on sale, or even wholesale goods. These groups are free to join and free to use. It’s a no brainer - join your local community Facebook page!
Incorporate Targeted Ad Campaigns Into Your Marketing
Social media ad campaigns are more affordable than traditional advertising and often yield greater results. Gone are the days where you have to rent a billboard to reach thousands of consumers with your message. Not only can social media marketing campaigns help you reach large quantities of people - but they can also help you reach large quantities of people in exactly the niche you are looking for.
When you rent a billboard, or put an ad in a newspaper - you are reaching all kinds of individuals. But when you use social media to create a targeted ad campaign, you can choose exactly who your ad should reach. This requires that you have a thorough understanding of who your ideal customer is so that you can take this information and create an ad profile based upon their interests.
Utilize Social Commerce
Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok all have features built into their platforms where users can shop directly from the app. Bringing some special deals onto your social media sites where shoppers can easily browse your offerings and even buy some directly from your page is a great way to engage with people who may not visit your storefront without having a positive online experience first.
Most bin stores are not looking to start a full-on e-commerce storefront, and I wouldn’t recommend that to begin with. However, it can be effective to take a few specialty items and showcase them online where users can snag a great deal and have it shipped right to their house (or better yet - offer free pick-up at your site location to get them in the door!). This gives local shoppers an opportunity to engage with your store and see what you’re about at a low-commitment level. It also removes barriers for new customers looking to see what you’re about. The less barriers within a customer's shopping experience, the better!
Don’t Just Advertise: Create Value
Consumers are honestly tired of being “advertised at” nonstop. One of the best things you can do to increase your social media engagement and effectiveness is to build a brand with personality and to create value for your community. Your profile ought to be more than informational graphics and posts begging customers to visit your storefront. Rather, your profile should be a page that people are interested in visiting simply because they enjoy your content.
To make this happen, here are a few tips that have helped us at Nice Find Wholesale.
- Show your real personality. People want to connect with people, not a stale corporate image. Put a face to your business, and let your audience see them often.
- Answer the questions your community is asking. Figure out what pain points your customers are experiencing and put some thought into how you can offer advice or solutions to these problems.
- Entertain, entertain, entertain. Today’s culture loves to laugh. If you can win them with some good-natured humor (without forsaking your professionalism), you might just get that “follow” you’ve been looking for.
- Hop on some relevant trends. Young customers love to see business owners who are willing to engage in social media trends! Find a creative way to incorporate some of these trends into your business messaging. You’ll be more likely to expand your audience and engage customers who might not otherwise care what you have to say.
- Be yourself. Most importantly, stay true to who you are and let your honest values show all throughout your content. This generation is craving genuine interactions with people - let your business’ page be one place they can find it.
Treat Social Media Like A Search Engine
More people are using social media to find the answers they are looking for and the goods they are shopping for before they look on traditional search engines or online stores. This is great news for businesses!
Imagine how many times you have gone to Google or Amazon and typed something like:
- The best value camping tent near me
- Where to find a charcoal grill near me
- Affordable back to school supplies for middle school kids
- Car accessories for my 2020 Hyundai Tucson
Now, people are searching these same questions into apps like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. In the age of search engine optimization, you would have had to work hard to rank at the top of hundreds of pages of Google results or paid big bucks to get the coveted sponsored result post for a customer to find your business when they typed in a search like that.
Today, you can easily show up in a customer’s search if you know how to build social media posts around the things people are looking for in your area. The best way to do this is to create video posts where you walk customers through products that are found in your store or on your pallets so that when they go to social media searching for that product, they find your content. Then, include “optimized” copy in the description portion of the video.
For example: you recently received a new shipment of charcoal grills at your bin store. You create an unboxing video for TikTok and Facebook where you show your followers the affordable, high quality grill that you just unpacked and let them know where they can find it. Then, you write a post like this in the description:
“Looking for an affordable charcoal grill in the Chicago area for your backyard barbecues? We just received 10 brand new grills that will be available starting tomorrow at our location on XXX Avenue in downtown Chicago. These grills are perfect for dinner with the family or hosting your friends on a Friday night! Grab them while they’re hot!” 🔥
Now, when customers go searching on Facebook for “where to find an affordable grill near me,” they just might come across your video!
When you understand how social media functions as the new search engine, you can use this to your advantage to create content that naturally responds to people’s questions and grabs customers without ad spend.
Conclusion
Social media is one of the best tools that any business, big or small, can utilize to maximize their profits. If you’re new to social media, this may seem overwhelming. But take heart - you don’t have to start with everything all at once. Just take one step every day to build your online presence and begin taking advantage of this affordable marketing tool. Getting started is what matters - you can grow as you go. We’d love to hear your thoughts on this article, or any tips or tricks that you have found to be useful in your social media journey as a business owner! Share them below and share this article if you found it useful.
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