SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT

Social Media Management for small business can be difficult. Small businesses are often unsure how to navigate the different platforms or what to post to them… Today we change that.

Social Media Management can be difficult. Many small businesses will hire someone to manage the company’s social media efforts for them.

Social Media Management is the process of managing a business’s online presence on social media platforms. Social Media Managers will use experience, tools, services, and analytics of content, interact with users, and analyze performance, to publish content that will benefit the business.

That’s the textbook definition. So now, let’s dive into what each social media platform is, how each platform works, and how to use each social media platform daily to drive revenue.

Google My Business

GOOGLE MY BUSINESS LOGO

Most do not consider Google My Business to be a social media platform. However, if you look at how it functions, it is. The first social media platform we look at, Ad Edge Marketing Group, is the business’s Google My Business profile. Not Yelp! Not Facebook! Not Instagram! Not TikTok! Not Twitter! GOOGLE MY BUSINESS! Why? Google My Business is the best resource for free local SEO. Google My Business lists the business on the internet’s largest search engine, with the physical address, phone number, and website. That’s not all, though.

When a business sets up a Google My Business account, the business can receive reviews, upload pictures, upload videos, and interact with users. Sound familiar? It should sound familiar because it’s exactly how a Facebook Business Page works. Simply put, Google My Business is the” Facebook” of the small business world on the world’s largest internet platform. Make no mistake. Google My Business is of the utmost importance for small business owners and could drive real revenue into your business.

Ad Edge Marketing Group – Google My Business Profile

A business’s Social Media Manager or Social Media Management Agency should interact with your Google My Business account daily. At a very minimum, uploading a picture daily to the platform so that Google continues to see that your company is interacting with its algorithm, which will improve its SEO ranking organically. The Social Media Manager or Social Media Management Agency posts daily to Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, & Twitter, and they can add the same content to Google My Business.

facebook

Facebook & Messenger logo’s modified by: Alexander Shatov https://unsplash.com/@alexbemore

Facebook is the world’s largest Social Media platform. Hate it or love it, Facebook is a must for small businesses, but how a small business uses Facebook to drive revenue depends greatly on the industry of the business and who the target audience is. That said, we will provide an overview of execution that we know works now and will continue to work.

1. Links to your products/services should be posted daily. The link with an enticing headline should drive the potential customer to your product/service. For example, “Get 25% off the XYZ Product/Service Today ONLY!”
2. You have given your potential customer a reason to act today.

Ad Edge Marketing Group Facebook mock up. Created by Steven Kelly 2022. All Rights Revered.

3. You have given a new potential customer a discount with a link to your website with other products/services, so they can continue shopping for more.

Video is king for engagement (likes, comments, and shares). Individuals will watch videos, then like them, comment, and tag their friends. With that being said, understand the following. The video must be entertaining, educational, or a combination of both. Yes. You read that correctly; your video content MUST be entertaining & educational from the very beginning and cannot drag on. While entertainment is a matter of perspective, the educational side is straightforward. Tell the audience what your product is, how it benefits them, what problem it solves, and how much it costs. Returning to the video’s entertainment part, a business must consider who is supposed to watch the video (target audience). Generally speaking, you would want to avoid creating a cartoon-style video targeting people over 60. They will more than likely not stick around to watch it. In turn, you would not want to use Erik Estrada to target Gen Z about the effects of vaping. They don’t know, nor do they care who he is. All content creation is biased depending on who the target audience is.

While video drives engagement, quality pictures can drive engagement as well. The pictures must be good. In today’s society, everyone is walking around with a pro-level camera in their pocket. Take pictures of your product/service and post them to Facebook. Here’s a key tip when posting pictures. Do your absolute best to not overlay any other images to your image. Facebook’s algorithm can tell if the picture has been edited with Photoshop, Canva, Adobe Stock, etc., and will intentionally throttle the engagement. If you want your logo in the picture, wear a company shirt. If you want contact information to accompany the picture, put it in the description. You can also put a link in the description; remember to place text after it to remain clickable and not become a link post. This is easier with carousel-style postings.

Lowered Chevy Silverado for sale at Elite Auto Fresno. Photo from Ad Edge Marketing Group.

Your Social Media Manager/Social Media Agency should Post content at least once per day but at most 4 times per day. Once per day lets Facebook know that you are actively engaging your target audience. Anything more than 4 times per day starts to become “spam posting,” according to Facebook.

If you notice your content is reaching fewer people than you want, it’s because it is supposed to. Facebook is not shy about it. You will have to pay to play at some point. Social Media Marketing differs greatly from Social Media Management and will be covered in a different article.

Instagram

Instagram is the gateway platform for access to Millennials. Owned by Facebook, aka META, Instagram functions differently. For starters, you cannot post links, there must be content (pictures or videos), and the link to your business only exists in your bio. However, that does not mean Instagram is useless to a small business. Quite the opposite, Instagram has launched some of the biggest brands in the world and made regular people celebrities.

As Instagram is completely visual content-based, a small business must understand the format of the different content styles on Instagram.

Young Black Man reaching out for an Instagram like.

Radios stacked to the ceiling. For an instagram pic.

1. Posts are in the original format for Instagram. A square picture post, to be specific, and that has evolved. Posts are still the standard, but video posts in the square get more traction because video content is more believable than just a picture.

   2. Instagram Stories are extremely popular but are a rip-off from Snapchat. Short form video (less than 15 secs), recorded directly to Instagram, or a picture taken directly to Instagram Stories. Stories only last 24 hours and are great for one-day sales or anything with a time limit. Views of stories are typically high but do not overdo it. Your audience will get sick of seeing the same thing over and over.
   3. Reels is Instagram’s answer to TikTok. Which is also covered in a different section. As of October 2022, you are making a big mistake if you are not posting Reels on your Instagram. Instagram has reprioritized the algorithm to ensure Reels are more prominent than square posts. Ad Edge Marketing Group has seen a 30% drop in an organic account reach for our clients’ square posts since the new algorithm and has mainly stuck with Reels for each of them because of it. META wants to retain all the users to TikTok, and they are taking drastic measures to ensure it does not happen. Unfortunately, they have not given full control over small businesses like TikTok, and it shows. Entertaining and Trendy is what matters the most with Reels. Keep in mind that no one wants to see your employees do the latest Fortnite dances in their uniforms, but they do want to be entertained by whatever you are posting. This is a chance to have fun with your content and make it great.
      

      Young Black Woman getting ready for an Instagram Live session.

2. Instagram Live is exactly as it sounds. It is a real-time video of a business interacting with its customer base. Note there is no pause button. You cannot edit. It is life in front of an internet audience. You are not in a safe place. Be prepared to truly interact with your customers and answer their questions as best as possible. This is never a requirement, but it is encouraged if a business is up to the challenge. It humanizes a business when they interact with the customer base. However, if you are quick-witted and readily prepared, it will go differently than you think it will.

   Like Facebook, Instagram posting should be at least once per day and no more than 5 times per day. In addition, ad Edge Marketing Group recommends that a small business posts different content styles with each posting. For example, one Square Video, One Story Video, and One Reel Video every day, then switch up the following day. Yes, It is a lot of work, but remember that the content you are creating for the business can be shared across all of your social platforms.

TikTok

3d render of TikTok logo

TikTok is the demon in the room for large social media companies. META is doing everything possible to duke it out with TikTok, and so is Google with YouTube Shorts. If all social media management companies were being sincere, none of us expected TikTok to become what it is. Teenagers were dancing and lip-syncing their favorite songs; who cares. Fast-forward to 2022, and thanks to the COVID-19 Pandemic, TikTok became a thing. TikTok’s algorithm is insane. If you have a vice or an interest, it will show you everything it has. It changes rapidly as well. Adapting to whatever the users’ interests are on the FYP (for you page), keeping your following timeline clear of unwanted content. It’s almost perfect. What does this mean for your business? It means you are recording a video once and uploading it to multiple platforms. Here is a very important thing to note. You must post constantly, or your audience will not grow. At least 3 times per day, and if you can stomach it, 5-7 times will grow an audience quickly. So if your Social Media Manager/Social Media Agency is getting on your nerves with all the videos they are recording, that is why. They are attempting to grow your audience. Let us talk specifics now.

TikTok Camera in Camera

1. Entertainment needs to be a part of every single TikTok. Every last one. It doesn’t matter if it is a video of your Social Media Manager curled up in a ball, crying under their desk; the tears will be part of the entertainment for the audience.
2. The TikTok user LOVES a good story (#storytime). But unless it warrants a second video, they also want you to tell the story in ONE TikTok. So remove the fluff from the story and get right to it.
3. Trends are a real thing on TikTok, but again, no one wants to see your employees doing dances they copied from Charlie D’ Amelio. That is the fastest way to get the trolls in the comment section to start acting up and setting your company’s name on fire. The TikTok audience you worked so hard to build up will bring marshmallows to roast over your brand.
4. 

   Hashtag Light for Photoshoot

5. Under no circumstances curse. Steer clear of curse words, sexually or politically based content, or anything remotely touchy. The hounds of Hades will descend upon your company, and there will be little you can do to stop them. Keep it professional.

   5. Leave the pictures in the camera roll unless they pertain to a specific story you’re telling. TikTok is a video format. Slideshows will only get hinder your progress.
   6. INTERACT WITH THE COMMENT SECTION! TikTok’s algorithm rewards businesses that interact with the comment section. It proves that a human is running a social media account and not a bot.

   Remember that with every video you upload, you should tag the location. This keeps the content more focused on your area of operation.

TikTok is the newest social media platform, but not having a presence on the platform in this day and age is foolish. It does not matter your industry’s niche; someone wants to watch your content.

Twitter

280 characters to micro-blog your company’s current sales, community efforts, and anything else a business wants to inform the world on. Twitter can be a great social media platform, but Twitter is optional. In certain industries, Ad Edge Marketing Group will suggest that a company not have a Twitter account. Twitter is fast-paced and requires real interaction, and the business’s latest sale is often missed because of how fast-paced the social media platform is. If a small business is going to have a Twitter account, they need to be active, constantly research the trending topics of its industry, and interact with people on the web.

Custom Twitter Mug

1. Businesses can also post video content on their Twitter account but must be under 512MB and 2 minutes and 20 seconds long. Keep in mind the entertainment factors mentioned above in other social media platforms.

2. Twitter pictures and images need to be in landscape mode 16:9 ratio, preferably 600x335px which can be expanded to 1200x675px.

3. The Twitter audience can be unforgiving so make sure all spelling is correct and current.
4. Make sure any sources cited are legitimate.

Stay away from politically charged issues. This can hurt your entire brand on Twitter.

Politically Charged individuals at a protest.

YouTube

DSLR Camera

YouTube is a fan favorite. It is the second-largest Social Media Platform and the second-largest Search Engine worldwide. Now that is a very large statement and requires context. YouTube is second to Facebook as a social media platform and second to its parent company as a search engine Google. YouTube has two content types. The normal YouTube video is 16:9 Landscape and can be up to 8k (7680×4320). YouTube shorts require the video to be less than 60 seconds and are portrait 9:16 (1920×1080). The only reason for YouTube shorts is to keep people on the platform instead of heading to TikTok.

1. The story of your business. This is important. You can make a human connection and the YouTube viewer and the business, so they understand directly why this business exists.

   2. All of your ads. If you want to run ads on YouTube, you have to upload them to a channel, so as you make the ads, upload them to YouTube.
   3. Any video content you are uploading to your other social platforms. Think about it. It is just another platform that can house your video content and be shared as a link later on Facebook and Twitter to fill in holes when the business is low on content.
   4. Information about trends in your industry. It does not matter what your industry is; someone is looking for an update or a how-to video. Let them discover your company and your brand.
   5. The description section on YouTube is your FRIEND! You can post as many links as you like. Selling products online took work. Especially if you can grow an audience. Every full-time YouTube content creator has merch, and they sell a ton of it. So if your small business is on YouTube, sell your product or service via a link.

At Ad Edge Marketing Group we know this is a lot of information to soak in. If your small business needs any assistance with content creation, social media management, or any other marketing needs please contact us below.

Ad Edge Marketing Group

(559) 325-4084

info@adedgemg.com

www.adedgemg.com