Digital Marketing

How To Grow Your Social Media As A Small Business?

Proven social media growth strategies for small businesses. Learn about hashtags, timing, collaborations, competitions, and engagement tactics that work.

Jason Poonia Jason Poonia | | 4 min read
How To Grow Your Social Media As A Small Business?

Key Takeaways

  • Use quality hashtags strategically on Instagram and Twitter - research your industry’s top-performing tags
  • Run competitions and giveaways to attract new followers and expand your brand reach at low cost
  • Post at optimal times when your target audience is active, and avoid posting exactly on the hour
  • Build suspense with stories and teasers before launching new products or campaigns
  • Collaborate with influencers and aligned brands to tap into established, trusting audiences
  • Stay consistently active by liking, following, and engaging with relevant accounts in your niche

Social media has become an essential component of the most effective marketing tactics. It aids in the development of engagement, brand recognition, website traffic, and sales. To be successful, a solid social media growth plan is required.

Without question, social media is a tremendously effective instrument, but it has also become a highly competitive marketplace. An effective social media plan must include a few critical components. Let’s start with scalability and how to increase your following.

Social Media Development

Things to Include in Your Social Media Growth Strategy

  • Hashtags Hashtags are an effective social media growth tactic.

Quality over quantity - Conduct research to determine your sector’s most popular hashtag searches. Track the engagement rate of hashtags using a platform to understand what works best for you. We prefer to utilise Keyhole and Sprout Social to monitor hashtags and rivals. Social media is as much about appearance as it is about substance; use hashtags in your comments to keep your profile appearing consistent.

Hashtags are only used on Instagram and Twitter. This is not Facebook.

  • Competitors Running tournaments is an excellent strategy to increase your social media followers. It allows new and prospective consumers to win/tries your goods or service without having to hand up any money. Engagement broadens your reach and raises brand recognition.

Nobody ever said, “I detest free things.”

  • The timing

Have you ever heard the expression “being at the right place at the right time?” Timing has never been more critical. Consider when your target market is most likely to be on Instagram or Facebook when publishing on SM. Posting around 5.30 pm on a weekday may be ineffective if the bulk of your market travels home. Analytical tools are excellent for this.

Take note that many businesses publish on the hour. By scheduling your material on the hour, you may avoid getting relegated to the bottom of people’s news feeds. 7.02 pm, for example

  • Stories and teasers Are you introducing a new menu or product? Create suspense or anticipation. This will start people talking about your page and sharing stuff from it. Social media is all about little snippets, sharing textures, and getting customers to participate in guessing games. Captivate your audience. It is advisable to pre-launch a campaign on platforms with lesser ‘attention per post’ and then link to the final drive on Facebook, your website, or both.

Also see: The Best Ways To Manage A Heavy Workload - Staying Calm Under Pressure 5) Take a breather, collaborate, and listen.

Collaborate with social media influencers, ambassadors, and aligned brands to establish partnerships. A joint gift, sponsored review, and some public relations can go a long way. Social media influencers and alliance brands are an excellent approach to interacting with an audience that already has a high level of trust in the person they follow. Whittakers and Lewis Road Creamery are two examples of solid brand alliances. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, go to the local shop and grab some chocolate milk right now.)

Please remember that they are not your rivals but people who share your beliefs and complement your brand image.

  • Maintain Strategic Activity It is critical to like, follow, and engage. Ensure that the material you are involved with is relevant to your brand. After all, the fundamentals of SM are based on communication and engagement. Commenting and interacting puts you on the radar of the appropriate people.

Consider it as networking.

We hope you enjoyed our plan for growing your social media following and likes.

Written by

Jason Poonia

Jason Poonia is the founder and Managing Director of Lucid Media, helping NZ businesses grow online since 2018. With over 6 years delivering results for clients across New Zealand and internationally, Jason combines technical expertise with proven marketing strategies to help businesses attract more customers and build scalable systems. Background in Computer Science from the University of Auckland.