One of the most common questions I get asked is how business owners can use social media to market themselves.
There seems to be a lot of information out there, in terms of how to use social media to market yourself. With new tools being made available all the time, and older tools acquiring new features (I’m looking at you Instagram!), it’s enough to make anyone’s head spin.
The good news is, you can use social media in small ways to market yourself. At the end of the day, it’s a whole lot of little actions that can add up over time in a big way. Keep that in mind, as you implement social media using these simple, small tactics:
1. Show Behind-the-Scenes
Do you want to know what audiences on social media love? Behind-the-scenes content! I’m serious–they eat it up!
I’m going to go out on a limb here, and assume that the reason why behind-the-scenes content is so popular is because we crave to see public figures and businesses that are willing to pull back the curtain and show us their real lives. In the intangible yet constantly connected digital world, we ironically crave to make real connections.
One of the ways you can do this is by using the Stories feature on Instagram or Snapchat (if you’re still into it). For example, I make short videos, where I explain marketing concepts as I’m working on them. This gives a behind-the-scenes look into my business as well as provides value for social media followers. It doesn’t take a whole lot to do this either; the videos are literally 10 seconds long. It’s simply a matter of remembering to do it.
2. Live-stream While You’re Working
A few days ago, I was interviewing the founder of a local meetup group for freelancers for my podcast. I posted about it on Instagram, and I instantly received requests to live-stream the interview. Since the people asked for it, we gave it to them.
It ended up being an excellent idea. Not only did I show viewers how I set up for a podcast interview (that’s the behind-the-scenes stuff I was talking about above), we also took live questions from the audience while I was recording. This was a hit–and all we had to do was fire-up Instagram and start recording a live video of something we were already doing anyway!
So, rather than trying to invent new content all the time, you can use social media to show people what you’re already up to.
3. Share Wins
Another small way you can use social media is to share wins with your audience, as they happen in real-time. Did you get featured in the press? Snap a picture of the article and post it on social. Did you hit a new milestone? Post about it on Facebook. Did a client text you an amazing testimonial? Ask them for permission to use it, take a screenshot of it, and put it on Instagram.
The Bottom Line
It’s not difficult to use social media to market yourself, if you remember that it’s all about small actions adding up over time. Using social media in some of the aforementioned ways can help you take things one step at a time and eliminate any potential for becoming overwhelmed.
Amanda Abella is a full-time writer who specializes in online business and finance. She’s also an online business coach and the Amazon best-selling author of Make Money Your Honey.
Due is a payments, eCash, online invoicing, time tracking, global payments, and digital wallet solution for freelancers, small business owners, and companies of all sizes.