Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Ask SCORE by Dean Swanson

How can you best utilize social media marketing in the new year to stand out from the other 30 million businesses? Here are some suggestions that will help you achieve success with your social media marketing efforts in 2023.

Use social media personally. As a businessperson, you may feel that you don’t have time to engage with social media on a personal level, and you only interact with it while using it for marketing purposes. However, doing so may be a mistake that’s costing you. If you’re posting on social media for your business, you need to be consistently using social media on a personal basis.

Many businesses are missing the mark when it comes to successful social media, and the key reason is that they are approaching it like traditional marketing and not from the viewpoint of the user. Anyone on your team that has the power to influence your social media marketing must interact with social media personally daily. You would never sell a product that you yourself haven’t used and can attest to its value; why would you create content if you’re not a content consumer as well? Pencil in time to actually use one of the platforms.

In using social media apps, you will not only keep up with trends that your company could follow, but you will also be able to gain priceless insights from your customer base by seeing how they interact with competitors or even other businesses in different industries. Your algorithm will become personalized the more you use these apps. With that, you will pick up on what makes social media marketing successful. You’ll soon begin to notice how bad social media marketing sticks out like a sore thumb. Finding success on social media can sometimes be as simple as jumping in at the right time or understanding the hard-to-describe “it” factor. These things may sound easy to replicate, but they can’t be manufactured genuinely. The best way to “win” at social media marketing is to embrace it as an average daily user would.

Use the resources you have. You may be a small operation, but when it comes to marketing on social media if you want to do it well, it might be all hands on deck. A few years ago, a small business could easily manage and maintain its social media accounts with just one person handling it part-time. In 2023, social media marketing is likely going to require more energy and brainpower than before. The best way to tackle this challenge without getting overwhelmed is to utilize the resources you already have.

Once you have found the platforms worth prioritizing and you’re ready to start making video content, you might realize it can be a big undertaking. If filming video content seems daunting to you, try and use the resources available to you to simplify it. Use your phone to film and don’t worry about doing any flashy editing to start off with. For example, many people simply record while sitting in their car and they still gain massive followings! Contrary to popular belief, your content does not have to be perfect or polished to be worth posting, especially when you’re just starting out. People will find less-than-perfect content to be more authentic and relatable anyways, so don’t let that stop you from getting started.

Maybe you already have product photos or instructional videos that you’re using. Great! You can repurpose those in a new and fresh way on social media. No need to go through the process all over again if you already have assets that can be refreshed. This will also help free up the time it might take for thinking up new content.

Depending on what stage of your business you are in, you may also consider bringing on an extra set of hands. If your business is more than just you, try and get your other team members involved to help think of ideas and create. Even if you don’t have other team members, you could always try and involve friends, family, or even your VIP customers! You’d be surprised by the valuable ideas people can offer or even how willing they might be to help you. A video of a customer’s testimonial can be a really powerful marketing tool.

Dean Swanson is a volunteer certified SCORE mentor and former SCORE chapter chair, district director and regional vice president for the northwest region.