WHO USES SOCIAL MEDIA?

​Most business owners know at this point in order to stay competitive you need to have social media platforms set up for your business. If you're a business that isn't utilizing​ social media, it could be that you do not recognize the importance of what these types of platforms have for your business.

​THE PURPOSE

Before jumping into statistics and numbers and all the possible outcomes of what growing a local following can do for your business it is important for businesses to understand the purpose and goals of what it is to set these up.

Number one reason to setup a Facebook page or Instagram account is to be able to "CONNECT and GROW" your relationships with your customer and client base. The main purpose is not to SELL people on your products or services. In fact, your feed should be 90% content and less than 10% about selling your product or service.

The entire point of our social media is to well "socialize"...meaning we need to set up a platform where we get to engage and interact with our customers while getting to know them and better yet letting THEM get to KNOW you!

You're focus should be about sharing insights of your business on a more personal level. Let them get to know the people that make up your business...let them get to know who and what you are! Show them behind the scene clips of what you do and how you do it. It's not to share your trade secretes but create a space where people can see the "human" side of your business. As customers, we are eager to know more about what makes up our favorite business establishments.

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS

​In a world where we can literally have platforms to be able to share every detail of our lives...​​We need to be wise ​and get to know what audience is ​really interested ​wanting to know more about. If we have this down we can leverage this to our advantage ​in a way that wasn't possible until now.

You may think that your business doesn't fit the criteria of this personal level relationship basis but I am here to say there is NO BUSINESS to date where a Facebook Page isn't beneficial to have. All businesses have this unique opportunity to reach out to their perfect client based audience to get to know on a deeper level. Why is this important? Because when people feel they have a personal connection with a particular business they are highly likely to keep ​that business in mind to use when it comes time in needing or wanting ​those products or services!

LEGITIMACY

It is NO longer the days of looking up a business in a phone book and strolling through the list of businesses in order and calling to see who is first available...no we and our consumers want to KNOW a business before making any sort of transaction. We want to know what other people think of them...we want to know if they have a website, Facebook, Instagram...we want to know if they are active or not and if they can be found Google. It all becomes about what and how much can we find about them.

Think about your decision making process when trying to choose a particular business or product...I'm willing to bet you're Googling and researching as much as you can to see how legit a business is first before choosing to move forward with them.

​FREQUENCY

Now think about coming across a business that has a social media feed that ​posted sometime last year or maybe last month and compare that to one that posted just a day or two ago or even ​better that same day! What if on that page you can clearly see what they are about and who they are as company. There is a shift in how serious you think about this business...​that is impactful. The frequency of your post speaks volumes of your company whether you like to admit it or not.

NO EXCUSES

Being that these platforms are free for businesses to use there really is no excuse to not have one setup. However, the term free is to be considered lightly because there is a time factor of what you need to set aside to keep up with your regular posts...hopefully being that they are daily. We understand most businesses would like for social media platforms to be set and done scenario but the truth of the matter is you ​should, to honest, be active multiple times a day even when it comes to posting.

I know majority of businesses would like to argue no way...I don't want to be annoying my followers with multi posts a day! ​It's a mindset that would benefit most businesses to change... First of all, you have to understand only 1% of your following is likely to see your post...meaning out of a 1,000 followers only only average 10 people will see it. That's not a whole lot...which is one of the major reason why posting multi times a day is so important.

​ALL ABOUT THE CONTENT

​Being told you need to post at the very least once a day...what in the world do you post about and who in the world when running a business has time for that?!  Going back on Social Media is Free...yes in so many words it is but what is the value of your time. ​To create excellent eye catching posts that speak directly to your customers takes up time that you may not have.

However, the more thought out and polished your posts are and created with your audience in mind to be Helpful and beneficial ​to them, the more likely you will see engagement and shares with you posts, that makes your time and effort all worth it. Great content that you share that people are hungry for is what will keep people coming back for more and eagerly wanting to know more about your business and to even for when it comes time, wanting to work with you.

When you are sharing exert information in regards to the field you are in, you are building trust that your customers seek. Customers will not only get to see you on a more personal side but also see how well you know your stuff!

​DIFFERENT PLATFORMS MEAN DIFFERENT CONTENT

Here at QC Find Now we like to work with the two most popular platforms which are Facebook and Instagram. There are of course several many others such as Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Snap-chat the list goes on. However we suggest that you pick 2 platforms that best fit your industry to focus on and do well with. We fell in this particular area FB and IG are the main ones other than Twitter that do well in our area. We feel LinkedIn is an upcoming platform but of course is a better fit for more business professional uses. 

You must understand that in most cases cross posting isn't always going to give you the same results. Meaning if you post the same thing on FB and IG you most likely will not get the same type of results. Why is this? Because they are 2 entirely different environments and 2 platforms where people are seeking different kinds of content. You might guess it IG is obviously more visual friendly where as Facebook has more of a informational front. No matter what platforms you choose you must know the type of content and what your audience is seeking to find with you there.

​GROWING YOUR FOLLOWING​

​Brand new and have less than 100 followers? How does one grow? What's the point? There are 2 ways to grow your page...slow and steady or fast ​at a cost. We are here to say yes you can 100% grow your pages organically without any ad spend...however, it's going to involve a lot of attention to detail to your platforms and regular posting and engagement on not only your posts but on other local posts you come across. As long as you have some incredible shareable content and on a regular basis growing your page should be no problem.

Back to being a Brand Baby New and starting at zero...you of course naturally want to start with asking your family and friends to like your page...but keep in mind these are not typically going to be your ideal business audience because optimally you want to have people wanting your product and services that will buy! In which case you'll want to come up with some amazing content that people will be more than happy to share out. The more often content is shared the more you will grow organically.

Now make sure to spend sometime as the business page to like and share and comment on other local businesses so that you will gain more awareness to your page. Growing organically is possible but it is a slower and steadier pace in which patience and consistency is key.

The other option which as a business is a must in our book is to put ad spend behind ​your hot content posts or creating a like page campaign. NEVER BOOST POSTS...why?! In short you have no control over who sees your boosted post which is literally throwing money right out there window...there is a right and wrong way of doing this...​that will be another day entirely devoted to this topic...but if you'd like to know more feel free to reach out to us and we can discuss how you create campaigns that will work​, as this is one of our specialties.

​WE UNDERSTAND

We get it! Social Media can be entirely too time consuming to want to consider doing it to the level it is recommended by any marketing expert. We know because we have our own social media team to work on ours. We literally spend hundreds of dollars a month making sure ours is taken seriously. Our efforts though have helped dozens of local businesses get recognized at no cost to them and that to us is what is important. We are clear in our mission to connect locals with local businesses and we understand the amount of time and efforts dedicated to making this clear.

Social media although FREE for businesses to use should never be taken lightly because of the power and impact it holds over your business. Be sure to use it in the matter it was designed for and your can be sure that it will pay for itself in the long run.  ​​ 

​If you have ever considered having experts take over your Social Media and would like someone to manage your posts and to help build your following feel free to reach out to us as we would be happy to discuss with you how we can​ get you real results for your small business!