Effective Use of Social Media: 5 Tips for Small Businesses

While the digital world has proven to be lucrative, it can be a scary place for small businesses. Everyone is selling something; how do you compete with the conglomerates? Where do you get funds to hire influencers? Then you make your own mistakes: posting low quality content, inconsistency, not giving the customer information to make a sale. It can make you feel like an ant on a football field. If this is how you feel have no fear, Tay Mitch is giving you five tips to effectively utilize social media for business.

The best way to teach is by example, and "Martell Mitch" is doing just that. Tay Mitch is a brand expert and global brand ambassador for Martell, who co-founded and built The Midas Group (a full-service marketing and branding company). He utilized all five of these tips and more to build multiple businesses from the ground up. His “Let’s Be Who We Really Are” mantra as well as his “More” mantra, speaks to his transparency when it comes to building brand portfolios and his need for never being satisfied for where you are. He wants more growth, innovation, community building, and success. This moved him to put together his “Get In The Mix” master class, which teaches business owners how to master social media and create a space for themselves in the ever growing, aggressively changing digital world. We were able to speak to him and get a preview. “Let’s Get In The Mix”

1. Morals/Code of Ethics

Do whatever to get to the top the fastest? Not Exactly.

TayTip: Everyone has to have a certain standard that they hold their business to.

Stick to the script, know exactly why you started and stay solid. You display your moral thru your social media. Your moral is shown in your graphics in the way that you interact with your audience.

But what if you have been sticking to your morals and your company isn’t growing?

Sticking to your morale doesn’t mean avoiding trends or relevancy. There are ways for you to stay on trend without compromising brand quality. For example, #HotGirlSummer is a trending hashtag right now. Wendy’s and Maybelline used the term. A professional business may not want to associate their tax company with the provocativeness that comes with that hashtag, however, they could still use it just by putting a woman in a business suit or showing her taking care of business and then making a caption that says #HotGirlSummer all year long. Again, you ride the wave of the culture but still adhere to morale.

2. Understanding The Triangle Office

TayTip: You need to put yourself as the consumer, employee, and owner. Think like the consumer: what’s going to entice me online? Is it the colors? Is it the caption? What’s grabbing my attention? As the employee: what is the message that we are trying to get across? How am I talking about the business? What is the message from the team members? As the owner, you have to understand all of those roles and ask yourself: are you getting everything across to the customer? Understanding the Triangle Office, aids in helping you put together a strategic marketing plan.

3. 3D Marketing: Feel it, See it, Hear it

TayTip: This is where I have had the bulk of my success. Create graphics and visuals that people can see, feel, and hear. For example, let’s say a hip-hop artist comes out with a new song and he posts a text-based graphic with his lyrics on the screen and music in the background. So you are seeing the post, you can hear the music, and now you can feel the message because you are reading his lyrics. These are things that people are remembering. We live in a very visual society. You can’t tell people about something, they want to see it.

How do you combat “Look & Scroll”?

Polls and questions help people to interact and engage. You can do that on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram stories and then share your results on Instagram timeline. People love to feel included. Example, If I work for Jamba Juice. You post two new flavors you are coming out with and ask them to vote on it. Testimonies work tremendously. Get people who have purchased your product or service to give a visual testimony.

4. Know your market

TayTip: Know your market. Know more than your audience. Examples, if you are opening a nail shop in a particular area ask yourself if there is another nail shop within a 5-mile radius. Know your competitors. It helps you set up your strategic plan. Turn yourself into a secret shopper to find out what they are doing that you are not doing, also what can you do that they are not doing. Knowing your market allows you to set your prices. That carries over into the digital world because you know what to put in your ad.

Should you run ads with 300 followers? How do you create an ad?

You can target your competitor’s audience and clients. You can target households that make over 30k, or people in your area. Your ad is set up by the research that you do to when learning your market. Facebook and Instagram help you set up an ad. Those platforms are extremely user friendly.

5.Effectively set goals

TayTip: First let me say everything takes patience. So, if you have a company you want to launch I advise setting 90 day goals. 90 Days give you the chance to see what is working and what is not working. Set small goals that lead to a big goal. For example, you want to spend 50 a month on ads after that 3rd month you are able to look at your ads purchased and see what worked and what didn’t. You can ask yourself did I do better during a holiday week, or did the season or current events affect my sales, etc. No business should launch digitally without setting goals. You don’t want to be working so hard and not know where you are going.

If you are not thinking about your business every day and you are not working at it every day then these tips won’t work. Put your business in your everyday conversation. You have to continue building your brand every day. You are your brand. Also, be realistic with your expectations and be ready to work social media. Social media is a job within its self you have to be ready to work.

If you have followed these five tips and you are still struggling you can visit www.Taymitch.co to sign up for a one-on-one session and get in the mix.