3 Small Business Social Media Marketing Tips

Companies have to continuously reinvent the wheel with social media to maintain engagement. Putting out the same messages in the same formats is a quick way to lose your audience. So how do you keep up?

These tips shouldn't be considered "new", alas, to many, they are never considered at all. Photo and video-based platforms make it easier than ever to make a small business relevant to actual people, not just algorithms.

1) Humanize your company! Fancy graphics and marketing copy serve a purpose, but if your Instagram feed is a wall of polished ad-speak, you're doing it wrong. Share photos of your staff at work - making the product, enjoying a team outing, collaborating with clients - whatever you do that makes you special. And share your customers, too. Even a staged photoshoot of people showing your end product is better than a graphic design telling someone to use it. 

2) Highlight major or loyal clients/customers (especially ones with big social followings), uplifting their mission instead of your own. By tagging and linking to these people with a special shout-out and image related to THEM, you will organically increase your own engagement, while building that relationship and helping them out at the same time.

3) At Three(i), we get every member of our small team involved. Celebrating a milestone? The graphic designer can make a fun image to accompany the details. Attending an event? The new business manager can capture some photos for our Facebook story, or live-tweet a panel on Twitter. Want to engage with younger audiences on Instagram? The account manager can do that in her sleep. Want to engage with important business professionals? Send in the president! His network is awesome. Need day-to-day stuff? The marketing strategist can fill in the holes. 

Long story short, social media should be SOCIAL. That's not one person posting one-way messages into the void. It's a seamless collaboration that works best when it feels effortless.