5 Social Media Marketing Hacks for Small Brands

The best social media marketing hacks will help boost follower count, drive healthy engagements and build your brand on social media.

Read on to know about the 5 best social media marketing hacks for small brands.

How often have you picked up your cell phone when you were going to sleep and started scrolling casually?

Chances are that if you are like me, you will realise that you have spent quite a lot of time on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and YouTube.

I do not blame you; social media is quite an addictive platform.

You start seeing something, and then go on to something else. You keep jumping between pages and brands. Before you know it, you have spent over an hour, just scrolling.

From a Social Media Marketing perspective, the platforms offer infinite possibilities for brands. Social media offers opportunities for-

• Advertising
• Marketing
• Brand Awareness
• Brand Loyalty
• Customer Relationship
• Reputation Management
• Lead Generation
• Sales Conversions

Many experts in an article of this nature will keep telling you to choose platforms correctly. They will keep suggesting things that is known and common to almost everyone under the sun.

Using a social media marketing tool is not a hack! Posting regularly on social media is not one either.

They might be good practices or part of a hygiene. But they are definitely not a hack.

In this article, we will look at how small brands can effectively utilise 5 social media marketing hacks to succeed. Before we get to the list, it would be worthwhile to discuss the implications of social media for small brands.

Social Media Marketing: Business Opportunities for Small Brands

If I were to tell you that there are over 4 billion potential customers for your brand on social media, would you believe me.

Chances are you will.

In the past couple of years, social media has emerged as one of the most potent and important digital platforms for brands. No brand can afford to ignore social media

Social Media is highly beneficial for small brands to grow their business for multiple reasons.

As compared to traditional forms of marketing and advertising, social media is much more affordable, effective and controllable.

This means that small brands can work on their creativity and tricks rather than simply compete with big brands when it comes to pumping money.

In many ways, experts herald social media as an equalizing force in the digital industry.

While there have been severe criticisms regarding declining organic reach and the use of money, social media still continues to be a top attraction for small brands.

• Social media is an important platform for a small brand when it comes to growing their business and branding.
• It acts as a credible platform and intermediary for making direct communications with new users and existing consumers.
• High engagement on the platform has a strong impact on your website traffic and metrics.

Long story short, every small brand must maintain a presence on social media platforms that appeal to their industry.

5 Social Media Marketing Hacks for Small Brands-

1. Win your Competitor’s Followers for your Brand-

Consumers are not as loyal as they are made out to be. If that were so, brands would stop bidding on competitor brand names on Google AdWords. The best part about this trick is that you can learn from your competitor.

Simply go to your competitor’s page and see their followers. Create a list of the followers and start following them. Once you have started following them and reacted on a few of their photos, send them a message.

Win over them by stating how you love their content, and would want them to try your brand. People want to be courted and made to feel special on social media. This is why this strategy has a high success rate. You do not have to go elsewhere to look for potential consumers.

If you give them the attention, they will start following and engaging with your social pages. You will increase your follower count in no time and add to your store’s footfall.

2. Keywords work on Social Media Platforms as well-

Most brands and agencies are unaware of the fact that keywords work on social media in exactly the same way they do on Google. This is because you browse social media on a search engine.

If you are creating content on social media, make sure that it follows all the guidelines of keyword research. If you are linking it back to your website, ensure that you use the same keyword in the content part. Alt tags on images on social media also follow the same rule.

For small brands looking to rank on search, it is essential that you do your keyword research effectively. Google links up the most opportune content based on keywords and shows it on search.

For example, if you have shared a link from your blog post on your social media and it has seen high engagement; whenever people search for the keyword, they will be taken to your social media post.

3. Live Sessions and Video Content-

If your social media feed is not peppered with video content, you will lose out on at least 50% engagement and follower count. This is because videos have great organic reach on social platforms. Live Sessions have even higher organic reach!

Your content strategy should follow a video first approach. It does not matter whether you are shooting real videos, or stitching together images and placing texts on them. What matters is that you upload as many videos as possible.

Live Sessions are also something that most people like viewing from brands. For small brands, this can be a big turning point. Live sessions are highly engaging, exciting, and users are notified whenever their brand is ‘live’!

People love authenticity and brands being genuine. If small brands are able to communicate with audiences through once-a-week live sessions, they will see a marked improvement in engagement.

4. Make Ambassadors of your Followers and Consumers-

A small brand needs to remember that it cannot afford celebrities to do its marketing. What it needs is local families, communities, soccer teams to advertise and market its brand. This entails engaging with 100 followers/consumers aggressively.

All a small brand needs to do is create memorable occasions for its users. Think of creating a selfie wall in your store. Create a strong hashtag that you spread around the community. Have community specific contests and giveaways.

The aim is to promote a healthy and entertaining social ecosystem around your brand. If people start seeing that Joe enjoys such a celebrity status at the local diner, they would want to live that too. It is this psyche, which small brands need to tap into on social media.

Creating inexpensive brand merchandise like t-shirts, caps, and handing them out is a great idea. Use small offline promotions and amplify them on social media.

5. Narrate your Digital Personality on Social Media-

Do not get confused with the title. Try to understand what it means. Users on social media want brands to have an opinion on social issues. They like brands with personalities; brands which are not afraid to take sides or speak up.

While this might sound controversial, it is good for your business. The world is torn because of so many issues- Global Warming, Gender Equality, LGBTQ Rights, and Immigration Wars. If you are able to espouse your opinion on social media, you will attract followers who identify with your views.

This is not risky; this is clever and smart from a marketing standpoint. The new generation of digital natives want brands that have a certain personality. Small brands can take help from this and win potential consumers.

Conclusion

The best social media marketing agencies incorporate hacks that are new, innovative and different. They only appear to be challenging, as you have not probably heard of them before. However, if you are reading this right now, you get a competitive edge over others.

Small brands can also look at growing by using blog outreach services. These services help connect with social media influencers who promote and publicise brands on social media. They enjoy high follower counts and command substantial engagement rates.

By following the above 5 hacks, you can grow your business by using social media as a platform. Small brands face many challenges as compared to big brands, especially when it comes to digital marketing budgets. However, social media offers a level playing field if you are smart, creative and committed.