As a small business, having a presence on social media can be challenging but it is well worth the time and effort. You’ll expand your brand, be able to stay connected to your customers, and even have new customers easily find you and grow to trust you.

What Are Your Goals?

Before you jump into social media, it’s important to do your research to determine what you want to achieve with each social media platform. Define your goals and your strategy to achieve them. A plan will help you stay on course to achieve your goals.

What is Your Industry Doing on Social Media?

Look at what others in your industry are doing on social media. Find hashtags that work for them on Twitter and Instagram and incorporate those hashtags into your posts.

What topics are being discussed? Contribute to the discussion. Even better, are you seeing subjects in your industry that aren’t being discussed? Use this subject to start a conversation and establish yourself as the expert. Grab attention by adding industry-specific hashtags so your audience and influencers will take notice and, hopefully, join the conversation.

Check Out Your Competition

Social media can be one of your most valuable resources for learning what your competition is doing. Use their posts to offer your take on a subject. See what types of posts are working for them and how often they post. Don’t rip off your competition, but what works for them might work for you since you both have the same audience.