Social Media Marketing for Local Businesses

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80% of marketers claim social media marketing has increased their site traffic. Take a look at the below screenshot that shows how social media platforms can help gain potential customers.
Moreover, it helps local businesses grow their backlinks, content reach, and local reviews.
So, let’s understand how you can leverage social media for your local business:

Benefits of Social Media Marketing for Local Businesses

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1. Leverage Social Media Platforms to Build Business Presence

As of 2022, there are approx. 4.62 billion users who are present on at least one social media platform. This makes it approx. 85% of the total number of internet users globally.
That said, a significant part of your ideal customer population is on social media. And these platforms can help you draw great value for your local business.
Moreover, platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc., help you establish your business profiles. Take a look at this example below:
If you are still hesitant to build your website, you can build your shop/store on these platforms. These platforms offer you features like:

• Display your products/services as pictures/videos with details and pricing
• You can add your contact button, links to your existing site, or direct inquiry forms
• Showcase your location, business details, social proof
• Attract direct inquiries in social media DMs (Direct Messages)

Here is how the Facebook Shop for a restaurant business looks:

2. Social Media Sharing Helps You Build Backlinks

The authority of your link profile impacts your PageRank. And PageRank is one of the closest associates to the search engine algorithm. This is why all businesses in the world are looking to build high-quality links from higher domain authority sites.
So, building authoritative backlinks can help local businesses earn good SEO value and ranks.
When you grow the organic reach of your local business on social media, you create brand awareness. Moreover, platforms like Reddit, Quora, Facebook, and LinkedIn allow you to share your content actively.
Now, with better awareness, users are more likely to re-share, forward, and engage with your content.
This grows your referral traffic and overall leads. And as your content reaches more web-masters, they are likely to link back to your content.
Some tips for leveraging social media include:

• Repurpose your content for various social media formats like Story, Feed Posts, Videos, etc.
• Join relevant ‘subreddits’ on Reddit and post answers to relevant questions on Quora
• Add highly relevant hashtags, keywords, and engaging previews to your video posts

3. Leverage Social Media Advertising to Increase Store Traffic

Social media advertising networks just fall second to search engine advertising. Moreover, social media advertising offers you detailed targeting and an extensive list of features.
Facebook Ads have the potential to reach up to 190 million users. Meanwhile, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram ads also reach approx. 150 million users each.
What’s more interesting is the several numbers of ad formats –
Images, carousel, video posts, Story Ads, Promoted Posts, Promoted Pins, etc. Here’s an example of promoted posts.
Moreover, you can choose detailed targeting based on interests, gender, life events, job title, age, etc. This comes with common filters like location, ad budget, campaign objective, etc.
Here is how the choice of campaign objective looks for Facebook Ads:
Objectives like Brand Awareness, Traffic, Conversions, and Store Traffic might make much sense for your local business.
Here, you can reach a well-targeted audience and expect good ROIs.
You can also plan Remarketing Ads on Facebook for users who previously visited your site.

4. Grow The Reach of Your Content

Social media can help you grow your content’s reach up to many folds. This grows your referral traffic, brand awareness, and backlinks.
The quality and relevancy of your content on social media grow its shareability. And you can enhance your content’s searchability by using keywords, hashtags, alt texts, etc.
Moreover, you can even make your social media content searchable on search engines.
Here are steps to make your Facebook posts searchable in regular search engine queries:

• Open the Settings Tab in your Facebook Business Profile
• Click on the Privacy Settings tab
• Next, enable the “Do You Want Other Search Engines to Link to Your Timeline?”
  

Further, as a local business, you must use Tumblr too. This micro-blogging platform offers you Dofollow links for original micro-blogs. So, you gain backlinks by posting on Tumblr, and you also receive referral traffic.
LinkedIn Pulse and Medium are other platforms to grow your content’s searchability.

5. Rope in Local Influencers to Grow Enquiries & Conversions

In recent years, influencer marketing has dominated the digital space. 77% of consumers make purchases after seeing influencer-endorsed ads. This is why brands pay hefty amounts for influencers to make more profits.
Take a look at the screenshot. Some brands pay as high as $1.5 million to Christiano Ronaldo for putting one Instagram post.
Other popular statistics say that businesses churn out $6 returns for every $1 they invest in influencer marketing.
So, the right social influencer can significantly boost your social media marketing returns.
It is advisable to connect with an influencer whose follower-list reflects your ideal customers. There are several influencer marketing platforms in the market that you can use to find local influencers.
Here are some ways an influencer can help you for your local business:

• A local blogger or influencer can review your local business and share it with their followers.
  For example, A food blogger visits your restaurant and gives great reviews about your food. This can attract a significant number of customers to your business.
• An influencer can simply share your social media post on his official page with his followers.
• You can collaborate with an influencer to create a commercial for your business.
• An influencer can help you share your promotions as special offers for followers. And his followers can use this code while shopping at your store.

6. Build Social Proof and Grow Local Reviews Through Social Media

Local reviews are one of the biggest assets for a local business.
Today, 82% of consumers wouldn’t visit a local business before checking its reviews.
Moreover, local reviews don’t just form an important social proof but also contribute towards location authority.
And so, more positive local reviews naturally translate into higher rankings in SERPs. Thus, all businesses give importance to acquiring positive reviews from their customers, as shown in the below screenshot.
Positive GMB reviews can earn you a position in the Local 3-Pack results.
And social media is a great platform to build your social proof and even attract GMB reviews.
You can simply connect with your customers on social media and build social proof.
For example, A customer who visits your salon might post his new hairstyle on Facebook and tag your business. This is solid social proof, and it can attract you some leads.
You can also share his post on your story and thank him for mentioning it.
Moreover, you may even earn feedback comments on your product/service-related posts. You can reply to these comments to build a positive consumer sentiment for your business.
Moreover, you can even manage your customer relationships through social media and the email channel.
You can share feedback cum loyalty offers for customers through social media.
For example, A consumer shares his delight about your interior design service on social media and tags you. Now, you can reward him with a 10% discount offer for any additional home care services. And you can even request him to share his experience on your GMB page.

7. Use Several Social Media Features to Promote Your Business for Free

Several social media platforms offer their features for business development.

• Pinterest offers you Rich Pins to promote products, services, content, etc. The platform attracts shoppers and users looking for DIY tips.
  
  If you are a home care business, you can showcase your expertise through enticing Pins. You can showcase cool interior design ideas, your work progress images, etc.
• TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts offer short-form video content format that promises great reach.
  Influencer-powered short-form videos can bring you huge value for your local business.
• Stories featured on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc., also offer great engagement to businesses. Brands win an 86% completion rate from Instagram Stories. Take at this story by Starbucks with a CTA to attract the customers.
  
• The ‘Live’ feature on social media platforms helps build engagement. You can share exclusive offers or show the live ambiance of your venue.

As aforementioned, Instagram and Facebook Shops also help you attract direct inquiries for your business.

8. Building Active Engagement Channel with Users for Customer Loyalty

Local businesses must leverage social media to enhance customer relationships.
A significant part of your customers is already on social media. And you can encourage your customers to connect with your brand’s social profile.
They can easily tag your brand for every experience at your business. And you can even build better customer loyalty by offering discount offers.
Take a look at this example below, a known brand that still offers discounts to maintain customer relationships.
You must also list your social profiles on your website and your listings. This approach can grow your social media followers.
Moreover, you can attract store visits and inquiries by giving exclusive offers to your social followers.
Whether you add a new outlet, rebrand, or launch new products/services, you can share it on social media. And your followers can help you spread the word.

9. Establish Your Brand as A Recognizable Identity

Consumers prefer to buy from brands with an active and strong social media presence. Moreover, if you have a prominent social media following, it reflects solid social proof.
For example, Puma has collaborated with many well-known celebrities, which builds trust and popularity among the common audiences.
As aforementioned, you must plan a well-structured business profile on social media platforms.
And your social media profiles must showcase consistency with your official site or business.

• Use the same official business name and brand icon for your profiles
• Follow your branding elements and brand color consistency in your posts
• Showcase your product/service catalogs, website link, address, and contact on your social profiles

These traits will make your business recognizable and help in brand building.

Read: Tips to Get Facebook Recommendations for Local Businesses

10. Gain Valuable Audience Insights

Social media presence does not just help you understand the audience sentiment, but your targeting.
You can track the users’ comments on your product/service-related posts for feedback.
You can also analyze the audience type that shows interest in your offerings. This includes their age, gender, common characteristics, etc.
Moreover, you must analyze the social profiles of your competitors. Take a look at the below screenshot of competitor analysis done between Nordstrom and Bloomingdale.
The competitor analysis is necessary to see:

• Their followers probably replicate your target audience, and you can plan a competitive campaign
• The type of content, offerings, and promotions your competitors are posting on social media
• The type of social media ads your competitors run
• The sentiment around their brand and if you can leverage it to some value

BuzzSumo, Sprout Social, and SEMRush are valuable tools for competitors’ social media analysis.

Social Media Marketing for Local Businesses - FAQs

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Q1. Why Must Local Businesses Have a Social Media Marketing Strategy?

Social media marketing helps local businesses unveil benefits like:

• An easier business establishment with Shop and Direct Selling features
• Promoting business, products/services, offers, etc. using social media advertisement
• High content reach, more referral traffic, and growth in backlinks
• Customer relationship management and growing repeat sales
• Attracting local reviews, building social proof, and brand building

Q2. Can Local Businesses Leverage Social Media Advertisement?

Yes, small local businesses can also draw good returns from social media advertisements.
You need to choose the right advertisement platform (Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, etc.). And you can leverage detailed targeting to narrow down your audience and make your ads more cost-effective.

Q3. What Would be Some Social Media Marketing Tips to Grow My Local Business?

• Build consistent business profiles on several social platforms
• Use several platform-specific features like Rich Pins, Stories, Short-form Video, Live, Feed Post, etc.
• Promote products/services, your experience, venue, user reviews, etc. on social media
• Collaborate with social influencers relevant to your business
• Make your posts searchable with keywords, hashtags, Alt Texts, Tags, etc.
• Engage with your audience and attract direct inquiries through social media (DMs, Facebook Shop, CTAs, etc.)

Q4. Does Social Media Marketing Help My Local Business Rank In Google?

Social media marketing might not directly affect your SEO as social signals aren’t a ranking factor.
However, social media sharing grows your content reach and backlinks. Moreover, social sharing grows social proof and referral traffic. These factors have an impact on your SEO value.

Key Takeaways

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• Build official business profiles on several social platforms. Add business info, offerings, contact info, address, CTAs, etc.
• Leverage Facebook Shops, Instagram Business Page, Pinterest, etc. to attract direct inquiries
• Repurpose content on social profiles to gain reach and backlinks
• Use Reddit, Tumblr, Quora, etc., for Micro-blogging and gaining backlinks.
• Target local audiences based on their interests, gender, age, etc., with social media ads.
• Collaborate with social media influencers to reach a wider audience.
• Encourage customers and site users to connect on social media. They can turn into your brand evangelist and even attract referral leads.
• Use BuzzSumo or SEMRush to check your competitor’s social media strategy.