Is your business reaching that massive audience effectively?

Even if you don’t fancy yourself an “influencer,” Instagram growth for your small business can still be powerful. Everything from short-form videos to captioned images can be used and reused, engaging your audience with relevant content they can’t find in many other places.

Take Old Spice’s Dream Runner campaign from 2016 as an example. Instead of simply asking its audience to “like” and “comment” on the posts, they asked people to create a post of their own. More specifically, they asked people to run a route in the shape of one of Old Spice’s prizes and use a GPS to track it on a map. Once they uploaded their picture to Instagram, they then used the hashtag #runoldspice to enter the contest.

Working hand-in-hand with major influencers relevant to its niche, Old Spice was able to raise its brand awareness and promote a new product line. And the Old Spice marketing team did it all by tapping into the natural desire of humans to be part of a community.

That community is what social media is known for, and Instagram provides a creative outlet for your audience to take part. It doesn’t matter if you’re an insta-veteran or an insta-novice, you can leverage Instagram to engage your ideal customer base and grow your follower count quickly with the right approach.

Instagram growth tips for small business

1. Know your platform

You won’t be able to maximize Instagram’s capabilities unless you’re familiar with everything it can do.

Like every other social media platform, Instagram growth is all about content creation and distribution. Even though it’s hemmed in by image and video-based content, you can get extremely creative in how you utilise that media.

(Image Source)

Instagram Reels

Instagram Reels, for instance, are short videos that you can overlay with augmented reality, music, and captions. The typical length of a single reel can last anywhere from 15-60 seconds, and you can even create them ahead of time to upload later.

Instagram Stories

Instagram stories are another feature. Whereas you can only share video-based format with Reels, Instagram stories allow you to share text content such as written posts and links. Unfortunately, Stories have a time limit attached to them: After 24 hours, they disappear.

Hopper HQ allows you to schedule instagram stories and instagram reels right from your desktop. Click here to get started and take your Instagram to the next level!

2. Optimise and get verified

Both Reels and Stories allow you to place links inside your posts to generate external traffic to a website or e-commerce shop. But if you plan on growing your brand, you’ll need to create a fully-fleshed out account, complete with verification and an optimised profile.

With a legitimate online presence, getting verified is quick and easy. Just click on the settings button under your profile tab, and press “request verification” from the account menu. Getting verified ensures that your brand stays protected; anyone who follows you knows they’re not dealing with an imposter.

Optimising your profile is a little more nuanced:

• Remember that your username is different from your account name. Choose an SEO-rich term for your name field that will tell users what you really do
• Fill your bio (don’t stuff, though) with related hashtags and other accounts you’re partnering with. Not only is this a great way to make your account more visible, but you can also grow your audience by establishing partnerships.
• You only get one link in your bio, so make it count. While you may choose to direct your audience to your homepage, you can also use it for an event or promotions page, depending on current efforts on Instagram.
• Don’t forget about messaging! Sliding into someone’s DM’s isn’t just a great way to reach out to celebrities, it can also be perfect for answering customer questions and soliciting feedback.

3. Have a consistent aesthetic

Making sure your brand looks the same from platform to platform is a must. Not only will your brand establish trust with your audience, but it will also make it more memorable. And when a brand is memorable, that means more money added to your bottom line.

(Image Source)

So how do you keep your branding consistent across all your channels? It goes beyond simply having the right logo icon, colour palettes and font types. It needs to feel memorable at a glance in the same way that the Golden Arches from McDonald’s makes you instantly understand what you’re seeing (and how it can soothe your hunger).

Consider how your messaging appears on your emails, website, and social media platforms. If your style guide uses a certain type of filter, remember to use it when posting on other channels. Certain tools can help with this; Picsart, for instance, can add quality photo effects to your posts.

Hopper HQ Tip
Hopper HQ offers full image editing within the same tool. You can bulk edit posts to maintain brand consistency and create a beautiful Instagram feed aesthetic. 

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4. Post user-generated content or write user stories

Deciding how often to post on Instagram can change depending on how many followers your account has. Most experts argue that a business with 1,000–250,000 followers should shoot for somewhere between 2-3 times a day.

That can get tiring. To help build up a portfolio of content — and increase engagement — you should strongly consider posting and sharing content generated from your audience. This isn’t necessarily user-generated content (although that can be a goldmine as well), but stories that show your product in action from a consumer.

A shoe shop, for instance, can share a video of someone running the Boston Marathon in its shoes. An offroading retailer can share clips of its customers taking on Moab. And a software company may create a reel highlighting the efficiency benefits of its product from a real-life business.

5. Follow the social media rule of thirds

If you manage your own social media accounts and create your own content, remember to employ the “rule of thirds.” 

• One-third of your content should be promotional in nature, featuring your own content or products.
• Another third should be about curating other posts, like industry news, or featuring any user-generated content.
• The last aspect should be about conversation and interaction, asking and answering questions from your customers, etc.

It’s a simple rule that keeps your social media feed from becoming too promotional and sterile.

6. Utilise micro-influencers

Instagram has played a big role in creating a new type of celebrity called “influencers.” In the past, these people would have been referred to as “endorsers,” but the title influencer reflects their ability to “influence” an audience’s purchasing decisions.

Having a top influencer speak about your brand can be a huge boon for your shop. You’ll place your brand in front of potentially thousands of new users, recouping the influencer’s fees and then some.

But upper-echelon influencers can also cost a fortune. Instead, opt for “micro-influencers” that have substantially fewer followers. The upside is that you can find micro-influencers with a small audience, yes, but one that is laser-targeted on your niche. They’re a lot cheaper than other influencers and can attract just as many prospects when you add scale through multiple micro-influencers.

When looking for people to shout out your brand on Instagram, don’t just look at the follower count — check their engagement rates. Is anyone commenting on their posts? What types of content is their audience engaging with? Does the influencer respond to audience comments and questions?

Having one mega-influencer can work for some brands, but establishing relationships with lower-tier influencers is great for long-term growth. Stack enough of them, and they can become a major channel for your brand.

7. Pay attention to social media metrics

In digital marketing, metrics are invaluable. They not only give you benchmarks as to where your business currently is but also written-in-stone goals as to where your company should be. They are the measuring rod for the success of your company, and brands ignore them at their own peril. As Peter Drucker once said, “What gets measured gets managed.”

The “insights” tab on your Instagram account will give you a ton of numbers that you can track and improve. You could also use an Instagram follower counter tool like GetLikes to monitor your stats. Experiment with different posting times and content strategies to see what’s resonating with your audience, and adjust as necessary. 

Metrics to measure:

• Average engagement rate
• Follower growth
• Click-throughs
• Reach

Hopper HQ’s social analytics offer insightful data with detailed post metrics and audience insights that increase your engagement, drive traffic, and boost your social media marketing success.

Explore The Data Behind Your Social Media Accounts

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8. Run contests and giveaways

If you’re looking to increase your followers as quickly as possible, it’s hard to beat a contest. With a minimal investment, you can cause your reach and audience count to skyrocket in a matter of hours. If it’s done correctly, you should also see your engagement go up as well, which can cause a ripple effect for your other posts.

The goal isn’t simply to bloat your vanity metrics, but to find similar audience members that are currently outside your reach. Your current audience members will share it within their network, causing others to discover your brand.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Freepik (@freepik)

The image editing software Freepik ran a design contest with a top prize of $1,000. As an entry, participants had to follow Freepik’s Instagram account, create a design from the link in Freepik’s bio, and then post the image using the hashtag #WithFreepikCreate. 

The results? Over 100 pieces of user-generated content to go along with an increased following and engagement.

Running a contest is almost foolproof. On average, brands that use giveaways grow their accounts 70% faster than accounts that don’t. If you are absolutely against the idea of a contest, consider creating a post that offers a discount to get a short-term boost.

9. Use hashtags

For the uninitiated, hashtags are a way to categorise content on a social media network. Facebook and Twitter both use them to a certain extent, but they’re particularly effective on Instagram, where you can make your content “trend” just by using the right combination of hashtags. If your content starts trending, it’ll find its way into other people’s Instagram feed, broadening your reach without having to spend any money on advertising.

You can include up to 30 hashtags on a regular post, and up to 10 hashtags on a Story. If you google the ideal number of hashtags to use on your Instagram post, you’ll find a lot of conflicting data stating that the ideal hashtag number is somewhere from 8 to 14. According to case studies and research, however, 11 hashtags seem to be the magic number, increasing engagement with each hashtag as you go up to 11, but declining afterwards.

The key is to make it seem natural; the last thing you want to be accused of is hashtag stuffing just to gain views. 

There are five main types of hashtags:

• Location hashtags
• Branded hashtags
• Industry hashtags
• Community hashtags
• Descriptive hashtags

Each one of these categories has broad hashtags (such as #texas for geography), and more specific ones (like #easttexas). Ideally, you would use a mix of larger, more generic hashtags, along with more specific ones that are targeted to your niche. 

Industry-specific hashtags are always a good idea. For example, if you have an eCommerce store that sells video-based safety equipment such as dash cams or panic buttons, you can use hashtags like #dashcams and #drivesafe. You can also follow the hashtags for your industry to stay up to date with the trends. 

Although you will want to stick with the most popular hashtags — i.e., the ones other people are actively searching for — don’t be afraid to experiment with new hashtags. You might be able to catch one that is just starting to gain traction and ride that wave to a larger audience. Also, consider adding extra hashtags as the first comment on your story to gain a few extra slots.

Discover the best hashtags for Instagram & reach more people to grow your audience with our Hashtag tool. Get 1000s of relevant hashtag suggestions in seconds and save them into hashtag lists to easily and quickly get more post impressions.

10. Engage, engage, engage

Social media is all about relationship-building, and Instagram is no exception. If there is a “secret sauce” to catapulting your account to superstardom, regular and genuine engagement is it. Interacting with other people’s posts and comments shows that you’re interested in your community. Tagging popular users and giving shoutouts to dedicated fans will strengthen their loyalty.

NIke is a brand that absolutely nails Instagram (along with virtually every other form of marketing). Their posts combine inspirational stories with product demos and a healthy dose of behind the scenes images. People feel free to not only comment on the material, but share with a friend, which drives virality.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Nike (@nike)

But how are you supposed to engage with your audience while you’re trying to run a business? For starters, dedicate a few minutes at the same time every day to respond to comments and questions. Second, use genuine responses only; canned answers reek of disinterest and will only serve to drive your audience away. Use a social media scheduling tool like Hopper HQ to free up more time for engagement

Instagram growth is possible for your small business in 2022

Even if you’ve never used any kind of social media for your business, Instagram growth can be a great step towards bringing your brand the added awareness it needs to thrive. You can shape your identity and reach a wider audience than ever before while engaging with your community in real, meaningful dialogue. 

But to do that, you need to know the platform, focus on engagement, post user-generated content, leverage micro-influencers, and learn to use hashtags to engage your audience.

The real benefit to Instagram growth is the ability to showcase your products and services, especially by placing them in the hands of everyday users. Best of all, you don’t need to be a major brand to find success; small business owners dominate their markets simply by being authentic and relevant.

How will you engage with your community on Instagram? Share your ideas in the comments.

Enjoyed this post? You might also like:

• Your Ultimate Guide to Instagram Carousel Posts
• How to Create a Social Media Strategy for Your Small Business in 8 Steps
• How to Choose The Best Social Media Management Tool for Your Business

Andy Crestodina

Andy’s the co-founder of Orbit Media, an award-winning 40-person digital agency in Chicago.
Over the past 20 years, Andy has provided digital marketing advice to 1000+ businesses and written 500+ articles on content strategy, SEO, visitor psychology and Analytics. He’s also the author of Content Chemistry: The Illustrated Handbook for Content Marketing.

The post Top 10 Tips for Instagram Growth for Small Businesses appeared first on Hopper HQ.

The effectiveness of social media marketing is undeniable; the problem is determining how to focus on it when budgets and people are limited. The key levers for establishing a strong social media presence for your small business are to know who you’re talking to, establish goals, focus on the right platforms, analyse your competition, and carefully deploy your resources by determining where they will have the greatest impact.

As a small business owner, you don’t have a marketing team prepared to tackle every platform. That’s why we’ve gathered all the details you need to help you nail your social media strategy in 2022 and beyond.

The importance of social media for small businesses

If you work on a small marketing team, are the sole marketing person at your company, or manage all aspects of your business, you understand what it’s like to wear many hats. With a plethora of deliverables to push out to keep your small business running, social media marketing is an essential part of any type of promoting your brand on social platforms.

A recent analysis by Kepios shows that there were more than 4.62 billion social media users around the world in January 2022; that’s 58.4% of the total global population!

Social media user numbers have also seen strong growth over the past 12 months, with 424 million new users joining social media since last year. 

This makes social media a powerful platform for connecting directly with an audience to build brand awareness and brand loyalty for small businesses focused on community and individual customers. Even better, social media is an effective lead-generation platform. You can create content and resources that will add value to your prospects and customers while also cultivating their brand affinity.

Identifying social media goals for your small business

By defining goals, you can point to the specific steps and actions you’re taking to meet the needs of your business. To get the most out of your social media marketing activity, it’s important to align business objectives with social media goals. Here’s what to keep in mind when setting social media goals for small businesses: 

1. Set SMART goals

The SMART goal-setting framework is insanely popular, and it’s one of the most recommended social media marketing strategies for small businesses. In case you aren’t familiar, SMART is an acronym that stands for the following:

• Specific: Your goals should be clear, simple and defined.
• Measurable: This is where analytics come in. You want a goal that has one or more metrics.
• Achievable: Is it achievable, or is it not possible within your resources?
• Realistic: With your current resources of time and money, is it possible to achieve your goals?
• Time-sensitive: Every goal needs a time frame, whether it’s one year or several months.

2. Identify social media goals metrics

Now, it’s time to identify the metrics you’d like to assign to your goals. Business objectives defined through specific and measurable results serve as a compass for your team, directing you in the right direction to help you achieve larger goals.

Social media analytics and reporting for small business

Setting goals is one thing, but monitoring your performance to evaluate success is quite another. That’s why it’s critical to use social media analytics to determine what’s moving the needle for your small business

Several social media platforms deliver analytics on your social media presence, but you’ll have to invest in a social media management platform if you want more in-depth analysis, cross-network analysis, and cross-profile analysis, among others.

Some of the most important social media metrics that you can track are the following:

1. Engagements: The number of times an individual has interacted with your message, including actions such as Likes, Favourite, Shares, Retweets, Replies and Follows.
2. Impressions: These refer to the number of times an individual saw your message.
3. Engagement rates: The number of engagements divided by the number of impressions.
4. Visits: The number of times someone visited your profile page.
5. Followers: Refers to how many users follow you on social media, usually shown as increasing or decreasing over time.
6. Mentions: The number of times your handle or brand was mentioned on social.

Explore The Data Behind Your Social Media Accounts

Find the best time to post, track your follower growth, and understand what content works best with post and account analytics.

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Related: Check our latest blog to find out the best time to post on TikTok

How to create a social media strategy for small businesses in 8 steps

1. Understand your audience

Using social media for small businesses is all about knowing your audience and posting about what matters to them. Posting useful material that helps your customers or clients in some way is the best way to increase reach and engagement and grow your social media presence. Once you know who you’re talking to (demographic, interests, behaviours), do some research on the types of accounts they follow, as well as the types of posts that they typically enjoy and share. This will give you a better picture of what they value.

Instead of posting generic content, be clear on why you’re publishing what you are. In other words, if you post helpful content, people will be more likely to engage with it. Think about why you are loyal to particular brands and what the reasons are other than their product. Apply the same logic to your small business and determine exactly what your ideal audience expects from you – and what you could offer them that others can’t.

2. Assess your competition

An essential part of a social media strategy for small businesses is checking out your competition’s social presence. There are two reasons why competitor reviews are important:

• The performance of your competitors on platform-specific channels can be an indicator as to whether it’s a platform worth using for your own small business.
• Reviewing their content (good and bad) can also help influence your ideas.

The idea here isn’t to just replicate a competitor’s content strategy. Instead, you should do a competitor review. The goal is to determine what forms of content work and which ones don’t. This can help you understand a competitor’s strengths and limitations, as well as what people anticipate from a brand in your same area.

You probably already have a good idea about who your competitors are. If not, an easy way to find competitors is to take your most popular keywords and type them into a search browser, like Google. For instance, if your small business is a barbershop, you might search for “barbershop [insert area name]” and see what is returned. 

You may use the search results to visit competitor websites and check to see which social channels they’re using, how often they publish, and what kind of information they’re posting. Soon, you’ll be able to identify a pattern of which social media networks are most popular, and which types of content perform best.

3. Define your brand look and feel

Your brand voice is similar to your company’s personality; it’s how you communicate with your customers. And it may differ slightly from one platform to the next. For example, consider how would you talk about your business, products, or services to a friend as you refine your brand’s tone of voice.

4. Establish KPIs and benchmarks

If you don’t know how to measure your social media marketing goals, you’ll never reach them. You must understand which metrics to examine, how to interpret them, and what to do with the information gleaned from them.

If your small business already has social media accounts, it’s critical to benchmark your current performance to understand the outcomes of your previous efforts. This also allows you to compare future strategies to prior results and evaluate if your performance is improving.

Identifying Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and benchmarks will allow you to track your small business’ progress and measure the results of your social media efforts. The most important KPIs will depend on your goals and the social media platforms that you’re using. For example, if you’re looking to drive awareness for your brand you might track your reach and impressions, or if it’s about increasing interest in a particular product, you could measure website referrals.

If traffic is your objective, using keyword research tools is another way to optimize your content and attract highly targeted visitors to your website.

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5. Do your research

A competitive analysis is an examination of your competition to determine their strengths and weaknesses, as well as how they compare to your own.

It’s a method of comparing your own results to those of industry heavyweights so you can spot areas for improvement and strategies that aren’t performing as well as they should.

A social media competitive analysis of social media, in particular, will assist you in:

• First, determine who your social media competitors are.
• Learn which social media platforms they use and how they use them.
• Determine how effective their social media strategy is.
• Compare your social media results to those of your competitors.
• Recognize the social threats to your company.
• Finally, look for flaws in your own social media marketing plan.

Competitor analysis on social media isn’t just about learning about your competitors. It will also provide you with information about your small business and your target market.

6. Focus on the right social media platforms

Identify the right social media platforms for your business: Starting with platforms that make the most sense for your business will save you time and keep your content calendar from becoming overwhelming. Understanding how each social media platform works and what type of content to use on each is key to a successful social media strategy for small business. Here’s an overview of how to use each social media platform to your advantage:

• Instagram: As a visual platform, Instagram is the perfect platform for showcasing your products or services in action with engaging posts and video formats.
• Facebook: Facebook, is an all-purpose platform where you can share photos, company updates and information, videos, and other educational content to increase brand awareness and trust.
• Twitter: Twitter is a social media platform that allows users to send and receive short messages as well as shareable media, making it ideal for company announcements, articles or blog posts, and customer service.
• TikTok: Small businesses are using this social platform to show how their products work, share behind-the-scenes, give tips, and join trending challenges. 
• LinkedIn: LinkedIn is a great platform for building your network, raising brand awareness, and attracting new talent to join your business.
• Pinterest: A visual-based platform, Pinterest is used for “scrapbooking” or, in other words, saving content by “pinning” photos or videos to a virtual bulletin board. Perfect for showcasing your brand´s look and feel.
• YouTube: The perfect social platform for more in-depth, educational content, such as styling tips, interviews, tutorials, and longer-form videos.
  

Your small business doesn’t need to be actively posting on every network. While it may seem ideal to have a strong presence on all of the major social media platforms, if you try to manage too many channels, you’ll end up spreading yourself too thin. 

7. Determine your social media posting frequency

To optimize your social media resources, choose a few platforms where your audience is most engaged, and commit to updating those platforms regularly. You can use social media management tools Like Hopper HQ to help you schedule posts, reply to comments, and engage with your audience frequently. 

When building a social media plan for small businesses, many business owners worry about how often they should publish. Of course, it depends on the social media platforms through which you communicate with your audience. 

According to a study performed by the Statista Research Department in 2021, here are the experts’ recommendations on how frequently you should post on social media:

• Instagram: Creating daily stories and sharing regularly will boost connection and engagement.
• Facebook: If you publish on this platform, aim to do so once a day.
• Twitter: When you know you have an online audience, plan a lot of tweets each day.
• LinkedIn: LinkedIn is a powerful business networking tool, which is the reason why it is so crucial to make meaningful content contributions at least once a week. 

Establish a target for how often you’ll post and monitor how it goes. Check in frequently to see what kind of feedback and engagement your activity is getting from your audience.

8. Create a social media content calendar

A social media calendar is a list of your upcoming posts on social media. If you’re using Hopper HQ or another social media management tool, you can use the calendar planner. Alternatively, you can organize your upcoming posts in the form of a spreadsheet, Google calendar, or interactive dashboard.

For each post, a social media calendar usually includes a combination of the following elements:

• It will go live on the specified date and time.
• The social media account and network where it will be shared
• The links and tags required for copy and creative assets (photos or videos).

A social media content calendar takes a lot of the guesswork out of social media posting and having one will provide many benefits for your small business, such as:

1. Helps you focus on goals and spot gaps: Your social media posting should have a goal in mind. If you are posting just to post, then you will never know if your social media is working.
   
2. Social media content calendars save time for small businesses: Content calendars may appear to be a good idea, but as a business owner, you may believe you don’t have time for them. But creating a content calendar takes less time than posting individual social posts on a daily basis. You’d get into a rhythm if you sat down and did this for a few hours.
   
3. Create content with higher quality:  If you are creating a content calendar, you are prioritizing your marketing and social media strategy. This will result in higher quality posts.
   
4. Reduces mistakes: A content calendar will help you avoid major mistakes that can occur when you do social media at the last minute. You’ll be able to spot problems because you’ll have more time to review your content. It’s also a lot easier to tweak and adjust to changes in your small business.

Top social media tips for small businesses

Now that you have your social media strategy in place, you will want to invest some of your time and effort to stay on top of the latest social media marketing trends. Here are the social media tips you need to take your social media strategy to the next level: 

1. Consider user-generated content (UGC)

As a small business owner, you understand the importance of positive customer reviews and social media posts about your brand. Shoppers want to do business with brands they can trust, and reviews are an important part of that process as they send the right signals.

User generated content, also known as UGC, is content made by customers of a brand and often used by companies in their marketing activity. Consider it as a form of free advertisement from satisfied consumers.

There are various types of user-generated content you might use in your social media strategy, for instance:

• Reviews: When your customers leave positive reviews on your site, social media, or elsewhere, they’re essentially marketing your business for free. You could reshare these reviews via your own social media accounts to spread the word.

• Contests: Contests and giveaways are excellent ways to raise brand awareness. Use terms and conditions that will draw attention to your account, such as requiring your participants to follow your page, tag a certain number of people, and share your post in their story.

• Gamification/Interaction: Gamification transforms the customer experience into a game, engaging your audience and encouraging them to stick with your small business. For instance, you can engage your audience in answering polls, quizzes and questions, and in return, they can receive rewards such as access to special benefits, discounts, and more.

• Videos: Video content is interesting, relatable, and easy to share. Ask for video reviews of your products or services from customers and your audience to post on social media so that others can see their genuine feedback.

You can also brainstorm a few ways you can leverage your audience to craft original content. This could include asking them questions or gathering opinions through polls.

2. Find content inspiration

The industry can be slow, the market can be slow, or the product or service you provide doesn’t change much. It may appear that there is nothing more to say, but this is never the case. Sometimes, you just need some fresh inspiration to get back on track.

• Take a look around

It’s all too easy to become engrossed in blogs, social media, and other digital platforms that we forget to look up every now and then. However, checking in with the real world every now and then can give your content a new perspective. Also, don’t give up on incorporating your own daily challenges into your content.

• Refresh your industry perspective

You’re not alone if you think you’ve said everything there is to say about your industry. However, you are incorrect as well. When you change your perspective a little, you can find new perspectives on topics that have already been covered extensively.

• Attempt a new method

There is no one-size-fits-all method for coming up with new content concepts. If your routine isn’t inspiring you, try a different approach, such as blocking out all distractions for a while or gathering your team and putting your heads together. You might discover that a method you’ve never tried before is the most effective.

3. Use social media scheduling and automation to free up more time for engagement

Social media automation uses third-party tools and software to execute social media-related tasks on your behalf. For example, you can use social media management tools to schedule posts, analyse metrics, and feedback on any mentions of your brand on social media. 

Every small business that uses social media automation can benefit, whether they’re automating to save time or increase product sales.

Here are great ways to make your social media strategy more automated:

1. Schedule content for social media: Instead of setting reminders to post at certain times, automation tools can schedule those posts on your behalf. You can create a queue of evergreen content to publish throughout the week without needing someone on-hand to publish it.

2. Study hashtags: It’s no secret that hashtags are one of the most effective ways for businesses to reach out to new customers. Hashtag search features are available on social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram, and potential followers are likely to use (or follow) those hashtags to find new content.
   
3. Collaborate with influencers: Influencer marketing has exploded in popularity in recent years. Instagram has fueled the growth, and accounts with more than 5,000 followers are typically invited to work with brands.
   
4. Make use of social media listening tools: It takes time to manually check for brand mentions; however, there are several social listening tools available that can do it for you. When someone uses your brand name but doesn’t tag you, you’ll get a notification, allowing you to jump into the conversation in a matter of minutes.
   
5. Automate social media reporting: One of the most time-consuming tasks is social media reporting, especially when you have several different metrics to pull together and analyze from various social media analytics tools, each with its own data organization systems in place.

Fortunately, social media automation tools like Hopper HQ can handle this for you. These automation tools combine metrics from each platform you use and package them in an easy-to-understand and, more importantly, actionable format.

Learn how to choose the best social media management tool for your business here.

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Final thoughts

Regardless of your industry, product, or service, there’s a social media audience for your small business. Following the steps outlined in this post will assist you in developing a social media marketing strategy that attracts them.

Remember to create attainable goals, post the right content to the right people at the right time, and track your progress along the way. Although social media is a long-term investment, getting it properly can have short and long-term rewards for your small business.

About the Author

By day, Lily López is a Content Writer and Marketer at Envato, a world-leading online community for creative assets, tools and talent. By night, a Spatial Design student. She’s based in Tijuana, Mexico, and has worked with several global clients for the past 7 years developing projects involving Content Operations, Data Analytics, Copywriting, Outreach, and Voice-over productions. When not working, Lily can be found hanging out at the nearest flea market.

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