6 Social Media Prompts for Small Businesses

Organic Social Media Strategy Image

When you first start your organic social media strategy, it probably feels easy to develop social media prompts for your company’s profiles. If anything, you might feel like you have too much content to share and want to get it out there as soon as possible! It’s important to take a deep breath and pace yourself. Organic social media is seemingly easy. But like all digital marketing, there’s much more beneath the surface. In this post, we’re going to answer some common questions to help you get the most out of your social media efforts.

How Often Should I Post to Social Media?

While yes, you won’t be able to gain many followers with a bare-bones social media presence, posting too much at one time means pitting your posts against each other. If this happens, at least half of your posts won’t make it organically to your follower’s feeds. This means a huge exposure loss for your brand and shows why flooding the market isn’t always the best solution.

Instead, use scheduling tools to plan ahead and automate the flow of your content. If you’re using Instagram or Facebook, it is recommended to post a bare minimum of 3 posts per week. Ideally, you will post one to two times a day, with about three hours in between posts. This prevents your small business from seeming “spammy” by showing up in your follower’s feeds too frequently. Then, if you’re using Twitter, it’s honestly best to post as much as possible.

Why Should I Post Every Day? 

Consistency is key in social media. The more consistently you post, the more likely it is that you’ll reach followers at the exact point that they need your product or service. Plus, each day, you have the opportunity to create a new, more engaging post. Aim to reach a few more followers and collect a few more likes every day. Pay attention to how many followers you gain — and more importantly retain — every week, as this is a super easy metric by which to evaluate your social media presence.

 

Today, basically every social media platform is ruled by “algorithms” that determine what posts will make it onto users’ feeds. This means that content is no longer just posted chronologically, and if your posts are not receiving a lot of engagement (meaning likes, comments, saves, and shares), then they will likely be pushed down to the bottom of your follower’s feed — or not shown at all.

To get likes and shares on your posts, you need to post content that encourages people to like and share it. I know, this sounds obvious. But social media marketing is not as “effortless” as it appears.

 

Every small business social media account has to start from square one, and the majority use social media prompts to create daily accessible posts. It may take some time to get used to the tone and attention involved in social media posting, but the more formats you experiment with, the sooner you’ll find something that works. No matter what your small business does, by using your platform to host conversations, you’ll attract attention to your restaurant, salon, or real estate business and create a buzz around your work.

 

Check out the list of social media prompts below and try them out for yourself.

6 Social Media Prompts for Small Businesses

Answer “FAQs”

This is a simple social media prompt for any business owner. It can be frustrating to receive the same questions from customers all the time, so posting answers to FAQs can help educate your followers about your business. Social media is also a great way to find out what questions your customers really want to be answered, just by asking! After all, social media should be social. So strike up a conversation with your followers to get feedback on the parts of your business they want to know more about.

Share Positive Reviews/Comments 

One purpose of social media is to build trust with your audience. While answering questions can help build your position as an expert, positive reviews and testimonials will prove that you’re a trustworthy expert!

Take, for example, this post from Gillott Home Team. They received a positive review from a home buyer customer and used that as a social media prompt for their Facebook page. So instead of telling their followers that they provide excellent customer service, they let their existing customers say it for them.

Your small business can use written or verbal client testimonials or even share screenshots of Google My Business and Yelp reviews.

Share a Quick Tip 

As a business owner, you’re a specialist within your industry. Draw from some of your unique knowledge to share a text post or infographic that shows users something they should be doing in their daily routines that will hopefully blow their minds. The more groundbreaking your idea, the more likely it is to get saved and shared by users.

Host an “Ask Me Anything”

Using the live video features of Facebook and Instagram, you can host an AMA, or “Ask Me Anything” live chat. This may seem scary as you can’t edit your interactions, so it’s best to have a partner or team member help moderate the questions you’ll be answering., If you use Facebook, you can post the live to your page and continue the conversation through comments on the post. The more questions you get, the more engagement your post will receive. This prompt is a super easy hack for triggering a ton of user comments, and a successful one will quickly boost your rankings.

Post a Sneak Peek of a New Product or Service 

If you’re getting ready to introduce some new menu changes or special services, make sure to post a sneak peek of any new dishes or appliances your business gains. People will always be enticed by the promise of a new release or even just the words “coming soon,” and it’s a great way to get your regulars excited all over again.

Plus, you can encourage your followers to share your “sneak peek” post with a friend. Then, choose a group at random to win the new product or service once it’s released!

Post a Coupon 

Whether you post a coupon code or image-based coupon, create an ad that users can redeem in-store or online for a discount. You can combine this with a print coupon, which can help boost your promotion or even redirect people to your social media platforms. When you’re first starting with social media, you may notice that many of your posts are reaching people miles or states away from your business. For this reason, it’s important to combine your online campaigns with a hyper-local advertising plan that hits your community directly.

 

An easy way to do this is through grocery store advertising, which allows for hyper-local targeting. Through coupon-receipt advertising, you can print the same ad you designed for your online campaign on the backs of grocery store register tape and ensure that every customer goes home with your ad in their pocket. You can also invest in a shopping cart advertising campaign to brand your business locally and drive shoppers to your social media pages.

That means thousands of local impressions for your business every day through one strong supermarket advertisement. Without a plan like grocery store advertising, your social media presence may fall flat. But with a complimentary grocery store advertising campaign, you can build a healthy following of local consumers who love your business and want to buy from you. It’s important to remember that while you’re trying to gain followers — it’s more important to gain customers.  

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