We recently posed these questions to our good friend Nick Russell at Russtek Media. He has been very instrumental in managing our social media and updating our website.

Why is social media so important for small businesses? Start ups?

For a small business or a start up, marketing on social media is a must in my opinion. You have the ability to research keywords and hashtags that relate to your target market. This will help grow your following and your reach. You are also able to engage and create a relationship with your target market before they even know they need your service or product. Being on social also gives you the ability to run ads and use a Facebook Pixel for example so you can retarget potential customers to help increase sales.

If a business were to pick one platform, (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn etc.) what would you pick? Let’s say, they are a service-based business? How about retail?

I wouldn’t suggest picking just one platform because social media is “rented”. What I mean by that, is at any point if you unknowingly do something that is against a platforms TOS you can be shut down without warning. Having your business on just one platform is putting yourself at risk of losing a lot.

As far as what platforms to use, that is completely based on what type of business. For example, retail I would suggest at least Facebook and Instagram.

Who should I connect with on Social Media? Do you have any strategies?

One of the most important things about social media is to be, social. You want to engage with your audience and your target market. For example, if you’re an accountant you’re going to want to connect with small businesses and individuals you have deemed your target market. Once you know what your target market is, engage with them and start to build that relationship.

Who should consider hiring a SMM?

A social media manager is perfect for businesses both small and large. The larger the business they will have a team in place. For small businesses, having a social media manager is perfect so you can focus on running the business and not having to worry about creating and curating content, scheduling and engaging. Having a smm let’s you focus on what’s more important, running your business.

Want to know more?