The importance of social media for a small business

Social media can open many doors for people, brands, and businesses, especially small businesses. Nowadays, there is a big emphasis on social media to "shop small" and support your local community. 

For small businesses, harnessing the power of social media is not just an option; it's a necessity. According to Business.com, social media is a tool that can define your brand, boost engagement, introduce new products, and, most importantly, drive sales. Take advantage of this opportunity to grow your brand and increase your revenue.

Instagram and TikTok are the go-to platforms for small businesses due to their large user base and high engagement rates. Despite a small business's limited resources and small audiences, social media levels the playing field, offering a chance to impact your brand's image significantly.

As a fellow small business owner, I can attest to the transformative power of social media. When we launched our boutique, Lily Claire, we faced the challenge of extending our reach beyond our local community. Unfamiliar with the full potential of social media, we embarked on a self-taught journey to harness its power. Little did we know this journey would lead us to a world of opportunities and growth. 

We should have realized that social media could drive traffic to our website, help us better understand our customers, or be a valuable communication avenue. We decided to test the waters and put much energy into creating social media accounts and content. Our Facebook account drives fewer sales compared to our other accounts, and I think it is because most people are using Instagram and TikTok.

With Instagram, you can make posts and reels that pop up on people's explore pages by using hashtags and promoting the posts. We found this out months after we opened the store. We learned this, and it created so much engagement for us. We also started linking our products on each post so that anyone who sees it and likes the item can click on it, and it takes them straight to our website, which drives sales on our website. 

We also discovered that Instagram loves users who constantly post. The algorithm is real, and understanding it gave us a sense of empowerment. It meant that Instagram would push out our content to more people's explore pages and feeds, a major way to drive engagement. By doing these things, we went from 0 followers to almost 5,000. Yes, it took time, and it did not happen overnight, but we have come so far because of this social media platform.

The other platform we love to use is TikTok. TikTok can make a person, brand, or business famous overnight. Again, we discovered the power of TikTok and what it meant to use it to our benefit months after we opened. We started posting TikTok dances with girls wearing our clothes and didn't use hashtags or promote the posts. We realized that was not how we should use the platform, so we shifted gears.

We started researching and found that TikTok pushes out content through the algorithm when creators use hashtags, constantly engage with other accounts, and post daily. Combining these tactics attracts people to our page, ultimately increasing our sales. We also used trending sounds and created creative content, making our page unique and fitting to our style.

Social media can build a larger community for a small brand with few resources and means to draw much attention. More prominent brands have an easier time creating a fan base because they have more resources and can quickly reach a large audience. But supporting these small businesses, both in person and online, is not just about business. It's about fostering a sense of camaraderie, helping individuals in your local community and online, making a difference, and helping them successfully following their dreams.

Photo: Lily Morris

Photo: Lily Morris