In this episode of the Small Biz Fix, we spoke to marketing expert Maddi Ragno and small-business owner Phil Kuoch about growing your business on social media. Here are some key takeaways from the episode.
If you’re a small-business owner, you’ve likely heard it a million times: it’s important to post content on social media as part of your marketing strategy.
But you’re also tired and busy with day-to-day operations, and don’t have time to be a social media creator all day. Right?
Marketing expert and SME owner Maddi Ragno knows all too well how much time it takes to ideate, create, and post social media content to promote your business.
“People aren’t just seeing a social media post like they used to back in 2018 or 2017 and buying your product,” says Maddi, who founded MADE Creative Co. “They’re wanting more touch points… We also know that consumers jump across platforms. It’s overwhelming for sure.”
Inside Small Business Editor Mia Lockett talks to Maddi in the first episode of the Small Biz Fix podcast to understand how an entrepreneur can use social media to actually unlock growth for their business.
But if you don’t have time to listen to the podcast right now: Want to post social media content that is not only more appealing to audiences, but easier to produce? Here are three quick tips you can take to go.
Gem #1: Film your everyday
One of the biggest mistakes business owners tend to make with social media is thinking that everything has to look beautiful and on-brand. But social media perfectionism doesn’t just waste your precious time, it could also be alienating your audience.
“People don’t want fake stuff. They want authentic stories,” said Phil Kuoch, a small-business owner who also featured as a guest on episode one of the Small Biz Fix. “People really love getting to know the founders and the people behind the business.”
Phil knows the value of authentic content. He originally hired a marketing agency to do socials for his Melbourne-based bakery, Goldelucks – but their perfect, polished posts did nothing for his audience. It was only when Phil took over the content creation himself, filming rough videos of his day-to-day bakery operations, that sales grew exponentially.
“We’re in an era of ‘authentic’,” Maddi explains. “Film your everyday: Film moments that are happening, conversations you’re having on the phone, team meetings. Then you have a bank of content that you can chop up and voiceover later.”
Gem #2: Use tools like SimilarWeb and AnswerThePublic to generate educational content ideas
Maddi explains that social media can be an excellent “proof” tool to assure potential customers of your expertise, authority, and trustworthiness. When she markets her own services, she uses platforms like TikTok to make short educational videos about her areas of expertise.
“In sales calls, I’ve had people say: ‘I’ve watched a lot of your TikTok videos. You don’t even need to pitch to me,’” she says.
If you want similar results, but don’t know where to start, try using tools like SimilarWeb and AnswerThePublic, which scour the web for the top questions that people are searching for. You can input key words relating to your business activities and view the questions your target audience has about that key word. Then, you can create educational social media content based on real questions that your customers have.
Not only are you creating valuable social media content that will actually get views; you’re setting yourself up as a trusted professional in your field.
Gem #3: If you’re on Instagram: Trial reels are free advertising
Phil says he’s been using the new trial reels feature on Instagram to attract new people to his account. The feature allows you to “trial” your content by showing it to non-followers first. Ostensibly, this allows you to test a post that’s outside of your usual niche before you show it to your usual audience. But, as Phil has discovered, it’s also free advertising.
“We’ve been reposting our trending and viral videos to trial reels,” he explains. “It’s an amazing feature to get new followers.”
This feature is particularly relevant to someone like Phil, who uses social media as a discovery channel. This means that instead of leading directly to a sale, his social media platforms attract new customers, keep his business top-of-mind for existing ones, and lead interested parties to the next stages of his sales funnel, like the Goldelucks website.
Listen to episode one of the Small Biz Fix for more on social media marketing, including:
- The single most common mistake that business owners make on social media
- Which platforms you should be on
- How to analyse your results (meaningfully and easily)
- Even more content-creation hacks
- And much, much more!
