Engaging fans on social media comes naturally for brands people love to identify themselves with, like health food, gyms, or good times. But what if you're one of the thousands of services we all need every day, even if we'd rather not tell the world about it? Social media can become quite tricky for brands in this category. How many people have "liked" their divorce lawyer's Facebook page or the medication they take to treat their overactive bladder? Well, as the marketing person for a company that helps small businesses collect on past due invoices (who wants to let the world know they have cash flow problems), I've been there, and I assure you social media marketing success is still possible! Here is a social media strategy guide just for you!
The Sub-brand
While this strategy doesn't just apply to "uncool" brands, it sure has proved to be a successful tactic for small and big businesses alike. Create a second, "sub-brand" for your content and let your audience interact and "like" that brand. Big companies leverage this sub-brand tactic for greater authenticity, but small ones like Hartford Financial Services win big just by boosting their ability to appeal to wider audiences.
Their original, Hartford-branded Facebook page has acquired 123,000 Likes over the years, but their sub-brand that focuses on small business content, Small Biz Ahead, has been "liked" by 252,000 people since only May 2013. That's more than double the audience in just two years! Their content sub-brand covers nearly all topics relating to small business, not just insurance or investing, and therefore can achieve much more widespread popularity.
If your business has a negative stigma attached to it, develop a sub-brand that speaks to a more general audience, like your industry or target users overall. Using your industry expertise, create and share content with your new sub-brand. Potential customers will have no qualms about associating their social accounts with an editorial brand!
Bonus: As your sub-brand content site grows in popularity, you'll get a little SEO boost from the links going back to your primary brand's site!
Create Identity Space
If your company is the maker of a few different products or services, allow for a little identity space between you HQ and your products. At Funding Gates, I frequently use the phrase: Funding Gates, maker of the FG Receivables Manager. This allows for some nice separation between the identity of Funding Gates (a financial services company for small businesses) and our product, the FG Receivables Manager (an app to manage and organize your business' accounts receivable). This way, when people share a Funding Gates blog, or Funding Gates Facebook post, they don't feel they are associating themselves with having trouble collecting payments from customers.
This tactic can be achieved by phrases such as:
-
[Company Name] provider of [service category]
-
[Company Name] experts in [product category]
-
[Company Name] creator of [product]
As an example. Summer's Eve's main tag line focuses on feminine hygiene or "feminine care," and their Facebook name is Hail to The V. Consumers are probably more comfortable "liking" Hail To the V than Summer's Eve.
Emphasize the People
Another tried and true strategy for small business social media marketing is to emphasize the human identity over the product or company identity. Let yourself or your team overall take the marketing spotlight via featured images, voice, and content types. Your company's branding can become synonymous with you! This can be particularly effective in small communities, where people may have more opportunities to actually meet you and your staff. With this strategy, share thought leadership content about running a business, operating a business in your region, and pieces specific to your industry. Customers are more likely to engage with brands that they feel an emotional connection to, and it will be easier to cultivate such emotional connections if your brand emphasizes the human element: you! John Deere did this back in the day, not only experiencing popularity amongst farmers who might actually use his products, but also to small town, country folk overall who identified with him as a part of their culture and lifestyle. Paul Newman also focused his salad dressing brand on his own identity. Only five years after the company's inception, Grocery Marketing reported that the success of Newman's Own appeared to be due to the combination of the popular Paul Newman image on the product labels, a strong public relations effort, and quality products.
Are you feeling inspired? Remember, social proof has significant impact on boosting potential customer confidence in your brand, and a robust social media following can help you connect to many more potential customers. Spending the time to find the right social media strategy for your brand is absolutely worth your while as a small business owner.