Social Media Management for Small Businesses

Reasons a Small Business Should Outsource Social Media Management

Almost all small businesses start by managing their own social media. Over time, though, it becomes more difficult to stay organized, to interact with more people, and to look at the data. It also becomes very time-consuming, and for most businesses, it can take several hours a week. Some of the most common challenges a business has when considering its social media accounts are:

• Lack of time to post consistently

• Uncertainty about what content works

• Difficulty keeping up with platform changes

• Inconsistent branding and messaging

• Low engagement despite regular posting

Every social media platform rewards consistency, relevance, and engagement. Not posting enough, posting too much, or poor content often leads to poor results.

Here's why partnering with a company like Sapphire SEO Solutions is a good idea:

We Have Time to Manage Your Social Media Accounts

According to research, a good social media account that actually works as it is supposed to requires 10-20 hours per week. Another way to think about it is per day -- 10-20 hours a week breaks down to 2-4 hours a day, if you work a 5-day work week. Most business owners simply don't have that type of time.

You might be wondering why it takes so much time, and this is absolutely valid. Here's a typical breakdown of what's required for a high-performing social media page:

• Creating a content calendar - Typically, the first step each month is creating a content calendar. Generally, it takes 2-4 hours, depending on how many social media channels you are targeting.

• Reviewing your content calendar - 10 minutes a day - this prepares you for creating posts and ensuring your content calendar has all the features you want it to have.

• Content creation and scheduling - 45 minutes to 1 hour/post - You might think you can just put something in a post and put it up, but it's much more than that. You need to really make sure that your post is going to not only attract the right people but also make an impact. This means that both the content and the visuals must be perfect.

• Social listening and engagement - Once the posts are up, social listening, or tracking mentions of your brand, your competitors, and key industry terms and trends, is time-consuming, too. Add that to the time you need to put aside for engagement, or interacting with the real people who are commenting on your posts, and that adds about 1-2 hours a day.

• Analyzing and reporting - Every post will need some type of analysis to see if what you are doing is working or not. You need to examine what worked well, what didn't work, and what you might want to do differently for the next post. This is an ongoing cycle that takes approximately 20 minutes per week. Tracking this performance through reporting is also important, even if you aren't sharing it outside of your organization. This adds about 15-20 minutes more per week.

If you don't have 10 - 20 hours a week to spend on your social media campaign, it's probably a good idea to outsource if you want to have a successful social media presence.

We Can Help You Have Better Content Quality

We are professional marketers and search engine optimization experts. We have the right tools and experience needed to know what types of content work and what won't. We also have the knowledge to know which platforms will work for your brand and which ones won't. For example, if your business offers home services, like plumbing or HVAC, it might be best to promote yourself on a platform like Facebook instead of TikTok. Why? Because we have done research, and there are more homeowners on Facebook than on any other social media platform.

Does this mean that if you are a plumber or HVAC pro, you can't have a TikTok or YouTube account? No, but it does mean that you shouldn't expect as much engagement in most cases, as the numbers show that your target audience isn't looking for your services on those platforms. They are, however, looking on Facebook.

We Can Help You Create and Keep a Positive Brand Image

People won't buy goods or services from a company that doesn't have a positive brand image. A large company may be able to move past a negative brand image, eventually, but for a small business, this could be an impossible task.

You have probably seen companies that have made mistakes on social media, and the public totally turned on them. As a small business, you definitely don't want that to happen to you. Even something simple, like a stance on a political candidate, or a conversation about a hot topic on your page, can actually turn into a serious incident that requires a lot of damage control.

We understand that a company may have preferences, and of course, we will do our best to consider those, but it's also important to keep a positive brand image by avoiding certain topics or actions on your social media pages.

We Can Help You Get Better Results from Existing Platforms

Are you getting frustrated because Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube seem to be hiding your posts? Are people not seeing them? This is extremely common, but there are some ways to get better results from your existing platforms, and we want to help.

By using social media management tools and other resources, we can take an in-depth look at your existing pages and make you aware of what works and what doesn't based on our experience and research in social media marketing. This is crucial for pages that are posting and have been for several months or longer, but still are not getting seen. Instead of guessing what to post or falling behind, you get a structured, strategic approach handled by professionals.