Today, most small businesses are on social media platforms.
However, just having a social media account and posting business updates isn’t enough to attract and engage your target audience.
Businesses need to be creative and consistent if they want to get the attention of potential customers and build relationships with current ones.
The best way to do this is through a foundationally strong social media marketing campaign.
But one of the biggest social media challenges for small businesses is lack of resources.
Most small businesses have a lean digital marketing team and an even leaner budget for social media management.
That’s why it’s vital for small business owners to be strategic about their social media presence.
By developing a social media marketing campaign that resonates with their target audience…
…small businesses can optimize their social media budget while maximizing results.
And for you to create successful social media campaigns, it’s vital to understand the reason why users share things on their social media accounts.
Based on research by Consumer Insight Group of New York Times…
…it was shown that users share posts to give a glimpse of themselves and to help enrich the lives of other people.
The higher the emotional trigger of a certain post is, the higher the chance that they will share it.
And these triggers can range from happiness, sadness, anger.
So, what can small businesses do to take their social media marketing campaign to the next level?
Below, we’ll highlight some successful social media campaigns examples of small businesses that have reached their target audiences:
1. Burger Revolution
Burger Revolution is a burger restaurant located in Ontario, Canada.
When it comes to their marketing, the restaurant aims to reach local customers while also engaging their current patrons to encourage repeat visits.
They have a growing social media presence, and they are very active when it comes to posting updates about their burger specials and new products.
One thing that Burger Revolution does well when it comes to building a marketing strategy on social media is sharing content from their patrons.
The restaurant has an ongoing social media marketing campaign known as “the comment of the day.”
At the physical store location, they have a board where patrons can post comments about their experience on a Post-It note.
Then, the Burger Revolution team posts their favorite comment each day on social media.
This heartwarming message from a young patron is sure to pull on the heartstrings.
This social media marketing campaign is a great way for Burger Revolution to highlight their patrons’ positive experiences.
It also helps to humanize the brand by showing real comments from the people who love to spend time there.
Not to mention, Burger Revolution’s fans and followers love seeing this daily post.
They will often like, retweet, and comment on the content to show their support.
This comment of the day posted just before Mother’s Day, is seasonally appropriate.
The comment of the day campaign is a unique way for Burger Revolution to utilize user-generated content on their pages on social networks.
This is an affordable social media marketing effort that most small businesses can use to attract and engage their target market.
But don’t worry. Your business doesn’t have to have hand-written notes from your favorite customers in order to take advantage of user-generated content.
You can still find ways to encourage your fans and followers to create content that you can share.
One of the best ways to do this is to hold a social media contest where you ask customers to send in photos of themselves using your products.
People love free stuff or giveaways.
Even if you give something small, you will still be able to generate some awesome content from your customers.
In the end, user-generated content is a priceless social media strategy for your small business.
It helps show prospects and customers how your products and services are being used in the real world.
User-generated content also improves your brand awareness and trust.
When people see how others are responding positively to your brand, they will be more likely to give your business a chance.
2. Urban Canning Company
Urban Canning Company is a small business in St. Petersburg, FL that provides hand-crafted, naturally preserved foods like jams, pickles, and beer mustards.
Their marketing campaign goal is to reach not only local customers, who can purchase their products from the tasting room or local stores and markets.
But, also reach new consumers and distributors who can purchase their products online.
Urban Canning does an excellent job of branding itself as an artisanal food company.
Since they focus on using fresh seasonal produce, many of their products are only available for a limited time.
As such, they have developed an ongoing social media marketing campaign to highlight these seasonal products and emphasize their limited quantity.
They use social media to let customers know where they can find these limited batch items.
Urban Canning uses high-quality photos of their products to catch the attention of their audience.
Then, they provide more details about the product with fun captions that help draw the consumer in to learn more.
These posts emphasize that these special products are only available for a limited time.
They also let the user know where they can get these items before they run out.
Highlighting the limited nature of their products helps Urban Canning add a sense of urgency for eager consumers.
Communicating that the products are seasonal and in a limited quantity encourages consumers to act as soon as possible.
This also helps add a feeling of exclusivity for consumers who are able to purchase the limited product.
Highlighting the limited batch products adds a sense of urgency for customers to make a purchase while they can.
So what can you learn from Urban Canning Company?
The fast-paced nature of social media makes it a great channel for highlighting limited or exclusive products.
You are able to get the word out fast about limited quantities.
You can also make sure that your fans and followers know where they can purchase these products that are in limited supply.
Your business can add a sense of urgency for consumers by using social media to highlight the limited nature of your products.
For instance, if you have products like Urban Canning Company that have limited supply, you can ensure that users know when the product is almost out of stock.
This will encourage them to buy quickly if they want to snag one of the last items.
If your products are not limited in nature or you provide services, you can still use this tactic in your social media marketing campaign.
For example, let’s say that you are running a seasonal promotion that provides a discount or other perk like free shipping.
You can create posts on your social media channels to let consumers know when the promotion is almost over.
his will encourage consumers to act quickly in order to take advantage of the deal while they still can.
3. RecruitMilitary
RecruitMilitary is an organization that offers free job search services to veterans and their spouses.
They aim to help connect veterans with the right employers to help them transition into the civilian job world after their service.
In addition to publishing a veteran hiring magazine, the organization also holds job fairs across the United States for veterans seeking employment.
RecruitMilitary uses their social media channels to connect with veterans who are in need of employment.
But the organization goes beyond just advertising their services on these platforms.
RecruitMilitary also does an excellent job of educating their target market on relevant job search topics like interview skills and resume building.
The organization posts help third-party content shares on general topics that are relevant to job seekers.
Since education is an important part of RecruitMilitary’s mission to help veterans find employment.
They have incorporated a lot of curated content into their social media marketing campaign.
The organization often shares articles from relevant publications about different job search topics.
Though not all of these third-party content shares are specific to veterans.
They are all valuable in helping the organization’s target market learn more about landing a new job.
RecruitMilitary doesn’t just post links to this content on their social pages.
They also include relevant and engaging post content that helps give context to the article.
This allows their fans and followers to get a better idea of whether or not the content is relevant to their specific needs.
The group also posts more specific third-party content that is aimed at helping veterans navigate the civilian job world.
No matter what type of product or service you provide, you can find ways to use curated content in your own social media marketing campaign.
Here are a few things to keep in mind when sharing third-party content:
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Make sure it’s relevant. If the content that you share isn’t relevant to the demographics of your target audience, it will just come off as spam.
Be sure to find articles, infographics, templates, and other forms of content that your leads and customers will find helpful and enjoy reading.
If you want to know more types of content marketing for brands, read this post next.
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Share content from neutral sources. It may seem like a given, but you should not share curated content that comes from your competitors.
Likewise, try to avoid sharing content that might mention your competitors.
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Create your own post content when sharing. Don’t just drop a link in your social media post.
You need to create your own post content that helps the user understand what the post is about and why they should read it.
Ultimately, sharing relevant third-party content helps you add more value for your leads and customers.
Not only are you sharing helpful content with them…
…but you are also demonstrating that your business stays up-to-date with the latest trends and news in your industry.
This can help you build trust for your brand and establish your business as a leader or influencer.
4. Bloom & Wild
Bloom & Wild is a relatively young business located in London that offers flower arrangements as well as flower subscription services.
In the five years, they have been a business, they’ve grown their social media following to over 100,000 fans across their social media channels.
The business uses a variety of different tactics to reach and engage their fans and followers.
And this includes social media contests, showcasing customers, and teaming up with other brands.
One tactic that the business uses in their social media marketing campaign is to post seasonal and topical content.
As a flower company, Bloom & Wild has the opportunity to take advantage of a number of seasonal events like holidays and seasonal sales.
This helps them boost website traffic and improve sales during particular times of the year.
Black Friday is a big sale opportunity for the flower company, and they use this shopping holiday in their social media marketing campaign.
In addition to offering specific promotions or posting special content during these pivotal times of the year.
They also find ways to create a sense of urgency for consumers in regard to their seasonal products.
Given that some flowers are only available during certain times of the year.
The company uses social media content to get the word out about these flowers that are only available for a limited time.
The company also post content about seasonal availability of different flowers and arrangements.
When creating your content calendar, there are a variety of different types of seasonal content that you can post to highlight your products and services throughout the year.
Black Friday and the winter holidays are a big shopping season for most consumers.
So, this is a great time to post seasonal content, especially for e-commerce business owners and retailers.
Some ways that you might take advantage of is to share different products or topics that can help consumers plan for the shopping season.
You can also highlight your promotions and sales by using event-based hashtags.
Another way to leverage seasonal topics is to post other holiday-related content.
Even if your products or services don’t correspond to the holiday, you can still create fun content to help your fans and followers celebrate.
For instance, you might wish your customers a happy Mother’s Day or Independence Day.
This helps you make a more human connection with your leads and customers and take advantage of the visibility on social media during these holidays.
Conclusion
You don’t have to have a big budget to make a big splash on social media.
The small businesses above provide perfect examples of companies that are making a significant impact with their content, even maximizing a limited social media budget.
When developing your next social media marketing ad campaigns, use some of the tactics shown above to help you boost results.
Moreover, don’t forget to track your social media marketing campaign’s metrics to know which works and which ones need improvement.
Still not getting the results you expected with your social media campaigns? It may be time to call in the experts.
We’d love to chat more about how our team can help you meet your digital marketing goals through quality social media marketing solutions.
Set up a meeting today to work with us!
