5 things you could’ve learned at “Small Business Going Big on Social” conference

At the end of October PromoRepublic organized its first virtual conference. It was titled “Small Business Going Big on Social”. We were joined by some of the top speakers in marketing world, who presented amazing tips and tricks for a small business to win at social media without insane advertising budgets.

If you couldn’t attend the conference and also missed the replays, here are our 5 main takeaways from the conference, one per each speaker. Click on the title to view the video.

Ian Anderson Gray – The Fear and Gear of Live Video for Small Business

As you could guess from the title, Ian’s presentation was all about the nitty gritty details of creating engaging live videos that your audience would love to watch: from planning the content itself to different inexpensive gear you can use to ensure the quality of the video.

As Facebook prioritizes live video, you can get your content out to be seen by more people without having to pay anything extra, if you use live video. Facebook’s algorithm will do it for you for free, as opposed to any other type of content.

Most of us would be scared to go on live video, knowing that if you screw up, everyone will see it. Ian recommends to channel this fear into energy that you portray in front of the camera. The best way to do this is to start recording live videos with privacy settings set to “Only me”. This way nobody will see if anything goes wrong, while you can replay the video and figure out what you need to do to improve. Once you feel confident enough, you can live stream to your friends and ask for their feedback. After that you will have a lot less to be scared about and you will be ready to go live publicly!

Ellie Bogdan – How to Create An Effective Social Media Content Plan that Triples Sales

In her presentation, Ellie talks about a well-balanced content plan. Think of it as a well-balanced diet for your business – guidelines that you need to follow in order for the business to stay healthy (on social media).

This kind of weekly content plan consists of: 40% engaging content (user generated content, motivational content and other types of posts that make your audience want to engage with them); 30% promotional posts (including contests, special offers, new arrivals, product photos, etc.); 20% educational content (interesting facts about your business / industry, infographics, “did you know…”-posts, tips, etc); 10% curated content (great posts produced by others which you think your audience will enjoy).

The right mix of this will get your social media working for you. Ellie goes into detail about each of these content types with specific recommendations, so if you feel like you need more information, be sure to check out the replay.

Andy Crestodina – Better Mousetraps: Getting More Leads Through Content

Andy’s presentation was so packed with amazing useful tips and tricks, that highlighting just one thing was practically impossible. He talked about turning your website into pretty much a lead machine. Some of the things Andy recommended seem rather small and easy to figure out, but the impact they can have on your business can be quite big.

There was one significant thing that Andy kept on highlighting – that’s making sure your website provides all the answers that a visitor has come for. The driving point of website optimization is adding more answers and minimizing uncertainty. For this you add evidence to the answers you provide, such as testimonials, social proof, etc. And then you lead them to a call to action. The main thing the website should do is answer.

Mike Allton – How To Turn Social Media Activity Into Valuable Website Content

As the title states, Mike’s presentation was about turning your social media content into blog/website content. Why would you want to do this? Because this way you never have to face writer’s block, getting plenty of ideas simply from running your business.

Avoiding writer’s block wasn’t the only perk of doing this. For example, embedding video content from your social media to your website makes visitors spend more time there, as they watch the video. Time spent on site is an important metric for Google to see you as a relevant source, thus you get more points from them. You can also utilize user generated content relevant to your industry. Don’t waste time creating content from scratch that nobody is interested in. Mike went even further than social media and shared another great tip. Every time you spend more than a few minutes answering a professional question, think about turning this into a blog post. It’s very likely there are more people interested in the same issue.

Donna Moritz – Visual Storytelling on Instagram – How to Get Engagement and Results for your Small Business

When Donna Moritz talks about Instagram, you can easily tell that she is the absolute pro in the subject. In her presentation, Donna talks about different things you can implement on Instagram to gain extra visibility and engagement for your business, and at no additional cost in most cases.

First and foremost, Donna advises to switch to a Business account. In this case you will get a Contact button, analytics, and you can also place ads on Instagram. When you are posting content, aim for increased quality rather than quantity. If you keep the quality of your posts at a high level, it is ok to post less. Another valuable gem to understand is that Instagram audience is much more loyal. They are also less likely to click away, so you can get their full attention. Which is why you should turn the captions to the images into stories. It’s a great way to connect with your audience. Small businesses with local audiences should make use of location tags and location stickers in Stories to get more exposure locally. The main thing to remember about Instagram is to aim to have a distinct visual presence. If you stand out from the crowd and you connect with your audience in a meaningful way, they will come.

All in all, the conference in itself presented a package of essential social media tips for small businesses. Putting all these different aspects together can make for a solid strategy, bringing you a steady stream of new customers. Your business might be small, but your social media presence can be big!

As you can see, there are so many things a small business can do to be successful on social media. If something didn’t work out for you, you can try it from a different angle. PromoRepublic will be organizing another small business conference soon, with more top of the list speakers and even more social media marketing gems for you.