Title: The Complete Guide to Social Media for Small Business | Sprout Social
Headings: The complete guide to social media for small business
The complete guide to social media for small business
Table of Contents
Social for Small Business Information Sources
The value of social media for small businesses
Setting social goals for your small business
Choosing goals based on your funnel
In fact, being too promotional is the number one reasons consumers will unfollow you on social.
Choosing goals by studying your peers
Choosing goals by industry
Higher education goals
Internet and software goals (B2B)
Retail goals
Healthcare goals
Non-profit goals
Franchise goals
Travel and hospitality goals
Food and beverage goals
Government goals
Sports and events goals
Real estate goals
Lifestyle and fitness goals
Finance and credit union goals
Entertainment goals
Media and publishing goals
Attractions, museums, zoos and theme parks goals
Social analytics and reporting for small business
Impressions
Engagements
Engagement rates
Visits
Mentions
Followers
Social Analytics and Reporting Tools
Sent messages
Engagement rates
Engagement rates by time and day
Team reports
Paid reports
Group reports
Keyword reports
Competitive reports
Social media tips for small business
1. Identify your social audience
Twitter’s analytics report
2. Build relationships with engagement
That’s because engaging with your audience on social is critical.
3. Search social for new opportunities
4. Create a social content calendar
5. Post your content at optimal times
6. Find the best hashtags to use
7. Audit your social presence
8. Create great visuals
9. Create social media videos
10. Combine organic with paid
11. Get your team on social
Social media tools for small business
It’s definitely a time thing. If we weren’t using any kind of social media tool my workday would be a disaster.
Social media management tools or native networks?
Sprout Social for small business: A social partner
Sprout Social isn’t just a provider, we’re a partner.
Sprout Social support
Sprout Social onboarding
Sprout Social’s small business marketing lead
Sprout Social for small business: The actual platform
Engagement tools
Managing social as a team
Publishing tools
Social scheduling
Visual and collaborative content calendar
Optimal Send Times and ViralPost
Image editing and asset library
Reporting tools
Customize and share reports
Social shouldn’t be diffcult
Get in touch with sprout's small business team
Social media strategy for small business [infographic]
More Small Business Marketing Resources

Content: Higher education goals
Whether you’re managing the social media marketing for your entire institution, or a single department within a college, these are some of the goals that will ensure you’re making a valuable impact. While it may seem wild to think that you can do so much with social, our client Seneca College created a strategy that helped them actually recruit new students to attend their university. Audience engagement (likes, replies, shares, etc…)
Increasing enrollment and retention
Positive school reputation
Attracting prospective student recruitment
Drive alumni donations
Increased event attendance
A consistent voice across departments
Internet and software goals (B2B)
Internet and Software organizations make up a good deal of Sprout Social’s small business clients, like Trello. Though their business has tremendous brand recognition in the space they still have a smaller team relative to their peers in the SaaS space. Brand awareness (growth, engagements) and consideration (link clicks, web traffic)
Lead generation (marketing qualified leads)
Competitor analysis (share of voice)/Market share
Audience engagement (likes, replies, shares, etc…)
Drive customer loyalty (+ CX) and reduce churn
Customer service efficiencies (engagement speed and rates)
Retail goals
Given the high volume of sales in the retail industry, social media can be a goldmine for finding new customers. Brand awareness (growth, engagements) and consideration (link clicks, web traffic)
Find new sales opportunities (conversations to join)
Uncover brand expansion opportunities
Reputation management (engaging with inbound messages)
Increase customer satisfaction
Inspire customer loyalty
Product launch analysis
Competitive analysis
Healthcare goals
Healthcare can be a difficult industry to market on social media. There are rules and regulations that must be followed so your organization doesn’t land in hot water. While you establish your goals make sure that you remain HIPAA compliant. Follow industry regulations & brand voice consistency
Drive brand awareness (follower growth) to increase # of patients helped
Build trust and patient confidence (engagements, impressions)
Drive positive hospital, doctor, & nurse reviews/ sentiment
Build relationships in the local community to improve patient experience
Increase physician credibility/ trust via thought-leadership
Social recruiting to hire high-quality staff
Non-profit goals
For non-profit organizations, audience engagement can be about much more than marke