How do I get my business noticed online? How can I create an engaged social media audience? How do I convert website visitors and social media followers into customers? What hashtags should I be using? Are Google ads a good investment?
I'm Sydney Chakalos, a marketing nerd and small business owner with a passion for helping other small business owners grow their business using effective online marketing strategies on any budget.
Learn how to create and implement a marketing strategy that strengthens relationships with your audience and increases your bottom line. We'll cover topics around social media, email, Google ads, branding, and websites. Building your brand is a marathon and I'm here to help you win the race.
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Marketing Your Local Business Online Podcast
Social Media
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Episode 8: 5 Ways to Make Your Content Go Further Organically
Do you feel like you struggle with getting your content seen organically? Over the past few years, the ever-changing algorithms of Facebook and Instagram have made it more and more difficult for organic content to be seen as much as it used to.
Today, I’m going to go over a few things you can do to help boost your organic content, without breaking the bank.
Tip #1: Tag the location of your business in your posts
Tagging your location will help increase the visibility of your posts in searches on the platform. It also helps the platforms recognize your business location and show as a recommendation to people who have expressed interest in other similar businesses before.
Tip #2: Use hashtags
Yes, hashtags do still work and they’re not just a thing for Instagram. They’re useful on Facebook too. A few hashtag tips:
- Check out competitors and seeing what hashtags they are using
- Use location hashtags specific to your area
- Use a hashtag research tool like Hashtagify or RiteTag
- Use “niche” hashtags that have 150,000 uses or less so your content doesn’t get lost
- Switch up the hashtags. Don’t use the same ones repeatedly or Instagram might think you’re a bot!
- Stay ahead of the curve by including hashtags in your Facebook posts…They are making a comeback!
On Instagram, you can have up to 30 hashtags (I recommend at least 10-15), and as recently revealed by the platform’s CEO, it is more advantageous to have your hashtags IN your caption, rather than in the first comment. On Facebook, it’s better to use just 2 or 3 good hashtags on each post and your hashtags can be a little more broad. This is just from my experimenting so far!
Tip 3: Partner with other businesses in the community
Partnership is critical for growth and is a simple way to get your content seen by more people. Some ways you can do this are:
- Do a joint contest or giveaway
- Host a local event
- Go “live” together (an be a Q&A session or just a conversation about a relevant topic)
- Just give each other a shoutout!
Tagging each other in content is a great way to give both of your businesses more exposure. Make sure you are cultivating and nurturing your relationships with other small businesses in your community. This is a unique advantage to being a local business owner, so make sure you use it!
Tip 4: Leverage employees and customers to share about your business
Word of mouth is powerful, and digital word of mouth is even more powerful! Spread the word about your business by:
- Encouraging customers to post and tag you when they visit or buy something from your business
- Incentivize sharing about your business by holding monthly contests – you can pick a customer who tagged your business that month to win a gift card!
- Have your employees share about your business on their social media. A strong work culture will foster this type of sharing
Tip 5: Use high quality images
You don’t have to worry about spending a ton of money on a brand photography if you don’t want to. The cameras on our phones are incredible, so use them to showcase your business! A couple tips:
- Experiment with finding the best angle and lighting (personally, I love the vivid filter on my iPhone)
- Download Adobe LightRoom, a free photo editing tool where you can touch up images and save your settings to apply to all images going forward for a consistent look and feel!
I have seen improvement across the board with my clients when they started paying closer attention to taking high quality images.
By implementing these 5 simple strategies, you will see improvement in your reach on social media without spending a penny! Try them out and let me know what you think. And until next time, Marathoners, keep running your race.
Resources:
meet sydney
Strategist. coach. educator.
get to know me
Hi friends! My name is Sydney, founder of Marathon Marketing & Branding, and I’m so happy you’re here! As you might have guessed, I am an avid runner, which allows me to have more of that pinot and pasta in life. Running long-distance is all about training, endurance, and consistency. I realized that these same traits are directly applicable to social media marketing as well.
