With our recent addition of Rallio Local for Small Business division at Rallio, we’ve been working with small businesses to help them optimize their social media pages. More often than not, we offer the same social media tips for small businesses over and over again.

Most small-business owners are so busy running their companies that they don’t have much time left over for social media marketing. Rallio helps them wear fewer hats and make a greater impact on social media. With our social media tips, technology and teamwork (hello, alliteration!), we’ve helped hundreds of business owners use social media to their advantage.

The following social media tips represent the five most common opportunities for greater success on social media. 

#1 Post Local Content

Great social media marketers have local content at the forefront of their marketing efforts. As we discuss in this article: “The key element that makes local social media, well, local, is that it shows the real side of your business.” 

Local posts consist of snapshots of the owners, employees, customers, product recommendations, how-tos, and other authentic-feeling images and videos.

It’s the difference between a post with a stock photo or a sales graphic versus a real photo or a video of a team member. When you see it, it’s instantly more relatable and engaging than something that feels like you’re being sold to.

Having local content on your page improves your engagement rates and reach with your target audience. As you post this content and boost it, you’ll ensure more of your content gets seen than it would with organic reach alone.

Make sure you:

• Post real images and videos of your team, your products, your customers and your location.
• Avoid stock photos.
• If you’re a franchisee receiving corporate branded content, be sure you are also posting local content at least three or four times a week.
• Read 31 Days of Social Media Content Ideas for more ideas.

Read the post: 7 Habits of Highly Successful Social Media Marketers

#2 Engage Your Employees as Brand Advocates

One of the fastest-growing trends in social media is employee advocacy, in which employees become loyal ambassadors for your brand. With more and more companies adopting employee advocacy programs, you might be wondering what types of content your employees should be posting for you.

Although branded content has its place, it should not be the bulk of what’s shared via employee advocates.

On the contrary, it’s the unpolished, unbranded types of content that will earn the greatest engagement on social media. This content showcases the authentic, human side of your business and is more likely to earn the trust and affection of your audience. Moreover, these types of content are more likely to be shared by your employees on their personal pages.

Own a coffee shop? The barista behind the counter will resonate more with your audience than a branded photo of coffee beans. It’s that simple. No matter what type of business you have, you need hyper-local content of your team members and their typical “day in the life” photos at work.

As employees post about your company on their personal pages, they’re doing more than just generating greater engagement for your accounts. They’re also actively contributing to the building of positive sentiment about your brand. The more that prospective customers and future team members see this content, the more they begin to view your company as likeable, trustworthy, and even socially and environmentally responsible under the right circumstances.

Read the post: The 4 Types of Content Your Employees Should Post for You

Related: 4 Types of Social Media Influencers to Power Up Your Brand

#3 Respond to Online Reviews

The cost of ignoring customer service issues can be huge. Nothing will tarnish your online reputation faster than reviews without responses from the brand, comments and messages that get ignored, and poorly crafted responses to customer questions or complaints. 

Your response time matters, too. Consumers expect rapid answers — just as rapid as if they picked up the phone and called. Within minutes is ideal if you have the bandwidth, but you should at least be responding within 24 hours.

With a system for responding to customer inquiries, you can handle their requests quickly and build customer loyalty. You’ll also make it known that you’re a trustworthy brand when you post public responses to reviews, questions or complaints.

Read the post: 4 Social Media Marketing Lessons Learned in 2020

#4 Outsource Anything You Can’t Do Yourself

Here at Rallio, we’re on social media all day, every day. We live, breathe, eat and sleep social media. That’s because it’s our business to do so — just as it’s your business to live, breathe, eat and sleep your own business.

So if you’re busy running your own business, it’s likely that you don’t have the time to manage your social media. You also might not particularly want to manage this task, much less become an expert in it.

That’s all OK, because when you outsource, you can hire people who are experts in social media like Rallio. You don’t have to waste time or resources on something that draws you away from your core functions as a business owner.

Rallio, an Entrepreneur Top Franchise Supplier and an Inc.com fastest-growing company, has earned nationwide recognition for its service of the franchise sector, from corporate down to the franchisee level. With its new Rallio Local for Small Business division, Rallio is able to lend its expertise to small businesses that are independently owned and operated.

Read the post: Should You Outsource Your Small-Business Social Media? 4 Compelling Reasons It Makes Sense

#5 Use Technology to Automate

Rallio’s solutions include a social media management platform where users can access and manage all their social media accounts, in one central dashboard with a single login. Along with a mobile app, the platform enables clients to upload and schedule content, implement employee advocacy programs, reply to comments, messages and reviews, and much more.

Basically, Rallio makes small-business social media management a much smoother, easier process. Rather than having to log in to multiple platforms with different logins, you can simply log in to your Rallio Dashboard. 

You’ll also avoid letting anything slip through the cracks like a negative customer review or an important sales lead. Everything will be in your inbox to review and respond to.

Read the post: Should You Outsource Your Small-Business Social Media? 4 Compelling Reasons It Makes Sense

Want More Social Media Tips? Get in Touch With Rallio

If you’re looking for more social media tips, we’re here to help. Our Rallio Local for Small Business division is an extension of our existing social media management and marketing solutions. As a top-ranked provider of social media technology, employee advocacy and local social media services, we’re thrilled to be offering our all-in-one social media solutions to small, independently owned businesses.

If you’re ready to outsource your small-business social media and focus on other parts of your business, contact localsales@rallio.com, and visit www.rallio.com/getlocal or www.rallio.com.