Facebook Marketing for Small Business

Image of a small team working around a table planning a design juxtaposed over a finished design.

When you think of marketing teams you probably envision a large corporation with a massive marketing team and a budget to match.

The reality is far different!

In the United States, small businesses that have fewer than 100 employees make up 98% of the country’s businesses. Marketing teams for organizations that are this size are typically between one and five individuals.

In other words, small marketing teams far outnumber the big fancy ones.

They also have their fair share of challenges. Marketing budgets are usually small and team members often must wear many hats in order to meet the sizeable expectations of the company. Small marketing team success is very doable though.

It just takes a lot of efficiency, and a little creativity.

This is why Facebook is an ideal platform for the small marketing team. And this is how to make it work for your business!

Automate Key Marketing Processes

Creating Facebook posts is pretty hands-on, but you can use tools – including the Facebook Creator Studio – to help you plan and schedule out posts in advance!

Then there’s the flip side of Facebook marketing that no one talks about – lead collection. Route completed lead forms directly to your sales team instead of processing them manually. Connect your database so that it is updated with lead information automatically.

Trim tasks where you can so you are freed up to focus on the things you can’t automate like clever Facebook posts and witty banter to engage your audience.

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Give Your Audience a Peek at What Goes on Behind the Scenes

Brands that bring humans into their social media mix and put them at the forefront do amazingly well with their audiences. People love to see the faces behind the products and services they love, especially when there is a fun story or goofy photo to accompany it.

After all, you don’t want to bombard your audience with strictly sales pitches all the time. That’s not what Facebook is all about. Mix it up with product info, industry news, customer testimonials, and these fun behind-the-scenes posts.

THEN you can sprinkle in the sales pitches.

Take candid shots of employees doing the things they do at work and post them to your social media profile (with their consent, of course). Take a picture of Jane working on a great new design, coffee cup in hand and pencil over her ear, seriously focused look on her face. Or get a shot of Tom and Mike bringing lunch for the whole team because it’s storming outside.

In other words, show both work and play because humanity is both. Tell stories that make your audience feel more connected to your brand through your people.

Turn Employees into Facebook Personalities

Instead of just one person creating all of the Facebook posts for your company, get the entire staff in on the fun. Encourage employees to create posts about the company, industry, behind the scenes, or what they are thinking about on that particular day. And always end the post with the person’s name – first, first and last, or nickname.

Use cool photos to support the posts and encourage employees to respond. If they aren’t comfortable responding with their personal accounts they can use the company profile and just end each comment with their name, so it is evident who is writing.

Facebook is a community-based platform and users are looking for connections. This type of interaction allows them to see the human side of your company and they will keep coming back.

Create guidelines for all employees, outlining what is acceptable and what is not allowed. If you have an employee who may be a loose cannon, you can assign a quality control lead to monitor all outgoing posts to ensure they are consistent with the brand requirements.

Hire an Intern

Creating an internship program is surprisingly simple for small businesses. You’ll need to brush up on the labor laws that pertain to internships and make sure that you are compliant, but after that, it is a pretty easy process.

First, you want to set some goals for your internship program, then plan it out carefully. Establish a method that you will use to review your interns and how you will work with them to best help them learn. Finally, develop your interview and hiring process as well as onboarding which includes training and orientation.

Once established, your intern can work with you, help your small marketing team, and get fantastic on-the-job experience in the process. Social media marketing, such as Facebook marketing, is a perfect job for an intern to perform.

They are close enough to the company that they are able to make in-depth, beneficial content choices that will increase engagement and compel visitors to visit your site.

Share Customer Testimonials

People will read your content and watch your videos. They will read about your products or services, and even give you some likes and shares. But they don’t really connect until you bring real people into the mix.

Posting customer testimonials on your Facebook business profile news feed is a great strategy for drawing people in and letting them hear from real people who have dealt with your company.

Customer testimonials are powerful.

Video the testimonials or write them or do a mixture of the two for maximum impact. Get permission from your customer, then post it for everyone to see. If the customer is OK with it, you can even tag them in the post.

Facebook has some wonderful tools for posting videos, photos, and text. Learn it and use it to your advantage. Recycle your content with other social media accounts so that people who aren’t on Facebook (is there really such an animal?) can have access to the information too.

Create a Referral Culture

One of the best advertisements your company will ever get is word of mouth. And on some level, that is what Facebook marketing provides. You put the information out there and your followers do the rest.

However, you can up that even more. Create a culture that encourages your customers to refer their family and friends. Offer rewards, discounts, and special products or services to customers who refer someone to you.

This is where Facebook comes in and is very useful. Say you are running a sale and you post on Facebook about it. In the text that is with the graphic, let your followers know that if they like and share the post they will get a discount on their next purchase.

If they refer someone to you, they can shoot you a message with the person’s information or the person can message you with their name. There are many ways to accept and encourage referrals – and reward them.

Create an Exclusive Group

Facebook is known for its groups and people flock to them. Create an exclusive Facebook group for your customers or for certain customers. Use the group to provide information and discounts that those outside the group aren’t privy to. Offer sneak peeks at new products or services and provide early access to sales or special additional discounts.

By making the group exclusive and only available to select individuals, you make it all the more enticing. If you have a brick-and-mortar store, send your customers a Facebook message or SMS message when they qualify for the group. If they are shopping online, it’s much easier because you can include it with the receipt.

There are so many different things you can do with a Facebook group. The possibilities are endless. But you will need someone to moderate it and you should post at least once a week. If you can post three or four times a week, that’s even better. You can always allow group members to start discussions within the group and assign your intern the task of moderating.

Hire a Freelancer to Pick Up the Slack

Freelancers come in all flavors and to fit all budgets so you should be able to find one who will fit yours. There are many different platforms out there that allow you to hire a freelancer to get the content that you need. If you don’t want to work directly with them or you don’t want to deal with billing and such, you can use a platform that has staff to do it all for you. You just tell them what you want, and they make it happen.

Of course, you can always hire a freelancer directly. Just make sure you have a contract, and you have a clear plan with solid deadlines.

A good freelancer can shape up your content, provide new content, repurpose old content, and write your Facebook posts. You can hire freelancers for content, graphics, or solely social media management. They can take your Facebook marketing and make it work for you.

The beauty of freelancers is that often you can hire them only when you need them or only hire them to do a specific job. For instance, if you want someone to take over the Facebook marketing for your company, you hire them just for that. They will likely provide a fixed rate, so it is pretty easy to work into your marketing budget each month.

Is your small marketing team feeling a little overwhelmed? Let Tailwind help you out. With tools to plan, schedule, and post to your social media accounts as well as create beautiful content for your platforms, Tailwind is your smart marketing assistant!

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Facebook marketing for small businesses is tricky with small teams and budgets. Here are some tips to help you tackle Facebook marketing!

How To Upload Posts To Instagram From Your Desktop Computer

frustration with desktop computerPosting to Instagram from your phone can be really inconvenient.

Instagram claims it doesn’t allow you to post content from your desktop computer, but there are work-arounds that could save you hours of time and a good portion of your sanity.

There are many different ways to tackle this problem. Below we’re going to discuss some of the most common solutions.

Streamline publishing to Instagram

When we started doing research to build our Instagram scheduling tool we talked to dozens of bloggers, influencers and marketers to better understand how they were uploading content to Instagram. Here’s a rundown of the methods we discovered.

Using e-mail to manage content

Uploading a post to instagram from a desktop computer

This was by far the most common method we heard about when we asked how marketers manage Instagram content between their desktop computer and mobile devices.

They do their design work on their computer and once they’ve finalized their image they email it to themselves. It sounds simple in principle, but the process is pretty unwieldy when you spell it all out:

  1. Upload photos to your computer
  2. Design your Instagram images on your computer
  3. Open your e-mail client
  4. Compose a new message with all of your Instagram images attached
  5. Compose the Instagram caption for each image
  6. Send the email to yourself
  7. Open your email on your mobile device and download the images
  8. Copy your captions to a note on your phone
  9. Remember when it’s time to post an image, then copy the appropriate caption text and send that image to Instagram
  10. Finalize your image, paste the caption, and post it to Instagram

Now that’s a time consuming process. I should know, it’s how I used to do it myself, and I hated going through the rigamarole.

So here are some more efficient, tech-enabled methods.

Using software to sync files between devices

Google Drive synchs Instagram images between desktop and mobile

Here at Tailwind, we’re tied to the hip with Google Drive. And we spoke with many others who were too. File syncing services like Google Drive or Dropbox can be a great way to effortlessly sync images or text files between your desktop computer and mobile device. What does this look like in practice? Think of it like this: you drag some files into a folder on your computer, and then you’ll have access to those files when you open the same app on your phone.

Dropbox synchs Instagram photos between desktop computer and mobile devicesThere are still some kinks in this process, though. You still need to manage multiple text and image files manually throughout the process (although this process is shortened via automatic syncing), you need to remember when to post, and you’re still copy/pasting text throughout the process to make it work. It’s a big improvement over the purely manual email process, however.

Using software to automatically post your images

There are a number of tools that will let you upload, schedule and automatically post images to Instagram. Thankfully we didn’t hear from many people who are using this method as it’s a violation of Instagram’s Terms of Service, and worth calling out for that reason.

Instagram could close your account if they notice that you’re using one of these tools, or they could simply slap your account with a penalty in their algorithm. We’ve heard reports of account closures in the past, and whole tools have been shut down. For peace of mind, it’s always best to work with tools that are official partners with any social network you market on. Here’s Instagram’s list of official Instagram Partners, including Tailwind.

Using software to manage content and help you post

Posting to Instagram from a phone

Tailwind fits into the landscape as a safe and secure solution to the problem of how to upload posts to Instagram from a desktop PC or a Mac.

Tailwind has desktop software that you can access through any web browser.  You can use it to upload your Instagram images and descriptions, schedule them out, and then watch how they perform with our analytics.  Couple this with our mobile app that alerts you when it’s time to publish and you’ll be saving a ton of time and effort.

We help you manage your content and sync it between devices, provide you with optimal times to post your images so that you can maximize your engagement and we remind you when it’s time to post.  We even go the extra mile and automatically copy your caption and hashtags to the clipboard for you.

It’s just one click to send your image into Instagram, another to paste your caption, and one more to post it. And the best part is that you can manage the entire process from your desktop computer until it’s time to swipe, tap, and post to Instagram.

Using Instagram Like a Pro

Set up an optimal schedule

One of the first things you’ll want to do is set up your schedule.  We’ll help you optimize it from the getgo. All you need to do is specify how many times you’d like to post each day, a general timeframe for your posts to be published, and we’ll suggest the best times from there. We’ll continue to look at our data and automatically suggest additional times for you in the future, too.

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Tailwind will tell you exactly when you need to post to maximize your Instagram engagement

Start scheduling your content

You can bulk upload images directly from your computer, or you can snag images from around the web using our browser extension. The latter method works simply by hovering over an image and selecting the “schedule” button that appears. You can also bulk select images on a page by clicking on our extension in your browser’s toolbar.

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Use the extension to quickly schedule any image around the web

Once you have your images in Tailwind, all you need to do is write your caption and add the image to your schedule. Just like with our Pinterest tool, you can visually arrange your Instagram schedule by dragging and dropping images.

Sit back until it’s time to post

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When it’s time for an image to go out, we’ll send you a push notification on your mobile device. From there you can click on the notification to open the app, then click “Post to Instagram.” Your photo will automatically be brought into Instagram and your caption will be automatically copied to your clipboard. Just paste in your caption and post it.

Summary

So there you have it.  There are a few different ways to streamline the process of uploading posts to Instagram from your desktop computer, but it looks like there may never be a safe way to publish directly from the desktop to Instagram without opening up Instagram on your phone at some point.

Instagram wants to give its platform the feeling of timeliness (after all it’s called Instagram).  So the API doesn’t allow software partners to develop tools that post directly from the desktop on your behalf.

With that in mind, we believe that the most convenient (and affordable) solution for people trying to figure out how to post directly to Instagram from their desktop computer is Tailwind publishing for Instagram.

Unleash the power of Tailwind for Instagram!

Get more likes with our smart schedule
Easily Regram with our browser extension
Save hours with our intuitive desktop & mobile apps
– Post smarter with profile and post analytics

START A FREE TRIAL NOW 
Signup for Tailwind for Instagram

How to Upload Posts to Instagram from Your Desktop Computer

Etsy Social Media Marketing Tips from the Etsy Up Conference

The Etsy community boasts some of the most creative entrepreneurs in the world.  They’re craftsmen and women, their work is beautiful, and quite honestly, so is some of their social media marketing.

Etsy Up by @Macarostudio

An example of the creativity of the Etsy Up audience, this sketch by @macarostudio perfectly encapsulated the mood and palette of the conference.

The Tailwind team attended the inaugural Etsy Up conference in New York this year to learn how these inspiring entrepreneurs and solopreneurs use social media marketing to sell a ton of their handiwork on Etsy.com.

If selling more of what you make sounds like something you’d like to learn how to do, read on.

Keynote with Etsy CEO, Chad Dickerson

Have courage, rise to the challenge

Etsy CEO Chad Dickerson kicking off the first-ever Etsy Up conference

Etsy CEO Chad Dickerson kicking off the first-ever Etsy Up conference

The theme of the week was courage. A fitting theme since there’s no career path that takes more courage than entrepreneurship, except maybe being an artist – and Etsy shop owners are both!

Etsy CEO Chad Dickerson kicked off the conference with a presentation on the courage it takes to be an entrepreneur.  That this Thomas Edison quote resonated with the audience in quite the way that it did speaks volumes about Etsians.

'Opportunity is missed by most people because it's dressed in overalls & looks like work' - Thomas Edison Click to Tweet

From the various conversations I had throughout the conference I can report that there isn’t a harder working group of people in America than Etsy sellers.

Opportunity knocks

Opportunity hasn’t been missed by this audience, but the challenge they’re facing is real.  Etsy sellers have bitten off a lot.  They’re CEOs, makers, photographers, marketers, distributors, customer service representatives and accountants, all rolled into one.  That’s a lot of hats to wear, and a lot of topics to fit into one conference!

It’s a lot to fit into one blog post too, so we’ll focus here on what we know best – how Etsy sellers can do great social media marketing.  We learned that Etsy social media marketing looks a lot like social media marketing for other solopreneurs and small businesses, with the added bonus for Etsy sellers that they often make what they sell and that can be a great source of original photography and content to share socially.

For what it’s worth, even though the audience members were all wearing a dozen hats, I didn’t see anybody rocking a set of overalls.  Maybe they save those for their workshops.

Session – Beyond Likes: Social Media for Sales and Business Growth

Pro tip: Watch what your audience responds to and do more of it.

From left to right: Carolyn Caffelle, Erin Dollar, Jahje Ives, and Cassie Uhl at #EtsyUp 2016

From left to right: Carolyn Caffelle, Erin Dollar, Jahje Ives, and Cassie Uhl at #EtsyUp 2016

This session was an insightful discussion on how each individual approached social media, taking us beyond tracking follower counts into the metrics that really count – clicks, and even more importantly, sales.  Of course, more often than not more followers lead to more clicks which lead to more sales, but that’s not necessarily the case and so a wise strategy considers each on its own merits.

The Etsy social media marketing platform of choice

Of the four speakers on the panel, three of them hailed Instagram as their preferred social media marketing platform, while one crowned Pinterest with that honor.

3/4 of the #EtsyUp social media panel said Instagram is best at driving sales. 1/4 said Pinterest. Click to Tweet

Erin Dollar of Cotton and Flax getting a Tailwind sandiwch

Erin Dollar of Cotton and Flax getting a Tailwind sandiwch of Robin Troutman and Kevin Lorenz.

Erin Dollar, owner of Cotton & Flax, summed up her reasons for preferring Pinterest nicely: “Pinterest is a place to engage and align with other brands or companies, more so than other platforms. It gives you a broader reach to engage on a more consistent basis.”

We could all pick up a few social media marketing tips by following her exceptional Instagram (32,600 followers) and Pinterest accounts (623,200 followers).  Her content is as good as the swankiest store brands (think West Elm and Anthropologie) without the million dollar agency retainer.

Tailwind customer success manager Robin Troutman, pictured above, runs the Etsy shop, The Rounded Corner, and she agrees with Erin that marketing with Pinterest is the way to go for Etsy shop owners.  Since joining Tailwind she’s managed to grow her Pinterest following to 5,400.

Even before working at Tailwind, Pinterest was my favorite platform. It has always driven the most traffic to our Etsy shop and I highly recommend utilizing it on a consistent basis to maximize your shop’s exposure! We started our Etsy store while I was in a wheelchair. It was a way for my mom and I to do something creative during a low point in life. So I went into the Etsy conference with gratitude and left with more than I thought possible! My mom is hooked on using Tailwind for our shop and is excited for what’s to come as she takes over during the holiday season!”

Session – Strategic Marketing Tactics: How Entrepreneurs Master the Art of Standing Out to Uniquely Market Their Brands

Marketing is positioning

Getting advice from people outside the Etsy community in this session on Strategic Marketing at Etsy Up

We got Etsy-focused social media tips from experts outside the Etsy community in this Etsy Up session on strategic marketing

This session brought in experts from outside the Etsy community. Each shared stories about their journeys as entrepreneurs, and again Pinterest and Instagram got their share of mentions. For both Eric Kass and Maxwell Ryan, Pinterest has been critical to their success.

As a hoarder with a penchant for minimalism, Eric Kass immediately took a liking to Pinterest, both for his business, Funnel.tv, and for personal use. It allowed him to collect items and ideas in a visually neat and minimal way. Genuine, high quality curation eventually garnered attention from influencers, which helped accelerate the growth of his personal brand. In both this panel and his own session, he stressed the value of telling your own personal story with an engaging, immersive and well-crafted brand.

We liked what Eric had to say so much that we wrote a whole profile on him called – The Curator’s Instinct for Pinterest: How Eric Kass Blew Up.

Maxwell Ryan showing the business-changing impact of a well-executed social media strategy at Etsy Up

Maxwell Ryan of Apartment Therapy wasn’t shy about showing off how Pinterest’s referral traffic had impacted Apartment Therapy’s growth. This particular slide was followed up by another that illustrated how traffic to old, incumbent media companies were plummeting — a testament to a changing landscape where creative individuals, empowered by technology, can go toe-to-toe with the big guys.

Etsy SEO

Another favorite topic of digital marketing conversation at the Etsy Up conference was search Engine Optimization, or SEO.  Etsy store owners can use tools like Google Keyword Planner to discover how people search for products like theirs and then use those words to either name their products, or as supplementary words on the pages where their products live.  This is important because search engines are more likely to return pages that use the keywords people actually searched for.

SEO can be crucial for Etsy store owners since Etsy itself is a search engine, as is Amazon, Google (of course), and even Pinterest.  SEO applies anywhere online that people type in keywords to find things.

Here’s an example of the power of the Keyword Planner tool and the concept of SEO.  We can use it as a tool to tell us which keywords are searched more often, “Etsy Store” or “Etsy Shop”.

Which is earched more, etsy store or etsy shop?

As you can see, the answer is that “Etsy shop” is searched for on Google more than ten times as often as “Etsy store” – good to know, right?  Imagine what that kind of knowledge can do to inform the words you choose to use on your blog and throughout your Etsy store shop?

Session – A Fearless Approach to Social Media

Starting is the hardest part

Erin Dollar walking through a number of Pinterest accounts for Etsy stores that have a stellar strategy in place

Erin Dollar walking through a number of Pinterest accounts for Etsy stores that have a stellar strategy in place

One thing we heard over and over again at the conference was that managing social media accounts was difficult for Etsy sellers who were busy juggling other responsibilities. Erin puts it well: “Starting is the hardest part. Social media marketing is a necessary part of a modern business.”

'Social media marketing is a necessary part of a modern business.' @cottonandflax Click to Tweet

The focus of this session was on social media at large, but again, Pinterest and Instagram strategy and tips dominated the presentation.

Erin told us that “Pinterest captures more brand value and drives more sales to my Etsy shop than any other social media platform.” That makes sense when you consider how engaged Pinterest traffic and how much more likely it is to convert to sales than traffic from any other social channel.

She stressed that creating a plan to relieve anxiety about what to post to social networks is key.  She told us that she turns to Tailwind every Sunday to schedule her Pins for the coming week.  Simple.

Although she doesn’t have a tool she likes for Instagram scheduling yet, she’s excited to check out Tailwind for Instagram.

So, What’s Next for the Etsy Up conference?

Courage in action

Abby from Mavoraart with Robin from Tailwind at Etsy Up

Abby from Mavoraart with Robin from Tailwind at Etsy Up

Etsy Up was a great learning experience for us, and for the other attendees we spoke to. There were dozens of sessions to choose from with tips on everything an Etsy shop owner could need to know including breaking into the wholesale business, tips for improving your customer service, mastering photography, and attracting press and influencers.  Etsy CEO Chad Dickerson framed the conference by talking about the need for courage, and it’s clear why — you could spend years mastering the skills presented in any single session alone.

But as with all great conferences the focus was really on growing the community, and it’s the Etsy community that impressed us most of all with its courage, talent and vibrancy.

It’s fitting then that we leave the last word to some members of that community, Etsy Up speakers and attendees.

Abby Mavora of Mavoraart spoke at the conference and said:

“We all have different goals and talents and so our successes can never really be compared. It’s apples and oranges and pineapples out there. Be You!”

Mel Serangelo of Matelele left the conference with a new-found energy:

“We’re beyond thrilled to have been a part of Etsy Up. Throughout this conference, Etsy made it perfectly clear that it is one of those rare corporations that actually has a heart and soul. We left the conference feeling pumped, inspired and ready to go back to work.”

Licky Drake, owner of HappyGoLicky, recalled the second keynote of the event and how it inspired her to maintain courage:

“Organizational specialist, Fay Wolf, said, ‘Fear is a feeling, not a fact.’ I immediately wrote that down in my notebook and tore it out when I got home and taped it to my studio wall. Now when I look at it I am reminded that the only thing ‘written in stone’ is my own determination.”

'The only thing written in stone is my own determination.' #EtsyUP speaker - @faywolf Click to Tweet

Mary Lynn of In Blue and Cassie of Zenned Out and Robin Troutman of Tailwind and Abby of Mavora

Mary Lynn of In Blue and Cassie of Zenned Out and Robin Troutman of Tailwind and Abby of Mavora

If all that whetted your appetite for more Etsy social media marketing tips, we spoke to 8 successful Etsy sellers about how they achieved success on Pinterest and Instagram.  Click below to download your free PDF now.

Download Etsy Social Marketing Secrets Now

Etsy Social Media Marketing Tips from the Etsy Up Conference B&W