Ten Social Media Secrets Every Small Business Owner Should Know
Small business owners are wearing more hats than ever these days, and sometimes that includes being their own social media manager.
Adobe Express partnered with renowned social media expert and small business owner, Natalie Zfat, who specializes in helping small business owners cut through the noise and stand out on the internet.
Here are Natalie’s top ten tips every small business owner should know as they try to up their social media game in 2022.
Natalie Zfat is a social media expert, speaker, and host.
Inspiration can strike at the oddest times.
As a new mom, I’m up at all hours of the night – so a 3:00 a.m. lightbulb moment is somewhat of a norm. Adobe Express allows you to create quick, easy content on the fly – with thousands of high-quality templates to customize your Instagram Stories, video cover slides, timeline carousels and more.
Make it multiple.
According to research by SocialInsider, the average engagement rate increases by 2% when using all 10 carousel slides, and carousels with a mix of video and images see the highest engagement rate per post at 2.33%. Filling the carousel with gorgeous content is easy when you use Adobe Express, which lets you easily search through Adobe Stock images and leverage more than 20,000 fonts.
Video always wins.
Did you know that social media posts with video have 48% more views? Adobe Express makes it super easy to edit and customize videos (even if video editing isn't your forté).
Stop the scroll.
It's no secret that social media users scroll quickly, and it can be tricky to stand out. 82% of small business owners know that a creative design will drive business, but 45% cite that they don’t have either the time, tools, or skills to bring their ideas to life. One way to “stop the scroll” is with compelling animation and imagery. Adobe Express lets you incorporate animated elements easily and create beautiful, thumb-stopping imagery that will catch your audience's eye. Something as simple as a colorful, animated shape layered behind text - or a funny GIF or sticker - will help your message stand out and allow you to inject more of your personality. And the best part: You don’t have to be a designer to get it done. Use Quick Actions to remove backgrounds from photos, trim and merge videos, convert videos to GIF, and more.
Your aesthetic matters.
It’s vital to integrate your brand's aesthetic across multiple platforms for a cohesive experience. Adobe Express allows you to build your brand by uploading logos, colors and more. This makes it easy to seamlessly adapt your brand creative for social media, email marketing, website and more. The Shared Libraries feature in particular makes it easy for anyone and everyone on your team to work from a cohesive bank of templates to achieve that brand consistency.
Social media is – and takes – a village.
When you're creating seemingly endless content for social media, things can get stale very quickly. Tapping into a community of collaborators will help you keep your ideas fresh – but it can also lead to inconsistency in branding when you have too many cooks in the kitchen. Adobe Express lets you invite collaborators to work on assets together, while maintaining consistency in branding across all creative collateral.
Go with the algorithmic flow.
The Instagram algorithm is ever-changing, but we know that content that inspires shares and saves does particularly well, especially when that content is in video form. 74% of small business owners acknowledge that they are facing major hindrances to their creativity right now. To maximize engagement, aim for content that is beautiful, funny or educational. Infographics and video tutorials (“How To’s”) are a great way to do this - and Adobe Express offers stunning, customizable graphs, charts and other great visuals that lend themselves to shareable content.
Even social media businesses require documentation.
Being a business owner - even in the creative space – is more than writing copy and creating beautiful graphics. Adobe Express makes it easy to tackle those day-to-day business tasks, like creating professional proposals, invoices and other documents that help you run and grow your business.
Think of your social media profile as your storefront.
55% of small business owners say their online presence is more critical to their success than a physical store. Is your bio fully fleshed out? Is it clear what you're offering your audience? Adobe Express allows you to create beautiful, robust profiles, with thousands of high quality templates for banner images, profile photos, Instagram Highlight covers and more – all customizable with your brand colors and typography. Don't have a brand book? Dip into Adobe Express’ Stock and Fonts database for thousands of unique, stunning imagery and font styles for marketing materials like logos, flyers, banners, and more.
It all starts with strategy.
You can create the most beautiful content in the world, but without a clearly defined goal and plan of action, your posts won't be as effective as they could be. A content calendar is essential to staying organized and ensuring you're publishing regularly. Include elements like publish date, post topic, category, and type of content (IGTV, Facebook post, Instagram Story or Reel, for example). This will allow you to get ahead, and you can use Adobe Express to create your assets in advance, and file them into your calendar.