Harnessing Your Socials to Boost Your Audience and Profits

Published Friday May 2, 2025

Author Kelly Burch

Issue: April 2025

With more than 5 billion people worldwide using social media, small businesses can’t afford to ignore it, but many don’t know how to break through the online noise. Last year, U.S. ad spending on social media exceeded $90 billion according to eMarketer, and by 2028 social media ad spending is expected to reach more than $136 billion, accounting for more than a quarter of all ad spending. Business owners from restaurateurs to roofers are drawn to the opportunity to reach prospective customers directly.

“For every business, there’s a place [for them] in social,” says Mackenzie Fraser, senior vice president at EVR Advertising in Manchester.

While the potential of social media is huge, so is the amount of content produced every day. This makes it hard to stand out. Business owners need to be intentional about social media marketing to see a return on investment and convert looks, likes, and clicks into viable leads. Here’s how to make your business stand out, according to four social media marketing professionals.

Know Your Customers’ Favorite Platforms
Social media gives businesses an opportunity to target their ads with precision. To do that, business owners must understand who their ideal customer is and where to find them.

“It’s really about figuring out where the customer is and meeting them there,” says Jacob Sebert, digital marketing manager with Concord-based V12 Marketing.

B2B sales companies might post more on LinkedIn, while niche technical companies post on Reddit. Restaurants and experiences with a strong visual component can thrive on Facebook or Instagram. And don’t forget about YouTube, which is used by more Americans than any other social platform, according to Pew Research Center.

Diversify Your Social Media Presence
Social media platforms are always shifting—take recent legal challenges to TikTok, for example, or the migration of some X (formerly Twitter) users to BlueSky. Because of that, businesses should create followings on multiple platforms and understand where users of a particular platform might migrate.

“Don’t put all your eggs in one basket, because that platform could be here today and gone tomorrow,” Fraser says.

For example, with the possibility of a TikTok ban, some users are migrating to YouTube Shorts or Instagram Reels. Businesses can use the vertical video format that’s popular on TikTok to also engage users on those platforms, according to Fraser.

Businesses should keep informed about changing social media trends but not rush into spending “precious resources” on platforms not yet proven, Fraser says. Some newer platforms, like BlueSky, aren’t even allowing advertisements yet, so they can feel unfamiliar to brands, she notes.

“My advice is to not be on the bleeding edge but to be on the leading edge,” she says. “We want to find a middle ground in order to maximize value.”

Be Consistent and Not Salesy
Next, focus on your brand’s core voice. Keeping that consistent will help your audience stay engaged, says Jeff McPherson, chief digital officer with SilverTech, a digital marketing agency in Bedford. For example, a local bank that posts about community events is organically growing its brand, McPherson says. But if the bank suddenly switches to posting about interest rates, they might alienate followers.

“Good social media strategy is about building brand loyalty and trust while maintaining a strong engagement with your audience,” McPherson says.

Create A Need, Offer a Solution
There is a time for sales on social media. Social media lets businesses interrupt people and create a need that consumers didn’t know they had, says Brad Solomon, CEO of SC Digital in Portsmouth. “Social advertising is great for creating demand and immediately fulfilling that demand,” he says.

To do that, you’ll need a strong offer—one that’s compelling enough to make prospective customers stop scrolling and click through to your website immediately. A restaurant, for example, might post a picture of a mouth-watering entrée, with a call-to-action like “Click below to reserve your table,” Solomon says. People who come across that post aren’t necessarily planning a dinner out, but their behavior can be influenced by the need that’s created (great food) and the immediate solution the business offers (a reservation).

This approach can work with major purchases too. Solomon recently worked with an auto dealership that was running a lease special on trucks. The dealership set a roughly $1,500 budget, and Solomon and his team created a variety of content using photos, graphics, and video.

“Some customers engage more with video, while others prefer static images, so using multiple formats increased engagement,” he says. The campaign ran on Facebook, and resulted in successfully moving their inventory, Solomon says. “That campaign was a success.”

Think Beyond Socials
Social media is a great way to connect with customers that have never heard of your business, especially if you’re paying to “boost” your posts so that more people see them, says Fraser.

Once they’re engaged, ask them to “like” your page so that they see more of your content and “in the future you won’t have to pay for their eyeballs,” she says. Then, collect contact information like their email or phone number so that you can reach them directly. “That’s a way to further capitalize on your advertising dollars,” Fraser says.

And don’t think about a successful sale as the end of your relationship with that customer, McPherson adds. “[There is] always the next step,” he says. “It doesn’t die at conversion. The ideal scenario is they go from no connection to the brand, to a customer, to a person who shares content and gets another customer. … That’s the dream.”

Study Where Customers Drop Off
To make your social media marketing more efficient, you need to understand where potential customers fall off or lose interest in the process, McPherson says. Ad analytics and heat maps can help capture that data and ensure you’re learning from the drop-off points, not just the end conversion rate, he adds.

Ultimately, you want to make the experience as easy as possible for the customer. Any friction—like a slow website, a form that’s too long, or a link that doesn’t work—“costs money and customers,” says Solomon.

Use AI
Artificial intelligence is “such a powerful thing right now,” says Sebert of V12 Marketing, and can be an essential part of social media strategy. AI can help generate ideas for social media posts, and tweak those posts for each distinct social media platform. It can also help with video editing and production, Sebert says, doing in minutes tasks that used to take hours.

“It makes our job a lot faster and easier now, and you don’t have to spend as much time creating content,” he says.

However, consumers are becoming more aware of AI and still seek posts that are generated by humans. So instead of copy and pasting AI into your socials, use its suggestions as a jumping-off point, and personalize them based on your brand and audience. “Humanize it,” Sebert says. “You want [your content] to have its own look and feel.”

Experiment and Have Fun
Social media is a place where businesses can take risks they wouldn’t consider in more traditional media, Fraser says. Brands can be humorous, fun, and a bit less refined on socials (with certain platforms offering more leeway than others). “The audience is a bit more forgiving,” she adds.

Use that to your advantage by testing out messaging to see what resonates with your audience and what doesn’t. Then, you can harness that information to fine-tune the rest of your marketing strategy.

Getting Started
If you’re new to spending your marketing budget on social media, taking the plunge can be intimidating. Invest an amount that lets you sleep at night, but also allows you to collect good data, Solomon suggests.

Some businesses can generate leads with just $10 a day, while businesses in more competitive, crowded markets will need to spend much more, he notes. More important than your budget is having a strong hook for your audience. With that, social media can be transformative, Solomon says: “It can open up a huge array of new customers for sure.”

Social Media Quick Tips

Focus on quality not quanity.

The algorithm will reward you for audience engagement, so focus on quality posts that get likes and comments, rather than a higher number of posts with little engagement.

You can't be everywhere.

Most businesses can’t be on all platforms, so focus on those where your customers spend the most time.

Don't try to do it all.

Posts can drive web traffic, encourage sales, or create community, but one post typically can’t do all three. Try not to cram everything into one piece of content.