Startups

Capitalize Social Media: Social Media Marketing for Small Businesses

August 25, 2018

The era of constant connectivity has made people more demanding, and omnipresent brand messaging makes it harder for a business to stand out. Social media marketing is a powerful tool for businesses of all sizes, it helps in creating devoted brand advocates and even driving sales.

Your customers are already engaging with brands through social media, and if you’re not speaking directly to your audience through social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest, you’re missing out on business!

San Diego based marketing company ‘Capitalize Social Media’ helps manage customer engagement for the most popular social networks.

At a Glance

Company – Capitalize Social Media

Founder – Amy Airom

Launch – 2017

Location – San Diego

What it does – Social media marketing

The Clairemont Times caught up with founder Amy Airom to learn more about how the company is helping businesses connect with the audience.

Amy Airom, Founder, Capitalize Social Media

My interest in social media piqued in September 2014 when I created my own website, blog and social media following to share money-saving tips and advice. Over the course of those 2.5 years, I became very intrigued by the concept of social media marketing and how it could help small businesses. Therefore, I created my own business to teach and implement strategies that I had researched and evolved and over time.

What type of content does Capitalize Social Media use for social media marketing?

Live video has been the top content medium to gain engagement from social media audiences for a few years now – recorded video is a close second. Personal photo collage-style video and photos depicting “behind-the-scenes” type content will do always perform well in any format once you have engaged your audience.

Best social media marketing tools according to you?

As I solely work with Facebook and Instagram, I can tell you this: The Facebook Insights tab for Facebook Business pages is robust. Instagram insights is quickly becoming more intuitive as well. Although, with a consistent and purposeful Facebook and/or Instagram content strategy, and depending on the metrics being measured, it is common to get a pretty good idea of how your efforts are performing based on viewing the interactions on your page and by listening to your clients. Sprout Social is an analytics software that I use when I want to produce a highly visual and professional report.

How is Capitalize Social Media different from other media marketing companies?

Since I specialize in working with local small businesses and nonprofits based in San Diego, you will get personalized strategy sessions with a member of your local community, yours truly! I offer monthly face-to-face meetings and the opportunity to be an active part of the process – that is the fun part! Social media marketing is ever-changing and evolving. When working with me, I assure you that your content is getting the most organic visibility possible (minimal to no ads used) to increase brand awareness, bring value to your followers (creating that “Know, Like & Trust” factor) with the overall goal of bringing in more customers to your business. Just last month, one of my clients was chosen by Facebook as a featured business for their local Facebook Community Boost Event due to the work that we had done together. I would love the opportunity to help other local business owners in our community achieve similar results!

Future of social media marketing

Honestly, the future of social media is endless and always changing. Video, especially live video on all social media platforms, is the future and it continues to evolve. Because of this perpetual state of change, the I advice I give my clients today could easily change over the next 4-6 weeks – and I am prepared for that. Understanding and aligning with those changes is the main reason why I prioritize monthly strategy sessions with my clients. During this time, I assure them that their content is relevant and aligns with the ever-changing social media atmosphere to achieve optimum reach. Honestly, that’s what makes it such an exciting field for me – I love researching the latest trends and relentlessly figuring things out new features. I feel lucky to have the opportunity to help people reach their business goals by staying informed of the latest trends using the power of social media to help grow their business. For me, simplifying the process, creating and implementing strategies and watching the results increase over time is my ultimate goal. It’s an exciting time for social media marketing!

What advice would you give someone who is considering a career in social media marketing?

When just starting out, do not create a profile for your business on every social media platform – and there are many such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, etc. just to name a few! As an entrepreneur, there are so many important things you need to do to run your business. My advice is to spend the time you have creating one good social media profile, it will serve you much better than 5 mediocre ones. With 2 billion users, a Facebook Business Page is a good place to start for a new business. Create a strategy of weekly posts which aligns with your business goals, provides valuable content (with and without directly talking about your product) and respond to, interact with and build relationships with your followers. Once you’ve mastered that one platform, then move to the next.