The life of an entrepreneur is beautiful and rewarding, but it is also a challenging and hard one. In this article blog post I will be going over ways that you can make it as a media marketer!
Social media and entrepreneurship have a growing relationship in the business world today. As social media has transformed both businesses and entrepreneurs it is a powerful tool that neither should neglect. The rise of social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok have opened new doors for entrepreneurs. This helps entrepreneurs' market and grow their business from local to global!
Home Page for West Haven | Thought Leadership Expert (westhavencoaching.com)
The Entrepreneurial Mindset
While social media is a valuable tool for entrepreneurs and it can make their lives so much better and easier, it also comes with lots of stress that entrepreneurs have to manage. That is why focusing on having the right entrepreneurial mindset is important. Entrepreneurs have to learn how to take all of their new ideas and the new tools available to them and not be overwhelmed by them. They have to know how to take construction and learn what not to and how to grow. They have to find balance in seeing what they are doing well and what they should be doing. Along with comparing themselves to other businesses and to see how they are evolving in the marketing world. This can be hard since it may make entrepreneurs feel behind or down, that is why it is important to instead of seeing what they are behind in as a bad thing that could ruin their business, they should see it as an area they can grow! Mindset is everything!
Here is an example of mindset changes entrepreneurs can make when they are faced with challenges or areas of growth. Instead of just focusing on the left side, negative aspects, it is important to look to the positive side. Instead of just saying you don't know, try to change that so you will find out and start researching! Instead of being worried about failing, be ambitious and eager to succeed! This is a huge thing for entrepreneurs they have to be willing to take risks and try new things in order to grow. Growth doesn't come from being comfortable.
ab0b47975fd25ac3bd8a19873a0396bb.jpg (736×920) (pinimg.com)
Navigating Challenges
Social media is always changing, and entrepreneurs have to be on top of these changes. From changing algorithms, trends, consumer behavior, and the overall challenge of the ever-evolving digital market. Entrepreneurs have to stay updated in order to be successful. This can be another challenge for entrepreneurs, always having to remember to stay up to date, thinking ahead, and evaluating what they are doing. Another huge challenge is that social media marketing is very time consuming. There are so many different parts to social media marketing and many things that entrepreneurs can spend their time on when it comes to the world of media. Therefore, they must learn to manage their time appropriately and not get overwhelmed by the many different things that require their time in the world of marketing. Sometimes it's this very challenge that keeps entrepreneurs from being successful on social media, they see how time consuming it can be and don't even try.
An example of a real-world challenge entrepreneurs have to overcome in the realm of social media marketing is linking their websites to their social media platforms. This can be a very time-consuming process and requires a lot of steps. I know for me this was a step that caused much frustration, confusion, and time. My website products were not being approved and various things would not go through, and it took months for me to actually figure out how to do it. To overcome this challenge, I had to slow down, take deep breaths and tackle the problem one step at a time. Instead of just getting irritated and only working on it for a few minutes till it made me mad, I sat down and made up my mind to figure it out without quitting. Finally, I figured out the problem through much research and after fixing multiple things! While it wasn't fun or easy it was so freeing and fulfilling to actually finish it and now my social media platforms are more up to date and better off because of it!
The Role of Innovation
In response to the challenges entrepreneurs face, the role of innovation comes into play! After entrepreneurs have realized the challenges and have the appropriate mindset to learn and be innovative. Since the market and social media is always changing as entrepreneurs, we must always be changing with it. While at first it may seem silly, unnecessary, or pointless, making these changes when other businesses do or before them is vital for a business to keep thriving!
Competition drives innovation and encourages entrepreneurs to individually seek ways they can be creative and innovative. Entrepreneurs want to stand out and be different from their competitors. This is where having a niche is huge in the process of innovation!
- What sets your business apart?
- Why should customers buy from your business?
- What is your mission?
- Why do they want to follow and support you?
These are all good questions to keep in mind when trying to be innovative as an entrepreneur. Focus on your mission and why your customers should choose you over your competitors. Being innovative is being different! Use your creativity to set you apart and help you thrive in this ever-changing market of social media!
Growth Strategies
There are many ways to grow your digital and social media platforms as an entrepreneur. Below I have listed just things to look at and consider in your growth strategy.
1. Measuring Impact
In order to see how your business is growing because of social media entrepreneurs should be constantly measuring their influences on social media.
2. Competitive Dynamics
Because of the rapidly evolving social media platforms and strategies the dynamic dimension to entrepreneurship cannot be ignored. In order to grow entrepreneurs must learn to navigate the ever-changing environment.
3. Resource Allocation
Because resources are limited, they have to learn to allocate their resources efficiently and effectively. They have to learn to optimize resources appropriately in order to grow their business.
4. Consumer Behavior and Trust
A huge part of social media is building customers' trust and relationships with them. In order to keep growing entrepreneurs need to be focusing on their consumers behaviors and building their trust.
5. Long Term Sustainability
Social media marketing has many short-term benefits, but it is important to also focus on the long-term and sustainable benefits of these platforms.
Leveraging Social Media Platforms
In order to have an impactful social media platform there are multiple steps to take. Below is an image showing a social media planning workflow. This image shows all of the important things an entrepreneur plans their social media platforms.
imgurl:https://i.pinimg.com/564x/f9/56/15/f95615ddb767ae3e8adc4861049059af.jpg - Search (bing.com)
+Pinterest&imgsz=508x503&selectedindex=0&id=https%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2F736x%2F1d%2F87%2F2f%2F1d872fc6650ba3691e5d01a9e2d21ed2.jpg&ccid=8p3Y%2BJsH&mediaurl=https%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2F736x%2F1d%2F87%2F2f%2F1d872fc6650ba3691e5d01a9e2d21ed2.jpg&exph=468&expw=474&vt=2&cit=bcid_rHa9G2mtouQGuQ*ccid_dr0baa2i&simid=608042652582435310&ck=25392B4CEAD08555805F3FEB735FAA97&thid=OIP.8p3Y-JsHAvUM1GY6wozCUQAAAA&cdnurl=https%3A%2F%2Fth.bing.com%2Fth%2Fid%2FR.f29dd8f89b0702f50cd4663ac28cc251%3Frik%3D7jFgGSysfLmOxA%26pid%3DImgRaw%26r%3D0&sim=11){kind=link}
- Frist is establishing your target audience
- Studying your audience
- Mapping your content ideas
- Creating content
- Scheduling and planning
All of these are just a few steps to plan an efficient and effective social media platform. By doing these things and planning your social media posts and content it will help you be more structured and organized.
Ethical Consideration
Because there are so many challenges that go with being an entrepreneur, they always have to make sure that they are staying in the lines of what they believe and not going away from them. It could be tempting to tear down or talk bad about other businesses that are competing with them instead of being fair and just learning from what they are doing and changing what you do if necessary. There are also ways entrepreneurs could cut corners or pay for bots and other fake things that make them look more successful on social media then they actually are. It is important to be honest and real with your customers and on your marketing journey. Entrepreneurs also should not lie about the products they offer or how they offer them. If the focus on social media is to build customer trust and relationship, then lying and being dishonest will not help at all.
Emerging Trends
Research in the fields of both entrepreneurship and social media marketing has created many new finds and tools that entrepreneurs should not ignore when they are trying to stay up with emerging trends.
Some of these include:
- Building brand awareness
Through low-cost and new media platforms. Building brand awareness is huge for social media marketing in fact it is the main goal of it and is coming increasingly more for entrepreneurs.
- Connecting with potential business partners
Whether this is customers, mentors, or investors this helps businesses stay up to date and connected to the emerging trends.
- Researching and gathering valuable customer feedback.
Listening is a huge part of social media and is becoming more of a trend since it puts the customers first and to here whether things are going good or not.
- Promoting content
You can't stay on top of trends if your content is not getting out there. This is why promoting content is so important for entrepreneurs to never stop doing. Social media ads on Instagram and Facebook are becoming increasingly more and more used to promote content on social media.
- Utilizing resources and growing knowledge through social media
This is every entrepreneur's key to being successful at social media marketing. You can't do it on your own and have to take advantage of resources that are available to help you grow your business.
- Managing your social media reputation
This is huge as social media continues to grow. You have to make sure that your reputation is not being hurt through the multiple platforms you use. This is why managing is so important to watch what your customers are saying about you and to make sure you have a positive image.
These are just a few of the thing's entrepreneurs should be doing in order to stay on top of trends as they grow their social media platforms.
Personal Reflection
Social media marketing plays a huge role in the life of an entrepreneur. It has many possibilities and there are many ways it can help them grow their businesses. However with these many possibilities can come lots of stress and can seem overwhelming. It is important throughout their journey to make their media marking possible to stay positive and have the right mindset. Social media comes with many stressful challenges and is time consuming, but the limits are endless, and it can be an exciting adventure!
References
Devasia, S. (n.d.). “Social Media Marketing and Entrepreneurship: A Synergic Approach for Business Growth” . UGC Care Journal Norms and guidelines follow - International Journal of Novel Research and Development. https://www.ijnrd.org/