Picture this: The misty forests of Romania on a crisp Autumn evening, the full moon casting a haunting light across the land. A chilling breeze cuts through the cabin you’ve holed yourself up in while you prepare, working your woodworking knife across yet another piece of wood, creating a deathly sharp point. Tonight, you are a vampire hunter, about to storm Dracula’s castle.

Or perhaps you’re simply a small business owner about to take on an even more gargantuan task: creating engaging social media content that’s sure to get you more customers and clients!

Social media marketing is a challenge for many small business owners for many factors. For some, finding the time to dedicate to creating quality content is just too much of a strain. Others may have tried but didn’t find the success they were hoping for and may have given up.

Whatever the reason, taking on social media marketing can be quite terrifying! But today, we’ll give you four great tips to prepare for your own hunt to take down likes, engagement and potential business.

1. Collect data

Regardless of if this is your first vampire rodeo or you’re diving in the deep end for your first hunt, you should dust off some ancient tomes to get a pretty good idea of what you’re going up against.

Research is also important in creating your social media marketing strategy – if you’ve already got a following online, you can use your analytics to find out the age range, gender ratio, location and languages of your followers.

A great way to use the data you collect is to create an avatar of the ideal target. How old is the vampire you’re trying to hunt? What do they do for fun? Are there things they don’t like, such as sunlight? Once you’ve figured out what traits you’re most likely to come across, you can name your vampire avatar and start planning your strategy.

2. Create a social media marketing plan

You wouldn’t run into Dracula’s castle without stakes, garlic and knowing when the sun is going to come up, and a small business owner shouldn’t start posting on social media without knowing how you’re going to take your marketing and use it to actually create profit. This can include finding the right times to post, the right topics to talk about and how frequently you’ll be able to post.

Many social media marketers recommend using the 80/20 rule – 80% of your posts will be helpful, innocuous posts with the remaining 20% marketing directly to your customers. It’s exactly the same as hiding your weapons before heading into a vampire den, pretending to be a helpless victim while you wait for the perfect time to strike.

3. Finding the right channel

Before you go vampire hunting, it’s important to make sure you’re going to the right spooky castle too. You wouldn’t want to turn up at Dracula’s fun cousin’s house – Wackula – after all!

Similarly, you should know which social media platform your core demographic uses the most in order to expose them to your brand.

You can find the right channel in a number of ways. By looking at your marketing avatar and the main demographics you’re trying to find, you can look up statistics that break down the userbase for most social media sites. Just like you’ll find vampires in the dark scary forests of Eastern Europe, you’ll find a lot of young people on Instagram or YouTube.

4. Create varied content

If a vampire has been attacked with a stake before, he’s likely to get rid of any furniture that has wooden legs. So it’s better to mix it up your tactics – why not increase garlic consumption in the village he preys upon, or lock him outside until dawn?

A great strategy for small businesses is to keep your social media followers pleasantly surprised by using a variety of content types, such as images, videos, questions, memes and shared posts to keep your feed interesting.

You can do it!

Whether you’re nailing your social media marketing or nailing a vampire with a wooden stake, anything is possible with the right plan backed by data and research.

If you need any help slaughtering your social media marketing this Halloween, check out our small business social media services on offer – it’s always great to have a team of fellow hunters at your back!