Social Media Marketing: 3 Facebook Alternatives

Small businesses have been forced to adapt to emerging marketing strategies including social media, but social networks are often dominated by big brands, drowning out small businesses. Services professionals have a particularly difficult time making an impact in the social media space, especially when they do not have a physical location.

Small businesses also lack the funding to compete with companies that have large marketing budgets, so marketers need to be able to drive the conversation in order to generate sales leads.

Some strategies that have been recommended by social media experts include user engagement. They also recommend sponsored posts, but many small businesses do not have the resources to successfully implement advanced targeting. Service professionals find it difficult to stand out on social media platforms because they don’t have new products to attract attention.

Below are three tools that work well for service professionals, effectively communicating the brand message, engaging customers, and generating leads:

1. LinkedIn. This platform is a space for users and businesses to interact and get referrals. Followers on LinkedIn are all real - no bots - and business pages do not allow users to post freely. 

2. Thursday Market. This referral platform provides a space for service professionals to present their business, show where it is geographically present, develop teams of professionals with supporting services and generate word-of-mouth from friends, business partners and customers.

3. Houzz. This platform is specific to home remodeling. Users can post completed jobs, show potential designs and present their business without potential of users posting inappropriate content, keeping all posts relevant.