If you have a small business in Orange County, then you know how challenging it is to compete with the big guys. The conglomerates do all that they can to dominate the market, and there are lots of people who prefer to shop through Amazon rather than helping smaller merchants make a living.

Social media can mean the difference between success and failure for your fledgling business. That’s why you should think about finding it in the budget to hire social media companies in the area. They will have helped small businesses like yours before, and their experience will prove invaluable.

Here’s why social media has to be your focus as you step up to the plate to compete for your part of the market share.

Setting Up the Path to Success

Before you and your social media company decide how best to use your financial resources, you’ll need to determine what it is that you’re trying to achieve.

You should be specific at this juncture. You might say “I want X number of followers on this platform by the end of the year,” or “I want to see this many conversions through my social media channels each month.”

If the social media companies to which you have chosen to speak know a good deal about the industry in which you operate, then they should be able to tell you if what you have in mind is realistic or not. If it isn’t, then they can suggest alternative goals that are closer to reality.

Locating Your Target Audience

Your social media agency can then identify for you which platforms you need to be using, based on where your target customers are spending their time.

These people will be the lifeblood of your business, and forming a connection with them is what may encourage them to buy from you rather than from a larger competitor.

You also have to understand that social media is the place where you can find the largest group of people at this point that you’re likely to reach. You can no longer use mediums of the past, like radio or television. That would be a waste of money and time.

Figure Out Your Branding

You can also use social media to figure out your branding, Orange County. You can do this by meeting with the social media companies that you are thinking about hiring, and you can have a conversation with them about what you envision your company to be.

You can talk about the price points of your products, and you can discuss things like what color scheme is going to make sense for you, what font you should use in your advertising, and what kinds of things you’ll want to say in your posts. If you plan on making some videos for your social media feeds, as you should, then you can talk about what those videos will feature.

By using your social media company as a sounding board, you can get a better idea of what is likely to work and what isn’t. That’s because they will have gone through this process before, and they will have real-world experience on which to draw.

Through social media, you’ll not only be able to reach your customers, but you’ll be able to narrow down your understanding of what you want your company to be. You’ll have the chance to grow your vision at the same time that you build an organic fan base, and social media companies can help you to do that.