Are you interested in learning how something as simple as a social media shoutout can help you grow your small business? If so, you’re in the right place!
Believe it or not, 60% of the world uses some form of social media. With this in mind, it’s clear that these platforms provide countless opportunities to connect with your audience and grow your brand.
But getting a social media shoutout is often easier said than done.
That’s why today we will be showing you what social media shoutouts are and how you can get more for your business, regardless of your industry. You’ll also learn actionable ways to track your results and best practices so you can get the most from this super-powerful strategy.
Let’s dive in!
What is a Social Media Shoutout?
A social media shoutout is a public mention of your brand, product, or service on someone else’s social media account. These mentions can come in several forms, depending on the platform and the nature of the collaboration.
Here are some common examples:
- Mentions are when a customer tags your brand username in the caption or comment. For example, someone might @ your brand and say something nice about their experience or your service.
- Shares and reposts are when someone shares something that you posted on your account. A good example of this is if a happy customer reposts your flash sale post to their friends.
- Paid posts are specifically designed to market your brand, usually with graphics and long captions. These are typically sponsored and involve partnerships with affiliates or influencers.
- Shoutout for shoutout (S4S) is when a business in your industry agrees to give your company a shoutout if you return the favor. This makes sense if you’re both in the same industry but offering different products.
Organic and Paid Shoutouts
There are two common types of social media shoutouts: organic and paid.
Organic shoutouts are simply unsolicited mentions by customers, fans, or partners who genuinely like your brand. These kinds of endorsements tend to build trust and act as a powerful form of social proof.
Paid shoutouts are formal collaborations where influencers or businesses are willing to promote your brand in exchange for compensation. You can offer a shoutout to their brand, a free copy of your product, or a cash payment. You can see a very popular example of a paid shoutout below.
While the latter is for sure more transactional, this option provides a great way to quickly and easily improve awareness and connect with your audience.
Platform-Specific Examples
Social media shoutouts come in different forms depending on the platform.
On Instagram, it might be a picture that the influencer posts that shows your product. This is a great strategy for brands with physical products since people can see what you’re offering before they buy it.
When it comes to Facebook, perhaps a group that’s centered around your industry shares your product as a helpful solution. If people have never heard of your company, they may click through due to this mention.
Then, there are users over on X (formerly Twitter) who may give you a more direct social media shoutout. Something like this, “@YourBusiness has the best deals this Black Friday!” can go a long way toward driving traffic and improving your brand reputation.
Of course, there are also sites like TikTok, YouTube, and many other platforms. Many of the outlines we discussed above are interchangeable; for example, there’s no reason someone couldn’t share a picture of your product on Facebook.
But no matter the platform, all of these different shoutouts help to build meaningful relationships with your audience and industry partners.
How Small Businesses Benefit from Social Shoutouts
Now, let’s talk about some of the benefits you can expect once you start building brand shoutouts.
Expanding Your Reach
There’s no question that social shoutouts are among the fastest ways to reach more people. When you consider that 59% of people turn to social media when they’re thinking about ordering something online and 66% of folks say they’ve made a purchase after seeing a related social media post, it’s easy to see how this can contribute to your long-term growth.
If a business, well-respected influencer, or customer is advocating for your business, their followers are much more likely to pay attention and visit your result. The result is that you get to expand your reach to people who might otherwise not know that your brand exists.
Establishing Credibility
Trust is a key factor in small businesses. Shoutouts—especially by respected influencers or satisfied customers—are some of the most powerful endorsements you can get.
You can choose to showcase positive shoutouts on your profile, your website, or both. When new people discover your brand, they can see that you’re known and trusted in the community, which automatically helps to build your credibility.
Driving Traffic
When people give you a shoutout, they likely include links or calls to action that are designed to get people to check out your website. Since they are already curious about the post, you can bet that people will click through and see what your business is all about.
This is a great opportunity to win visitors over and an excellent user experience. Win them over during their first visit, and they’ll more than likely return in the future.
Strengthening Community and Partnerships
Community building is more important now than ever before. People want to associate with brands that have personalities and are actively involved with their audience.
And as a business owner or marketer, you want to forge strong connections with like-minded brands so you can work together for years to come.
One great example of a business that is doing this right is the drink company AriZona Iced Tea. They are growing quite rapidly on social media because they’re playful, fun, and a little goofy. Their audience knows it and embraces it.
Developing a Social Media Shoutout Strategy
By now, you know that social media shoutouts can bring visibility to your small business and help you grow in a bunch of different ways. The thing is, you can only expect to see positive results if you have an actionable strategy in place.
Let’s go over a few things you should know and understand when it’s time to come up with your shoutout strategy.
Start with a Goal
The initial step in crafting a social media shoutout strategy involves clearly defining your objectives. Reflect on this question: What do I ultimately hope to accomplish with this strategy?
Your goals will influence every part of your plan, so it’s important to think about this carefully. It’s worth mentioning, too, that 51% of companies that focus on social selling are far more likely to reach their goals.
These are the most common goals we’ve seen. You might want to pursue one or multiple from this list:
- Improve Brand Awareness
- Build Your Reputation
- Drive Traffic
- Boost Engagement
- Generate Leads
- Forge Partnerships with Influencers + Businesses
Having a clear goal allows you not only to measure your success but also to keep directed and focused in your efforts. For instance, if you know your goals are to boost brand and product awareness and forge partnerships, then you might want to consider partnering with influencers in your industry.
Identify Your Target Audience
Understanding your audience is vital for effective shoutouts. Determine who you’re trying to reach with your collaborations. Key questions to consider include:
Use tools like Google Analytics and your social media analytic tool to gather data about your existing audience. If your goal is to expand your audience, look at your competitors’ or niche influencers‘ audiences.
When you know the goals and pain points of the people you want to reach, it’s easier to reach these folks so they can get value from your content. Ultimately, helping people is how you get organic shoutouts, and it’s a lot harder to do that when you don’t know what your audience wants to see.
Choosing the Right Platforms
Next, you’ll want to think about where your audience spends their time. Each social media site is a little bit different in terms of demographics and functionality, so you’ll need to make sure that you’re working toward shoutouts on the right platforms.
For example, you can find a younger crowd who is interested in video content on TikTok, while Facebook is where to connect with slightly older demographics.
Since you followed the previous step and researched your audience, you should have a good idea of where to find them. As a general rule, it’s good to get involved in two or more social sites so you can improve cross-platform engagement and have another way to reach people in case there’s an algorithm change, shutdown, or merger.
Create Content Worthy of a Shoutout
If you want people to give your brand a shoutout, you have to create engaging, high-value content. This means tapping into the goals, needs, and pain points of your target audience and publishing videos and blog posts that meet these needs.
We suggest reviewing what content of yours has received shoutouts in the past, along with what your competitors are doing to attract attention. Use these ideas as a foundation to create captivating posts that will encourage people to share your post or tag you in their own updates.
Finding Potential Social Media Shoutout Partners
If you’re interested in paid social media shoutouts, it’s crucial to work with the right influencers and content creators.
Here’s how to find them.
First, check out potential partners in your niche by searching for creators using relevant keywords/hashtags. This simple strategy will help you find people who are already talking about your industry.
The next thing you’ll want to do is analyze their audience and engagement. The goal is to make sure that their followers match your target market and are engaging in content relevant to your brand.
Our advice is to look for partners with an engagement rate of at least 3-5%, but more is better. You can calculate this by dividing average engagement—likes, comments, and shares—by total followers and multiplying by 100. High follower numbers don’t mean good reach in any way.
Finally, take a moment to review past collaborations with potential partners. Look at how effective their promotional efforts are, what kind of response they get from their audience, and if past clients reflect the ethos of your brand.
In all cases, selecting partners with a track record of successful shoutouts boosts your likelihood of seeing the same results for your business.
Measuring the Success of Your Shoutout Strategy
Once you establish your social media shoutout strategy, the next step is measuring your results. This part of the process is so important because it helps you figure out what’s working and how you can fine-tune your process over time.
Tracking Website Traffic
One way to evaluate the impact of a shoutout is through website traffic analysis. You could have referral traffic from shoutouts tracked with Google Analytics from your website. We suggest using UTM parameters on links shared in shoutouts so you can identify exactly which posts drive traffic.
For example, if you have an Instagram story with a “swipe-up” link to your site, you can trace how many people clicked through and what action they went on to perform after that. Increased traffic right after a shoutout means you’ve had an effective initiative in capturing interest and inducing engagement.
Monitor Social Media Engagement
Metrics such as likes, comments, shares, and follows could be a good way to measure how effective the shoutout has been.
High engagement would signal that the shoutout resonated well with the audience.
For example, if you are mentioned in a post by an influencer and notice a big increase in followers or shares, you will know that the followers of that influencer are truly interested in your brand. Monitoring these metrics will help you figure out which influencers drive the best results, which is crucial for planning future campaigns.
Review Sales Data
Ultimately, the goal of most shoutouts is to make money by building trust and improving awareness. To measure how effective this can be for you, compare your sales before and after a shoutout. Promo codes and affiliate links are great tools for attributing sales to specific shoutouts.
For instance, if a shoutout contains a unique discount code, the number of customers who use it at checkout will give a very clear measure of its effectiveness.
Social Media Shoutout Best Practices
Best practices ensure that your Shoutouts hit the right note, protecting the trust of your audience and your partners.
- Be Authentic – Audiences love authenticity. A shoutout has to feel natural and blend in with the partner’s voice and style.
- Deliver Outstanding Products/Services: Providing high-quality products encourages people to share their positive experiences and recommend your brand.
- Cultivate a Strong Social Media Presence: Regularly posting engaging content, interacting with followers, and building a loyal community increases brand visibility and encourages mentions. Scheduling your posts can make this process much easier!
- Focus on Offering Value – Shoutouts ought to enrich your audience’s experience, whether by presenting exclusive deals, sharing valuable information, or delivering entertaining content.
- Encourage User-Generated Content – Actively encourage customers to create and share content. You can do this by hosting a video contest and asking your audience to share their thoughts or experiences with your brand.
- Monitor Brand Mentions: Track brand mentions across social media platforms to identify potential shoutout opportunities and engage with users who are already talking about your brand.
- Respect Your Partners’ Time and Audience – If you respect their creative process, the collaborators are likely to give great shoutouts. It is important to provide clear expectations and any materials needed, but it is also important to give them space to authentically represent your brand to their audience.
- Don’t Overdo It – Too many paid shoutouts will dilute their impact. Space them out and make sure each and everyone aligns with your goals. Flooding your feed with too many shoutouts can make it less special or authentic.
Final Thoughts on a Social Media Shoutout
Social media shoutouts will help to increase the reach of your business, help you gain credibility, and build rapport with your audience.
You can be sure that shoutouts on social media will bring you real results by analyzing key metrics—traffic, engagement, and sales—following best practices.
It is time to put these strategies into action. Create a shoutout plan, collaborate with intent, and follow up to see how this simple but powerful technique can help you take your business to the next level.
