Why Is Social Media Important To My Business
Using Social Media for your business is no longer an option. With over 4.2 billion social media users in the world, you can join this effective, inexpensive way to promote and grow your business. If you are feeling a bit intimidated by the thought of running a social media campaign, keep in mind there are always marketing companies like Branch Marketing that will help guide you on your campaign. Let’s take a look at why Social Media is so important for a business today. Why should a business use Social Media?
Businesses need a social media presence, no matter what size they are. They need an online campaign to boost the company or product’s visibility. You can use Social Media to reach a wider audience while using little effort and time, so there is no need to feel intimidated. You don’t have to post on all platforms, or even do more than a few types of content. Do your research and see what content and platforms suit your business best.
Social Media content has proven to get businesses the attention they are looking for. People
want to see written articles the most, followed by videos, images, offers, and promotions.
Infographics also catch users' attention, as well as quizzes/polls, and webinars.
Social Media platforms should not be a stressful part of your marketing campaign, and that’s why there are companies like Branch Marketing.
There is incredible potential success for businesses who use social media correctly, as their
customers, or target audience, goes online every day.
What do Social Media platforms do?
Your business needs social media to grow, and social media campaigns are proven to be worth their value as they help a consumer’s decision-making process. Social media allows instant responses and grows user loyalty. You can build relationships with your customers in real time, and with the ever-evolving platforms, it helps keep communications open with users.
Social Media also helps businesses by:
● Connecting with customers
● Increasing brand awareness
● Boosting leads and sales
● Building trust and dependability
Decide on the message you want your customers to see, what you want to get out of social
media, and how you want customers to identify with your business or products. A strategy will help you find the best way to get your audience to click on your posts and content.
The challenges of using Social Media?
When using Social Media, be true to your business and your brand. Post engaging, interesting
content that shows, or is related to, your business’ values, mission, and expertise. Customers
like this type of content. In other words, be authentic.
● Very crowded with businesses
● Lack of strategy
● Always changing, trends change quickly
● Not having enough resources, both financial and human
● Building followers
Customers often look at websites and social media of business before making a decision, so businesses need to nail that first online impression with their target audience.
What are the five most valuable Platforms?
● YouTube
Benefits of Social Media for Businesses
Although there are endless benefits for using Social Media, here are the top few:
● Communication: When it comes to communication, Social Media is wonderful for crisis
communication, audience engagement, and loyalty building. Your customers will talk
about you online, so you will learn to encourage the good, but also deal with the bad
before it gets too out of hand. When using Social Media, you can handle things in real
time, which is a comfort to many customers who have questions, or last minute requests.
● Advertising: Targeted advertising, and retargeting, are easily done through Social Media.
This is an inexpensive way to promote and distribute your content and brand. There are
bold target options so it is easy to reach a specific audience. You can develop your
campaigns to reach a certain audience by using metrics like demographics, geography,
language, and online behaviours. Your team can create messages for the customers
your business or products would benefit the most. Retargeting is used for customers
who have expressed interest in your content, but have not bought or made a decision
yet. These are potential customers who just need a little something different before they
choose.
● Business Growth: This involved increased traffic to your Social Media platforms and
website. You can get readers and interested customers as soon as you post an article.
Social chats are also effective to increase visibility, get attention from new clients, show
your experience, and encourage people to look at social media profiles. All of this
generates more leads and boosts sales.
● Brand building: there is a high level of potential customers on Social Media, and this is
an easy way to bring awareness of your brand to the world. You can even interact while
introducing customers to your business, your products, and the people who work there.
You can even have people who have used your products involved with your social media
brand building.
● Content creation: Social Media gets your content in front of countless people. Your
business’ content will be liked, shared, and commented on by followers, friends, and
new audiences. The content will move across platforms and all over the internet. On
Social Media, friends and followers can actually help spread news easily. Remember to
source quality content by asking your customers what they want to know, read, and see
on your Social media. Let them share ideas. This way you will create content that will be
engaging and enjoyed by your customers.
The list of benefits goes on.
How to be Successful and Effective with Social Media
Social Media campaigns can be overwhelming, but there are companies like Branch Marketing that can help your business bloom from using Social Media. Here are a few tips to help you use social media effectively for success.
● Develop a strategy: Each social media platform should have a unique strategy. Learn
where your target audience likes to go, and find out where your competitors are. Look at
your metrics and record them. Above all, use each platform as they were meant to be
used to give you the best advantage. For example, Twitter is great for real-time updates,
alerts, and information, where LinkedIn is good for long, written content. Facebook is
wonderful for live videos, short, and creative videos. If you want longer entertaining or
informational videos, you should use YouTube, and for visuals and short videos for
creative posts, Instagram works very well. Pinterest uses visuals for users to find
content, so depending on your business, that platform could work well. Use the platform
your audience prefers.
● Identify your Target Audience and define goals: You will need to do research to find out
the ages, locations, and patterns of engagement of your audience. Use platform
analytics to gather more information about the users interests and posting habits. Also,
look at what your competitors are doing, what is working for them, and what is not. You
can use this information to create or improve your own strategies. Goals should guide
your campaigns. To be able to measure and meet goals, the goals need to be specific.
This helps your team know what to aim for, and can adjust along the way. Plan goals
your business will be able to reach, make them realistic so your team doesn’t get
discouraged. Remember to make goals relevant and timely to keep your campaign on
track.
● Post Quality Content Regularly: Remember that quality is better than quantity. You need
to post consistently in order to make your business gain trust of the audience and be
considered dependable. By posting regularly, your business will show up on the
platform's algorithms. Have relevant content ready to post to keep the conversation with
your audience open and ongoing.
● Interact with your Audience, but maintain professionalism: Since 83% of customers put a
lot of value on customer experience, social media is an obvious step in your business
campaigns. One bonus of social media is how you can directly interact with your target
audience. You can monitor conversations and reply, discuss, or answer in real time. One
strategy to use is to leave a designated time each day to interact with your audience.
Remember, you are always representing your business during interactions. Emotion is
not relayed well through posts, which are often misunderstood. You have the
responsibility to have a policy to ensure any conflict or upset is handled professionally,
promptly, and fairly. Use your customer service philosophy.
● Measure results: Measuring results helps your business create goals, optimize each
campaign, and track metrics. Decide which metrics, video views, mentions, post clicks,
reach, impressions, or engagement, is the most important to you. Measuring results help
your business manage the many factors involved with social media campaigns.
As you can see, social media is incredibly important to a successful business. If you find the idea daunting, you don’t need to do this alone. Branch Marketing is here to help with all your social media campaign needs. Let our friendly, professional, award-winning service