In this day and age, everyone is on social media. Whether it’s your Aunt posting an in-depth Facebook status, your Dad tweeting away, or your friends posting food pictures on Instagram, most people use some form of social media. In 2017, 81% of United States citizens had at least one social media profile, and that continues to increase every year. Since social media is constantly evolving and growing, how can this effect your business?
Through the use of social media, businesses can prosper now more than ever, gain more customers, and vastly improve their marketing efforts. It is a fairly easy marketing tool for companies to utilize, not to mention fun for customers to interact with. If you are a small business owner with a limited marketing budget, social media is one of the most effective places to put your money.
So what makes social media all that great? Here are 10 reasons why your business should be using social media as a marketing tool.
1. It’s Easy
Some marketing tactics are extremely time consuming, not to mention boring to do. Social media is a fun way to get your brand's name out there. When using social media platforms like Hootsuite, it is almost impossible not to have fun doing social media for your business.
Hootsuite is a social media management system that helps you manage various social media platforms in one convenient place. You can schedule upcoming posts, respond to direct messages, and view current content on every social media platform your company has. So instead of having to login into your multiple social media accounts and sites, just login to Hootsuite and you are ready to go.
2. It Increases Brand Recognition
Since a vast majority of the world are on social media, 2.62 billion to be exact, the number of people who will see your brand and hear its name increases tremendously if you utilize these platforms. Social media users might accidentally stumble on your page, but then be happy they did, and you have a new customer from it. In fact, 60% of Instagram users said they have discovered new products from this platform. If your company didn’t post its upcoming sale on Facebook or post your new product inventory on Instagram, these new potential customers may have never heard of your brand.
3. It Reaches a Large Audience
As I said before, everyone and their mother (including mine!) has some sort of social media account. One easy post on social media has the potential to reach millions of people. The same ad in a local magazine or on a poster would reach a significantly smaller crowd.
Not only is there a large audience to reach on social media, this audience is a very diverse one. From children to grandparents and men to women, you are bound to reach various ages and demographics with your posts. When your company wants to target a more specific audience, however, you can utilize specific platforms such as Snapchat or Instagram to do so.
4. It Attracts New Customers
While you're reaching a large audience who may view your posts , this large audience could also become new clientele. By utilizing hashtags or encouraging your current customers to repost your content, a whole new audience becomes exposed to your brand. By leveraging even more new customers, these people can start to spread the word more about your business, creating a beautiful snowball effect of new clientele.
5. It's Easy Customer Service
Strong customer service determines if a customer will stay loyal to your brand or not. Social media can step up your customer service game and cause instant satisfaction to your clientele. A customer complaint or question will never go unnoticed, especially when it is all
over social media. You can quickly and easily respond to these customers and let them know their voices are being heard. It was also noted that businesses that engage with customer service throughout social media earn 20-40 percent more revenue. So basically, it is a win for the customer being acknowledged and a win for your company in gaining more revenue.
6. It Increases Web Traffic
If you're looking to improve your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts and website traffic, look no further. Social media provides a great way to get inbound traffic to your website. You can link your site to your social media pages, posts, and captions. The more quality content your business posts, the more opportunity for people to check out your website, so make sure you are constantly giving them that chance.
7. It's a Great Way to Promote Content
When promoting through social media, the creative possibilities and tactics are endless. Instead of merely posting about your 20% off everything deal, you can put on a social media production! Utilize Instagram stories, go live on Facebook to show off the merchandise, or even create a Snapchat geo tag to promote the event even further. This will be the most memorable 20% promotional deal your customers have ever seen, guaranteed.
8. It Creates Audience Engagement
Engaging and communicating with your audience is one of the most important things any business can do, and the internet makes it easier than ever. Since social media is an open-ended platform, it is very easy to create conversation between your business and your customers. This could range from asking them to comment to provide an opinion or by holding a contest for customers who repost your content. You can also tweet or comment back to your audience, increasing conversation ever more.
9. It is Cost Effective
Saving money is something every business strives to do. Finding the most effective place to put your marketing budget can be tricky, but social media is an easy answer. There are numerous low-cost advertising features social media platforms offer, not to mention posting a simple picture or status is FREE. Also, the cost per thousand impressions (CPM) is three times less expensive than traditional media advertising and can be as low as $2.50. So no matter how small your marketing budget is, social media will benefit your brand’s marketing in one way or another.
10. The Possibilities are ENDLESS
The last and one of the most important reasons to utilize social media marketing is because of the versatility and unlimited possibilities these platforms present. There are hundreds of social media websites, thousands of features they offer, and millions of ideas you can come up with. Coming up with these social media marketing ideas is not only fun for your company to do, but exciting for your customers to view.
As you can see, social media is not only for moms to post pictures of their newborns or for long political statuses from your Uncle, they are extremely effective platforms for your business. So start tweeting, instagramming, and uploading your company's content on social media today!
Want help expanding your social media game? We can give your business the social media strategy it needs to succeed! Get in touch today.