There is no doubt that most of you reading this are fully immersed in social media. We live and breathe it. Most of our jobs are focused on it. But shockingly, to those of us that rely on social media and use it daily, there are still businesses on the fence about utilizing social media as a medium for reaching their customers, and there are still marketers writing proposals to their superiors trying to convince them of the need to start a social media marketing program.
The truth is, people are using social media to engage with brands more than ever. With over three billion people using social media around the world, if you’re not taking advantage of it, you’re missing out on a fast, inexpensive, and effective way to reach almost half the world’s population. Social Media advertising is not only literally THE cheapest way to market to your target market, but it is also hyper-targeted, meaning you don't waste money advertising to people who you already know DONT want your product or service!
In this post, we're going to go over some of the main benefits of social media and how it can help you grow your business.
1. People Buy From Businesses They Like And Relate To.
Social Media gives you and your brand a voice, how you use that voice is up to you! Having a unique voice for your business lets you show who your brand really is. Before even making a purchase from an unknown business, the first thing someone will do is look through that businesses social platforms to see if people are happy with the product/service.
Is the brand legit? Does the product or service actually work?
This is why 'Social Proof' is SO important for businesses in the modern-day, ask yourself, are you more likely to buy from a company with no social presence or from a company with hundreds of likes and comments on their product photos? Easy choice right?
To truly make a connection with your audience and your potential customers you, you need to be able to show who you are. Are your brand values relatable? Does your image and work you do reflect that? The more you can turn social media into 1:1 relationships with your audience the more likely those people are to buy into your brand and do business with you. The hook for social media over other advertising methods is the fact social media lets businesses reach infinitely more people than you would by waiting for them to visit a brick and mortar store.
2. Reputation Management
Like it or not, if you are a business you will ALWAYS have people talking about your brand, whether you're initiating or involved in these conversations or not.
If you're “doing social right,” you'll have an active social listening plan in place, which enables you to pick up on and track where and when these conversations are happening. Join in on them - not only as an outsider looking in, but as an active, engaged member of each community.
Are you finding that people are saying something that isn’t true about your company? Share your side politely and professionally. Just the same, if people are talking up your brand, make sure you're finding ways to thank them, publicly and personally.
3. Make Your Brand An Industry Leader
As noted, people buy from people who they like and trust, and social media offers you the platform to become that industry leader. Gone are the days when simply having the best product or service was enough to lead an industry. Trends show that now more than ever, a business can carve out large market segments by being the best social brand within their niche.
Ensure that you're publishing content for your audience - and not just your latest sales or whatever other offers you want to write about. Social is about being 'social', which includes being helpful, engaging - a part of the broader community.
If you focus on being helpful as a priority, people will learn to trust what you have to say, and eventually, come to you first when looking for that product or service.
4. Send People To Your Website
There’s only so much that people can learn from social media posts and ads - your website is where you house more fully fleshed-out information, and you can utilize social media channels to drive people there.
When you're filling out your social media bios, ensure your website is featured prominently where possible. and Always attempt to link content back to either your online shops or website pages. This is also extremely beneficial when you start to run paid social media ads, as that web traffic can be tracked through your FB Pixel and then used to hyper-target adverts at the correct people.
It’s also a good idea to use a pinned post on your profile to highlight your key focus and help drive people to the right destination n depending on what they are looking for.
5. Find Leads
Social media provides an easy way for potential customers to express interest in your business and your products.
Lead generation is such an important benefit of social media for business, and most social networks now offer advertising formats specifically designed to collect leads.
Facebook, being the most prominent has a fantastic new Lead Form section attached to every business page and allows you to gather leads through your targeted ads without re-directing people to an external landing page.
Re-directing to an external landing page such as ClickFunnels or Mail Chimp can also be a great tool for generating leads as it allows you more room to provide information and also allows you more functionality if you need to pre-qualify leads and ask further qualifying questions.
It is worth noting that for smaller reward lead gen such as a free trial for a gym, Facebooks Lead Form will usually be a better option as it keeps people on the Facebook app and doesn't require a redirect which can sometimes put someone of if the reward is not large. Whereas if you are looking for real estate leads, you may want to go through some additional lines of questioning to pre-qualify your leads.
6. Social Selling
Social media creates sales. And let’s face it, that’s what keeps our businesses afloat.
Social selling gives your sales and marketing team the opportunity to establish relationships, and build rapport with existing connections and networks.
An active, engaging social presence can help keep your brand top of mind, so when a person is ready to purchase, again, they come to you first.
7. Customer Engagement (Current & Potential)
Social media enables you to interact directly with people that are already fans of your brand, as well as find new fans. Conversely, it also gives them a direct line to you, the business.
Be consistent with staying engaged with your audiences and communities and let them see that you're there for them when they need.
Stay active and relevant with the posts you put out, and make sure you respond to comments and questions that people post on that content.
8. Customer Service
This might be one of the top reasons for your business to be active on social media - these days, people simply expect brands to be available on social media, and they're increasingly going to brands social profiles first for customer service queries.
The faster you can respond, and the better you are able to help, the more likely it is that those people will become customers, and recommend your business to others.
9. Learn About Your Customers
People share a lot on social media, which means there's a lot of data you can find on your target customers. You can then use that information to make more informed decisions in relation to your business, what your consumers are looking for and how best to reach them.
Take advantage of the analytics that every social network offers. Using the insights available, you can tailor your strategies to best speak to your target market/s.
10. Study Your Competition
It’s also important to know what people are saying about your competitors.
For example, tracking mentions of your competitors might reveal pain points with their products that you could reach out to address, winning new customers in the process.
How fast are your competitors responding to customers complaints? Long enough for you to step in and solve their problems with your brand?
As you can see, there's a range of potential benefits to social, and while it does take some work, the rewards can be great, when you approach the medium in a strategic, focused way.
Hopefully these tips help you begin to take the first step into a new social age for your brand/business!
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