Social media is everywhere, and if I’m honest, your business requiring a social media presence is an absolute fact, not a discussion.
The kind of business you’re running is pretty irrelevant. Whether it’s a small corner shop or an estate agency, social media can help you connect with the customers you already have as well as your soon-to-be customers.
Considering more than three billion people all over the world use social media every single month, this is not a phase or passing trend, it’s a way of life.
I’m going to explain a few of the many reasons social media can really help your business.
Building Brand Awareness
If people are not aware of your business, you can’t really expect them to become paying customers.
Having social media is going to boost your visibility to potential customers, allowing you to reach a wider audience, all from spending your time and energy wisely.
It’s also free to create a business profile on all of the main social media platforms, so what have you really got to lose?
The best place for you to start is to establish what you’re hoping to get out of social media and develop a social media strategy. This will help you get to grips with the types of new customers you want to bring to your site.
Keeping a tight-knit strategy is going to determine what social media platforms are the most appropriate for your business.
Your Inbound Traffic Will Be Increased
Take it from me, this is pretty much a guarantee. Your social media presence will provide you and your business another way to get more inbound traffic to go to your website.
This, therefore, makes marketing a fantastic strategy to go hand-in-hand with your search engine optimisation (SEO) efforts.
Every bit of content you decide to publish on your social media profile could mean another opportunity to bring new visitors to your website.
Once the visitor gets to your site, you will then have the golden moment to convert them.
However, for you to gain the highest amount of inbound traffic, it’s essential that you consistently post content that is engaging and has value to your target audience.
The better the quality of the content you’re publishing on social media, the more opportunities you’re going to have to gain new leads and direct them back to your website.
Even more so, if your website is optimised for conversions then you can mark my words, it’ll only be a matter of time until these new leads are converted into customers.
Choose Your Platforms Wisely
Something else which is a definite benefit of social media marketing is the fact that you’re able to strategically target different audiences based on the channels that your brand is using most frequently.
Instead of just putting your marketing objectives out there for everyone to see, you can reach your target market and work to drive more qualified leads back to your website.
If you’re able to create a clear list of your audience demographic values, the better it’ll be.
This list should include their age, gender, where they’re situated, interests, the brands they follow, hobbies and so on.
Once you know this information, you will be able to gain a better idea of which social media platform you should go forward with to use in order to read them.
This will also help you in creating content that will engage your audience and therefore increase your chances for conversions, and the more relevant this traffic is, the more likely you’ll be able to push up those conversion rates.
I’d say, that the key to getting the absolute best out of your social media marketing is to carefully choose which channels you can see yourself spending a lot of time, money and effort on.
You Can Promote Your Business Better
Using social media has become one of, if not the number one way to promote and advertise a business.
Because of the advanced options of targeting and remarketing, you’re able to address the message to the audience that would more likely be interested in your products and services.
Even by posting content on a regular basis, or using a specific hashtag to showcase a campaign or brand you might be promoting regularly, is likely to do a lot more good than harm.
So, of course, why wouldn’t you use social media?
You’ll see your Search Engine Rankings Go Up
You may already be in a position where you are in the process of trying to improve your SEO.
Search engines might be using your social media presence as a factor in their rankings — now that’s some food for thought.
Successful brands typically have a healthy social media presence, so as long as it is strong, it may act as a signal to search engines that your brand is valuable, credible and trustworthy.
However, this isn’t 100%, as the ranking factors are always changing, but active social media channels will end up helping you in the end.
Your social media presence won’t only impact your search engine rankings, but it’s also important to know that your social media accounts will likely show up on the first page of Google when consumers are looking for your brand.
For example, if a consumer was to click on your social profile and sees that they are outdated or non-engaging, they’re likely to go elsewhere. This is why it’s important to not only consistently publish compelling content on your social media channels, but also check your profile information often, and update when necessary.
Social Media is Personal
Marketing through social media can be a great outlet for bringing in new customers. Recommendations or reviews on social media can go a long way in helping your brand connect with customers that you didn’t know existed.
However, there are other ways that your business will be able to use social media to tap into new markets.
One way which you’re able to find new customers and market opportunities on your social channels is through social listening.
From following specific keywords, and see what topics are trending in your specific industry, or sector, you’ll be able to see who is taking part in the conversation.
This will be able to provide your business with a whole host of new lead opportunities while also introducing you to industry influencers you may be able to partner with to boost visibility. You can do this in the way of guest blogging and other similar strategies.
So, Are You Missing Out?
As much as I don’t want to encourage sheep, but shepherds, this time I’m pro-sheep. There is absolutely no getting away from social media in our social lives, we are all pretty obsessed with it and hate to love it.
But, when it comes to social media and your business, it can actually be beneficial to get on board the social media train. As we’ve discussed, there are so many attributes as to what social media can do for your business, and in fact, far too many to even list here. From increasing your brand awareness, to feeling more engaged with your customers and potential customers, to seeing what your competitors are doing at a click, it’s really not one to be missed.
