Is Your Business Missing Out from Poor Social Media Use?

Social media is one of the strongest marketing tools available to businesses around the world and, despite the occasional negative press surrounding platforms, has proven to be extremely popular with both brands and audiences, as well as a highly effective tool for companies.

With an estimated, and ever-increasing, 3.2billion active social media users out there, businesses need to have a social media presence now more than ever, whether this is regularly putting out vlogs and video updates via YouTube, company updates and offers via Twitter or targeting audiences on Facebook.

3.2billion is a huge number to get your head around and when it comes to discussing social media, numbers can be easily underestimated.

A great analogy is to consider the following: 1million seconds is equal to 11.5 days, while 1billion seconds is equal to a whopping 31.7 years. That’s a huge worldwide audience that your business is missing out on if you aren’t utilising social media effectively.

The Benefits of Social Media for Business Growth

Every successful business needs to grow, as without growth there is no success. Social media can help with growth in a multitude of ways. Not just for building awareness around your brand, it’s also good for directing your customers to your website or store.

Increasing Leads – You’ve got eyes on your brand, great! Now you need to start turning those views into potential leads and social media is your platform to do so. Its ease of use and built-in lead generating tools, including competition building, lead ad generation (Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn) and social media listening options mean you don’t need to have a degree in digital marketing to run an effective campaign.

Generating Web Traffic – “If you build it, they will come” – this Field of Dreams quote does hold some truth in today’s digital world. However, with an increasing 4billion active internet users and almost 2billion websites, that’s a lot for people to see!

Generating web traffic can be difficult, especially if you all you are offering is your services or products. You need to have interesting or informative content that attracts customers to your website. Alternatively, you can use social media to drive customers to your site. For example, when posting a new blog piece, let your followers know and offer them a link to the new post. Similarly, when launching a new product, you can offer your followers a discount code and a link to the product launch page.

Boosting Conversion Rates – When it comes to running a successful business, high conversion rates and completed sales are key. Social media means communication is always available, so customers who are on the edge of making a purchase decision can seek the help they need without having to look for the answers elsewhere. Not to mention, social media users will often post when they are looking for a service or product and with effective social media listening, businesses can use platforms to find these potential customers and reach out to them.

Collaborate with Influencers – The younger generations of today are less likely to watch terrestrial television, instead, seeking their entertainment from online websites such as YouTube and watching things based on recommendations from their social media friends and followers.

This change in platform has given rise to a group of individuals known as “influencers” or people who have grown popular on social media platforms and often recommend brands and products to their audiences. Businesses wanting to grow their awareness and customer base can easily collaborate with these influencers via social media and see a potential increase in conversions of up to four times that of standard social media marketing.

The Benefits of Social Media for Your Customers

One of the greatest benefits social media can bring to a business is the always-on connection with customers. While phone lines and email accounts are usually closed with the office, social media provides another point of contact for customers to share feedback, ask questions or raise complaints.

Real-Time Communication – Social media is an “in the now” communication platform that offers real-time communication between customers and brands, so customers don’t need to wait around on the phone or constantly check their inbox. Especially important, considering most people check their social media periodically throughout the day, so replies are often picked up faster.

Customer Satisfaction – It’s important for brands that the relationships with their customers are positive and after an exchange of goods or services, businesses want to know their customers are happy. With social media being a communication platform where users share their daily activities, individuals are more likely to post about good or bad experiences they’ve had with businesses and brands.

Widespread Connections – Social media has the ability to connect users from all around the globe, bringing people together from all walks of life. When you post on a public social media platform you are potentially opening up your feed to millions of views, so it’s important to consider the type of content you are posting and ensure that it isn’t likely to discriminate or cause offence.

Managing a Crisis – Should anything go wrong and your customers are taking to the internet to issue angry complaints or log their concerns, using social media platforms allows your brand to react instantly. This is far more positive that waiting to send out a widespread email or make thousands of phone calls, which will mean increased resources and cost, meaning the required information may not always be available.

The Benefits of Social Media for Content

If you are running a business, you are likely online with a branded website that details your products and services. You may also be posting regular content and advice for your customers to see and read, whether advising further information on a specific item or detailing the procedures of a certain service, social media can assist with your content and get it out to a larger audience.

Promote Content – Unless you already have a large web customer base, when you post something new onto your website, it’s not likely to gain many views or it will do so slowly as your customers return to your website. Social media gives you the option to share content with your customers as soon as it’s posted, making a larger audience aware of the content, as well as adding a further search result for your content in search engines.

Go Viral – With any content posted on social media, there is the potential for it to go viral. “Going viral” is the term given to a popular social media post that is picked up and shared by tens of thousands of social media users, with some posts being shared millions of times and receiving tens of millions of views. This is especially good for businesses and brands that see an instant uptake in the number of followers which can eventually be converted into customers.

Finding Content – To stay relevant, businesses need to be producing regular content for their audiences and customers, which can be tricky after a while if you have been producing content for some years. Social media provides a wealth of resource for inspiration and you can also review what competitors are offering in terms of content, as you work to provide a similar level or better.

The Benefits of Social Media for Marketing

Marketing is important for businesses as it allows a greater reach to increased audiences. However, it can also be one of the largest monetary outgoings and for small businesses, so effective marketing can be extremely difficult due to limited budgets. Social media can assist online marketing in businesses in the following ways;

Cost Effective – Posting and sharing content on social media is completely free and therefore extremely effective for strict marketing budgets, freeing up more spend for other important aspects such as hiring staff or growing the business. Posting advertisements on social media is more reasonable too when compared to traditional means of advertising such as magazines, newspapers or big outdoor posters and billboards.

Targeted Advertising – If your business offers a localised service or the product has been designed with a specific group in mind (children, elderly, millennials, etc.) then targeted advertising is perfect for you. Targeted advertising offered through platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram allows metrics to be set including age, location, gender, parental status, even adverts targeted to certain interest or hobby groups. This ensures that the people who see your adverts are relevant and offer an increased potential for conversions.

Abandoned Carts – If you have a shopping platform on your website, you’ll be familiar with the concept of abandoned carts, where customers place the items they intend to buy in their online shopping cart but leave the website prior to checking out. Using retargeting adverts on social media platforms, you can ensure these customers see adverts featuring the items they have placed in their cart, acting as a reminder for them to go back and complete the sale.

Improved Search Engine Ranking – Without relevant content for your business, your customers will have a harder time finding their way to your website via search engines. Through using social media, you increase your presence online and make it easier for potential customers to find you through search engine results.

In Summary

Efficient social media use is more than just putting out regular promotions and sales posts. It should instead be considered a source of information for your target audience, where you try to answer questions that customers might have about the industry and remember to network positively with your audience and other brands.

Building a social media following can be slow going but it’s important to keep going, building your profile so you have a presence for potential customers to find and learn more about your company.

Unless you are in a strictly formal or essential industry, social media should be enjoyable and can be a bit of fun for your company, and as long as posts are not going to cause offence or be discriminatory, it can be an anything goes platform where you can give your brand a more relatable personality.

If you require information on managing your social media campaign or need digital marketing assistance, give our friendly social media Peterborough team a call on 01733 890 836 or email us at hello@i3media.net