Although a relatively new tool for business, social media is quickly turning into a vital park of the marketing mix, so today, I am going to talk about the benefits of social media and why, I think, every business should be using it.
The below graph is taken from a 2018 survey carried out by Social Media Examiner, which shows the benefits businesses and marketeers have experienced through using social media.
Develop a loyal community
Social media can be a slow burner, but it is important to firstly, develop a loyal community of interested, potential buyers for your business.
The first thing to do with any social media strategy, depending whether you are B2C or B2B, or both, is to work out where your audience are. There is no need to spend time and resources on a platform which wont work for your business, just because it’s a ‘popular’ platform.
From a recent Social Media Survey in 2018, 97% of businesses and marketeers have said they use Facebook for B2C marketing, followed by 72% using Instagram and 62% using Twitter. Whereas, 91% of B2B Marketeers have said they use Facebook, followed by 79% using LinkedIn. Only 57% of B2B marketeers use Instagram.
Showcase your brand
It is important to show your customers what you are all about, it is also important to stand out. For many years I have created a yearly calendar, this will allow you to plan your brand strategy in a more interesting way, you could use quarterly topics or events, or even monthly campaigns which will allow customers to engage more with a ‘story’ as appose to seeing posts each day of your different products and/or services.
Showcase your personality
Who doesn’t love a good personality? We are not robots, and our customers don’t expect us to be.
By promoting your company personality, customers will be more likely to engage with your business page, no one likes to be sold to, however, by showcasing your personality to your followers, you will certainly be remembered, which is what you need when customers are in need of your products or services.
Boost website traffic and organic exposure
Social media is a great way to help improve your organic presence on search engines, the way Google works, if your website is providing a reader with relevant information and easy to use navigation, it will be boost your organic position. Google also looks at the popularity of your website along with your bounce rate, (a ‘bounce rate’ shows the % of people visiting your website and leaving it immediately) Google want to see your website users visiting your site and reading your content, the more quality, loyal traffic you can send to your website from social media, the more Google will class you as a ‘popular, relevant’ website, which in turn, will help increase organic positions.
Top tip: When using social media to boost website traffic, it is important to link your posts to a relevant page on your website, so, for example, if your social media posts talks about you latest product or offers, include a link to this specific page on your website.
Generate trust using reviews
Did you know? 90% of consumers read online reviews before visiting a business or website (2016 – Bright Local)
Now, that is a statistic not worth ignoring!
Social media is a great way to gain reviews on your business page and there a few ways to get these started.
- Provide a good service (of course!)
- If you are e-commerce, when dispatching your product, ask the customer to review your product and/or service and point them to your social media page.
- If you provide a service, speak to customers once you have provided the service and again, ask them to review you.
- Entice customers to leave you a review by offering them something such as a discount on their next purchase.
Over time, and offering a quality service, customers will start to leave reviews without having to be asked, I promise!
Measure ROI
In a survey carried out by Social Media Examiner, in 2018, only 38% of Marketeers said they measure ROI – which to me is shocking, why would you spend time, resources and budget on anything to do with marketing and not measure the return on investment it is bring your business?
Top tip: When setting up your social media channels, ensure you set up conversion tracking through your social and website analytics so you can ensure you know what customers have come from social media, how much they spent with your company and if they have generated enough monies to justify your social spend.
It’s FREE!
The best thing about social media marketing, of course, is it is FREE.
Facebook rules have tightened following a new update in 2018, so, you may have to invest in paid advertising, however, depending on your AOV (Average Order Value) you may only need to convert one customer from your social media spend.
Top tip: If you are considering paid social advertising, it is worth investing in a professional to do this for you, so that your audiences are all targeting the correct demographics for your business and you are not throwing away money which won’t generate any quality customers.
If you haven’t thought about a social strategy yet, it’s time to start – your next customer could be on social media looking for a company just like you!