Many people may see social media as just a way to connect with friends. In the last few years, companies have discovered some amazing ways to grab our attention on social media without us realising they’re selling.
Social media is now something you need to be a part of to help your business grow, we’ll help you stand out!
These are the top reasons your business should be social
- Even if your business is niche, there will be an online audience for you. There are currently 34 billion social media users worldwide: there is bound to be someone interested in your products. You can also find hashtags that relate to your industry or discussions in your area such as #SmallBizHour or #HampshireHour. This is another great way to raise awareness of your business.
- Connect with potential customers. Social media is all about interaction and conversation. So make sure you get involved. Ask your followers what content they’d like to see or what they find most interesting. This will help you to create the best quality content that will also be engaging for your followers.
- Keeping active on social helps to increase your brand loyalty. If customers see you interacting and posting relevant content, they’ll know you’re real, and then they’re more likely to trust you as a company. See more of our tips for using social media in our infographic.
- Many consumers now visit a company’s social media page to make an enquiry or complaint, rather than phone or email. This means that being highly responsive on your social media when this happens is key. Users will expect very fast responses to their questions, a day at the most. Companies who do this achieve a better customer experience than those who don’t.
- You’ve probably seen us mention this point before, but it’s important! Being active for your business on social media helps you to rank higher in search. It’s also a great place to create links to your website, increasing your web traffic.
- Spy on your competitors. There are a lot of platforms now that allow you to compare the performance of your competitors on social media to your own profile, like Facebook Insights. These platforms let you see what they do really well, or really badly. They also let you figure out what you should be focusing on. If all their posts are text-based with links to their website, create some engaging image posts that followers will love.
- Target advertising. Advertising can help to grow your follower base by creating targeted promotions to specific interests. By targeting your ads, you’re more likely to find users who are interested in your products.
- See what works. Most social media platforms now offer some sort of reporting. This can help you to really understand what sort of content works for your business. You can decide whether you want to get more page likes, post engagement or visits to your website. Check back on your posts each month to see which ones achieved your goals most. Then come up with ideas for content to match these targets.
- Make connections – don’t just post to sell, post mostly industry relevant content, with a few sales links. There are 7,000 posts on Twitter every second, if yours constantly focuses on selling, people will block you out.
- If you don’t have time or this is too much for you, let us help! We offer services for everything from management to training.
What do you think? Is your business using social media? Let us know why you think social media is important in the comments below; we’d love to hear your thoughts.
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