Social Media channels such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram have proven to be the most effective digital marketing tools for reaching out to customers and promoting your business. Yet there are still many small businesses that complain they don’t have the time or resources to manage their social media marketing.
Consistently producing and promoting quality content, analysing and using customer feedback to improve your business, and reaching out to potential prospects via social media channels is not easy. It’s something you need to keep on top of from day one. Yet it should be a priority.
Here are just a few of the benefits of social media and why it should not be ignored.
Brand Visibility
If you’ve spent time, money and effort creating a brand for your business, you need to get out there and share it. If you’re not visible, you don’t exist.
Social media channels give you direct contact with customers and prospects enabling you to reach out and share your brand’s voice and content, ensuring that your brand will be easily recognisable. A good social media presence establishes your professionalism, authority and credibility while helping to build trust in your name.
Valuable feedback
Want to find out what people really think of your business? Comments, likes and shares all provide valuable feedback that can help you improve your customer service. If you don’t read customer reactions, you’re missing out on an opportunity to fix problems you may have. Use negative feedback to see where you’re going wrong and prevent a problem escalating, while positive feedback can be used as testimonials that you can share with your followers to promote your brand.
Social Media can boost your rankings
Social media also plays an important part in your SEO strategy. A strong social media presence will help boost your rankings on Google. The more ‘real’ followers you have, and the more sharing that goes on, the higher you’ll rank in search engine listings.
Save Money
By investing in social media marketing, for example, paying someone to write, manage and publish on your social media channels, you’ll be saving a large amount of money on traditional marketing costs.
One positive comment shared on Facebook or multiple posts on all your social media accounts can have a far more positive impact than placing an ad. And it’s free!
Understand your Target Audience
Social media is one of the quickest and easiest business communication tools to use. You can access your customers and prospects in real-time. Conversing, sharing ideas and getting valuable feedback immediately gives you a deeper understanding of your customer’s interests, wants and needs. It helps you fully understand your target audience so you can analyse the results and adapt your products and services to suit their needs in an ever-changing, fast-paced marketplace.
By using social media for your business you’ll be stretching your brand further and extending your business presence on a global scale. Ultimately, you’ll have the opportunity to grow your business by converting followers into customers.
To discuss your online needs, contact Aqueous Digital today.
[First published on 5 July 2017. Updated on 10 August 2020]
