Social Media presents opportunities that go way beyond posting photos for followers! Let’s dive into what is happening behind the scenes of Social Media Marketing.
It can be hard for small businesses to know where to dedicate their time when it comes to digital marketing. Time is precious and social networks are a commitment that can sometimes seem overwhelming or vain. So why do you need Social Media?
Fact: there are more people using Social Media in 2020 than the global population in 1971.
The figure comes from Hootsuite’s last Digital report, announcing that there were 3.8 billion social media users in 2020, which is 9.2% more than the previous year. This yearly increase represents a great opportunity for small businesses that can lead to new customers!
Let’s have a look at how Social Media Marketing can help your business grow.
I. GET YOURSELF KNOWN
I like to think of social media as a large gathering between friends, and friends of friends. It’s great to get yourself known and humanize your brand!
That is why I wanted to give you the three most relevant areas where social media can help you get yourself known.
Increase brand awareness
Brand awareness is how easily customers will identify and remember your brand. The aim is to be brought up in conversations more often and for customers to think about your brand regularly.
How to increase brand awareness with social media? You have options!
- First, you can engage with your customer by regularly creating appealing content. Engaging content encourages users to share, like and comment. This increases your brands visibility as more people engage with and share your content. As a result, your brand will be front of mind, increasing the likelihood of customers choosing you when they engage in a sales process.
- Being present on social networks also gives you the opportunity to join in conversations about relevant topics. Be a thought-leader in your industry and gain credibility!
- Finally, you can promote content from your other digital channels. If you have a website, a blog, online products/services or videos, Social Media Marketing is a great way to get more visibility! Often, if you are new to your industry or new to marketing, your content might take time to be present at the top of Google search results. Thus, Social Media is a great way to get people to see your new content and grow awareness around your products or services!
Manage your customers
As a small business, your customers are at the heart of your success. From onboarding to satisfaction and loyalty, Social Media is an efficient way to manage your customers and clients.
- From early stages in their buying process, your customers are going to search online to find more information about your offer. We all do! As a matter of fact, Social networks helps to gain trust through positive reviews, recommendations, and even by having a preview of your products and services (unboxing, behind the scenes etc).
- It also enables you to build rapport and ensure customer satisfaction at every stage of the process. Social Media chats could be an option for you to interact more directly with your clients. This will offer a personalised assistance and increase satisfaction.
- Lastly, social platforms allow you to keep in touch with your customers. Having a close relationship with your client base will increase loyalty and therefore help generate returning customers. Keep engaging them, personalising offers, interacting with them, and I am confident you will see customers coming back!
Online Advertising
Entrepreneurs and small businesses usually have to use their budget wisely. Advertising on Social Media is a very efficient way to generate sales and leads and has a good return on investment due to its flexibility.
- Advertising on Social networks allows you to choose who will see your ads: where they are based, how old they are, what they like, what they usually buy… This way you can target customers that have the ideal profile to like and buy your product or service.
- But that’s not it, it is also measurable! As opposed to traditional advertising (newspaper, radio, television or outdoor billboards), you know how many people saw your ad, how many people clicked, how many people bought etc. Having tangible numbers around your advertising allows you to optimise your campaigns to increase sales and return on investment.
II. GET TO KNOW YOUR CUSTOMERS
Don’t forget that Social Media is a two-way relationship! This means it is a good way for you to better understand your customers.
Who are your customer?
Social platforms bring you one of the most valuable tools to grow your business: data.
Data is information about your customers. It is collected when customers interact with social media content and illustrates how users view, share and engage with your content. As a result, you can know what they like, what are their motivations, how attached they are to your brands etc.
Data is crucial to making decisions about your digital marketing strategy. It can also guide your business decisions, taking in consideration your audience behaviour and desires.
What do they say about your brand?
Listen to your customers! We talked a lot about engagement. Engagement is essentially reactions from your audience towards your content, and therefore your brand. Are reactions positive or negative? What are the comments saying?
This will give you key information to keep improving your offer, optimize your strategy and grow your business.
Conclusion
Social Media is a very efficient way for brands to grow their business. It generates brand awareness, allows you to stay front of mind, lets you converse directly with your customer and even enables you to promote your product to your target market.
As a result, you will gain more information on your prospects’ desires and behaviour. This will help you adjust your strategy to better connect with your audience and increase sales.
As a small business, I understand your time is priceless. My recommendation to keep things manageable is to start by choosing one or two platforms that you know you can dominate and where your customers are present. For example, Instagram and Facebook are a great choice for B2C businesses. If you are B2B, LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook might be more relevant.
Here is a final tip: social media is also a great way to keep an eye on your competition!
If you need help with Social Media Marketing, don’t hesitate to get in touch! I will be happy to guide you and get the most out of this sleeping giant!