Every business benefits from actively marketing and generating leads by having a social media presence on the most popular social media platforms today.
Social media has become the preferred form of media today with a 67% of people that say they get their news from social media first. News breaking most often comes from shares or second-hand sources on platforms like Facebook and Twitter. In effect, content publishers have to have social media at the front of their mind if they hope for their outlet to get exposure for breaking a story as opposed to a competitor.
the same principle will hold true for businesses. If you aren’t active on social media, then you won’t have control of who is saying what to who, or even worse, your business will be invisible until someone else shares content or news talking about your business.
Having a proactive social media marketing strategy can also help boost your sales performances and help your business achieve marketing goals beside provide visibility. Having a social media presence can make you gain new customer leads, increase your brand awareness, and you can offer customer support through social channels.
Create a highly visible hub for business’s news and announcement.
It’s great to have a blog or news page on your website, but you have to consider that already most people don’t visit news sites to news, so it’s highly probable that they anent activity going to your business’s website to see the latest blog post or announcement. In fact, very few people will religiously check your business website’s blog or news page.
This assertion doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a blog or news page, and that you shouldn’t tend to your website, or, worst case scenario, that you don’t need a website. Not at all. It just means that your business will gain much more visibility by being proactive on social media.
Your social media profiles serve as your business’s online “hub” away from its main website. Photos, content you share, and the announcements you make all have the effect of turning your social accounts into an official mouthpiece for your brand. It will help shape your public image and control the flow of information you release into the world.
Does having a proactive social media presence increase your visibility on search engines?
The jury is still out as to whether social media engagement and content shares can raise the search engine ranking for a business’s website pages. Hootsuite found a small correlation but concluded that a deeper study with more data points was needed.
Even if social media can’t help raise your web page rankings, it can help you occupy a more obvious spot in the rankings altogether. Why? Because social media platforms have great domain authority, which allows them to rank highly any time a search is made.
So, if someone searches for your business name or a related topic online, your social media page and posts talking about your business are highly likely to appear near the top of search results. Twitter is especially good at earning top ranks, since Google features recent tweets similar to how they would news posts.
Having a social media profile and actively discussing your areas of business can therefore give you additional opportunities at ranking near the top of search engine results.
Gain traffic to your marketing campaigns by publishing content and share it on social media platforms.
Since people are more likely to check your social media pages than your website to get your latest business announcement, the most obvious way to encourage more people to go to your website is by posting on social media.
You can easily pull in huge amounts of traffic just from one post by using the right images and call-to-action messages. When you share content on social media platforms, you need to get people’s attention so you need to create awesome content previews for whatever you intend to share.
Use social media to describe an offer in attractive terms to gain attention and traffic. Share a current sale, or encourage people to sign up for entry in a contest by sharing a link to the relevant landing page.
Many businesses get little traffic to their blogs if at all, that’s why social sharing is now a must do. Businesses can boost traffic and potentially up their correlated domain authority by just posting on social media platforms which explains the positive effect Hootsuite saw between social engagement and SEO rank.
Social media to raise your brand awareness and gain new customer leads.
Social media creates opportunity for new audiences to discover what your business has to offer. Your business gains exposure through people who follow and engage with your brand on social media platforms. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn have powerful audience customisation tools that allow you to get in front of your most valuable buyer personas with a minimal budget.
A landscaping company could target business owners in their area, for instance, by selecting job titles as an audience filter. Or, they could target a wealthy neighborhood with large estate-style land plots that can offer lucrative contracts.
Software companies can similarly offer free demos or pitch their product’s benefits to relevant audiences. Social media provides the visibility, and once you have someone on your landing page or on your email list, you have opportunities to convert.
Interact with your audiences and provide customer support with social media.
Brands can do an excellent job of building relationships with their audiences when they can create content that encourages engagement.
The UPS Store, for example, came out with a powerful social media post that piggybacked off the popularity of a recent Nintendo product release. To date, the post has gotten 3,200 shares, over 200 comments, and 10,000 “likes.”
Interactions like these don’t just multiply brand impressions. They also change the way people might perceive a brand. Someone who loves the playful tone of the post can then translate these positive associations to the business posting it. Or, the brand can help forge strong associations between itself and the values it cares about most.
People who interact with the brand can therefore end up being more loyal customers, while repeating the desired positive brand associations to their friends and followers. According to one survey, 48% of people say they are more likely to make repeat purchases from a brand that engages with them, and 90% of millennials consider it “cool” when a brand responds to their questions.
What about people who have nasty things to say about your business on social media, or people who have a complaint? That is actually a great opportunity!
After voicing a complaint about a company on social media, 71% of people who have a positive experience and have their issue resolved say they are likely to recommend that company to others. They also say they are likely to spend 21% more than they normally would.
Don’t ignore social media marketing, or the world could ignore you!
Because of all the benefits social media marketing provides, especially for visibility, having a social media strategy is no longer optional for businesses. Even if don’t intend to advertise or promote your business on the major social platforms, you need a professional presence that responds actively to people looking for support and answers.
If you want help forming your own social media strategy for your business, look no further than Something Simple Will Do! We have experience creating content, earning followers, interacting with audiences, supporting cross-channel marketing campaigns, and creating paid social media advertising campaigns based on your goals.
Or, if you just need some advise and tips on how to manage your social media presence, book a one-hour consultation.