Social media has taken the world by storm, making it one of the most powerful marketing tools out there. It’s not only used for networking, but it’s also a free, easy way to advertise your business–no matter what you’re offering.
According to a study done by Data Reportal, there are 4.33 billion social media users worldwide. That means 9 out of 10 internet users are on some sort of social media platform every month. On top of that, a study done by Omni Core Agency found that in 2020, 200+ million Instagrammers visit at least one business profile every day. This is a massive audience that a business would not have been able to reach only a decade ago.
With this vast number of online users, as a business owner, you do not want to miss out on the opportunity to connect with potential new customers, increase your brand awareness, and boost your profits.
Reasons Social Media Marketing Is Important
1. Lets Your Customers Learn Your Story
One thing that social media has allowed business owners to do is to tell their stories. As a result, you get to connect with your customers and audience personally, which in turn makes them trust you more as a brand.
Social media platforms give you the chance to show behind-the-scenes footage of what it takes to run a business, allow you to discuss your successes and failures, and make you appear more relatable.
2. Helps Build Brand Awareness
There are hundreds of thousands of potential clients out there, but they will never become customers if they don’t know about your business. Using social media increases your visibility and allows you to reach a broader audience. It’s no secret that social media content draws attention from people all over the world. How often do you find yourself scrolling your feeds every day? We’d guess pretty often.
Because social media is such a saturated market, it’s crucial to create content that stands out amongst your competitors. So how can you do this? Carefully curate photos, videos, and articles that form a cohesive feed. Think about what your audience wants to see and what questions they may have.
Related: How To Promote Your Business On Facebook: 8 Smart Strategies
3. Allows You To Get Feedback
As a business owner, having a sense of how your customers feel about your product or service is essential. Use SMM as a direct means of communication to gain feedback from existing customers and potential new ones. Use Instagram polls to get opinions on products or ask questions about what they are looking for within your industry. This not only helps improve your customer service–i.e., reputation management and customer engagement–but also helps you gauge what your audience is enjoying/disliking.
4. You Can Draw In An Audience For Very Little Money (If Any)
Long gone are the days of needing to spend a lot of money on printed advertisements. Social media marketing is one of the least expensive marketing options these days. While sites such as Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram give you the option to buy ads, using them is not necessary to succeed.
You can grow a following organically–and at no cost–by posting consistently, having strong branding, and producing original, relatable work. You can also take advantage of SEO tactics in SMM by researching trending keywords and topics to increase your rankings.
The more eyes on your social media accounts, the more eyes on your website. There are many businesses and bloggers who have built up their traffic without paying a single penny on digital ads. If you are willing to spend some money, you will only quicken your digital growth.
5. Allows You To Stay Up To Date On Trends
There’s nothing that hurts a business more than being behind on trends. You will lose customers if your work seems outdated. With social media, you can keep tabs on your competitors and see what is trendy.
When studying your competitor’s work, ask yourself these questions to help you form a stronger social media strategy.
- What are other brands successfully doing? What’s not working?
- If something is working for others, would it work for you? If not, why?
- How are brands taking advantage of their online presence?
- How engaged does their following seem?
- Can you build on on their strategy to make your brand stronger?
Related: Creating A Content Marketing Plan
6. Learn Your Audience’s Buying Behavior
If there’s one piece of advice that we insist you take, it’s to take advantage of a platform’s insights. They give you a look into your customer’s activities and their buying behaviors. With insights, you can discover the best time to post, what content performs the best, where your primary audience lives, how old your primary audience is, what’s being liked and shared most, and more. You can then take this information and form a stronger marketing strategy and build your engagement.
7. Partner With Influencers
Influencers–people who have large social media followings–have keyed that term “influencer” for a reason. In 2020, there were over 500,000 active Instagram influencers. That is 500,000 chances to partner up with another entrepreneur to help promote your product or service. It has been found that 70% of people log onto social media to find new products. Why not make it easier for this audience by teaming up with someone who already has thousands of eyes on their page every day?
So What Social Media Sites Are Best For You?
The beautiful thing about social media is the fact that every single platform can be used for different types of businesses. Crime scene clean-up companies have gone viral on TikTok, and marketing agencies have grown followings of thousands on Instagram. When first starting out in the SMM world, we recommend trying every platform. You will quickly learn what works and what doesn’t–and don’t be surprised if you end up going viral one day.
Social Media Is Essential
Social media marketing is by far one of the easiest ways to reach a global audience with minimal time, effort, and money. Before launching your platforms, create a marketing strategy that you think best fits your business model. From there, post curated content consistently and watch as the new customers and clients begin to roll in.
Don’t be the business that loses out on leads because you are afraid to leap into the wild world that is SMM. A connection with your audience will build your brand awareness, and eventually your customer list.
