If you want your business to be visible in today’s world, you can’t afford to ignore how powerful social media is as a marketing tool. In fact, over 90% of marketers say that social media has helped increase their exposure!
As a business, your marketing goal is to grow your business, drive as much traffic to your website as possible, and continuously gain more followers. Social media marketing is one of the most effective ways to achieve all of these. You’re missing out on a huge opportunity if you aren’t using social media to its fullest.
Here are 8 compelling reasons why your business should be on social media.
1. Increase Exposure
No matter what industry you’re in or what your target audience is, most of your customers and leads are actively using social media. According to a recent Pew Research Center study, 68% of American adults use Facebook. 78% of 18 to 24-year-olds use Instagram. Even Americans 65 and older use social media regularly. If your customers and potential leads are already there, it makes sense for you to be there, too!
You can also boost traffic to your website just by letting your social media followers know about new blog posts or updates to your homepage. Most social media platforms let you post content with a link to your website. This makes it easy for potential customers to learn about your products and services.
2. Boost Your SEO
When you use social media posts to drive traffic to your optimized pages, they will climb faster in search rankings. Search engine crawlers know which pages consistently earn traffic.
In addition to sharing new content, it’s also helpful to re-share evergreen content once a month. Facebook has a scheduling tool that allows you to set the whole month at one time, so re-sharing content isn’t a time-consuming task. Re-sharing also extends the life cycle of your content and can reignite interest in a product or service you provide.
3. Build a Relationship with Your Audience
Another big advantage of social media is that it’s one of the few marketing strategies that allows you to interact with your audience. If they follow your social media account, then you know they’re interested in your business. When you know your audience, you’re able to deliver more valuable content to them. You can see who interacts with your posts and what kind of content appeals to them. As a result, your followers are more likely to be engaged with your page and your business.
You’re also able to provide better customer service. You can resolve issues easier and faster when you have a direct connection with your audience. Having a social media platform allows you to get feedback from your followers and adapt your posts to better meet their needs. This in turn leads to more traffic to your site.
Social media posts allow you to build a connection and rapport with your followers. By taking the time to provide helpful information without asking for anything in return, you show your customers that you value them as people and not just a source of revenue. Your followers will see that you care about them, and that can make a huge difference…especially in a competitive market.
4. Create Free Organic Content
Another incredible benefit of social media is the ability to post organic content for free. This allows you to connect with potential customers at no cost.
You can post as much content as you’d like, including photos and videos. It’s a great way to help valuable leads get to know your brand and what you offer. And did we mention you’re able to do all of this for free?!
5. Paid Advertising Services
Each social media platform offers its own form of paid advertising if you want to go beyond organic posts, and there are many benefits to paid advertising. Advertising on social media allows you to target (and re-target) specific customers using factors like age, education, industry, likes, and location. Your ads are placed in the feeds of the people who are looking for your services and products. This creates an amazing opportunity to obtain new leads and expand your reach, which results in new followers as well as conversions.
You can find more information about which social media platform to advertise on here.
6. Build Your Brand
Another advantage of social media is the ability to build your brand. When you post organic content for free, you connect with interested leads and expose them to your brand. This builds brand familiarity and loyalty which leads to more conversions because people tend to buy brands they know well.
You can also build your brand because social media enables sharing. Your followers can share your content with their family and friends, which exposes your brand to even more people. This helps you earn more leads and grow your followers.
7. Assess Your Performance
It’s easy to track your performance on social media platforms. At any time, you can measure content performance and make adjustments as needed. You get instant feedback of how many people like, share, and comment on your posts. If you pay to advertise, you’ll see metrics such as impressions, clicks, and conversions. The data also shows who is engaging with your content, and there is even a breakdown that shows how many interactions came from people who aren’t even following you on social media yet.
8. Free to Join
One of the biggest reasons to use social media marketing is that it’s entirely free to join! There are no signup fees of any kind, so the only investment you’re making is time.
Of course, you may decide to take advantage of the paid advertising options that are available on social media platforms. It’s not required for businesses to use paid advertising, but it’s a great tool to grow your following and reach potential customers.
Which Social Media Is Best for Your Business?
Now that you understand the benefits of social media and how powerful it is as a marketing tool; you may be wondering which social media platform is best for your business.
Let’s look at the 5 leading networks and how they perform for different businesses and audiences.
1. Facebook
With more than two billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most popular social platform in the world. 61% of those are Americans between the ages of 25 and 60, but even people over 65 use Facebook. One of the reasons it’s a leading social media site for businesses is because almost every person in your customer base already has a Facebook account.
Facebook is a great platform to generate leads, build relationships, show the human side of your business, and turn leads into loyal customers and followers. It’s an excellent platform to reach large numbers of people.
2. Instagram
Instagram has over one billion monthly users and is popular with men and women between the ages of 18 and 60. Most of its users are under 25, so Instagram is the ideal social platform for companies and brands whose target audience is young and trendy. Because Facebook owns Instagram, you’re able to integrate it with your Facebook account and use the same posts. Short videos and photos with a small amount of text perform well on Instagram.
3. Twitter
With over 330 million monthly users between the ages of 18 and 49, Twitter provides a steady stream of new content and information from across the Internet. It doesn’t have the same broad audience that Facebook and Instagram have, but almost every brand in the world has a Twitter account where they can engage their customers. One drawback is that your message must be 280 words or less. It’s not easy to be interesting, informative, and concise in one tweet. When done correctly, though, your tweet can be retweeted (shared). This will expand awareness of your brand and allow you to appeal to a broader audience.
4. LinkedIn
No other social network can beat LinkedIn when it comes to professionalism. With over 300 million monthly users between the ages of 25 and 64, it’s a community of successful professionals. LinkedIn is more formal than the other social media platforms, but it allows you to connect and share on a professional level. If your company seeks businesses as clients, you have great potential for success on this platform. Since company decision-makers use LinkedIn, if you get your product or service in front of them, you may land another customer.
5. YouTube
This may not seem like an obvious choice, but it’s the second-largest search engine in the world after Google. YouTube has two billion monthly users between the ages of 18 and over 65 and may be a good fit for your business. YouTube is a great platform to educate your target audience with instructional videos, product reviews, and similar content. Once you make a video, it will show up in both Google and YouTube search results, and you can also promote it on your other social media accounts. YouTube is where your customers look when they want to learn something.
Bottom Line
The impact of social media on business is undeniable. It’s an essential tool to build brand awareness, generate more website traffic, get to know your customers and their needs better, find new leads, and improve your customer service.
At Evolve Impact Group, our team of social media specialists know how to help you get the most from all the social media platforms. We are up to date on the best practices and latest trends in social media marketing. If you’re ready to see how the power of social media can help you grow your business, contact us today.