The Importance of Social Media
The impact of social media marketing on your business.
On the popular TV show, ‘Shark Tank,’ there was an entrepreneur with a business that sold pancake and waffle mix, called Long Table. This company was already in business and was looking for a boost to increase their revenue and reach. All seemed well and fine until the sharks discovered that the company had no social media presence. This quickly turned into the sharks questioning the motivation of the business owner and eventually pulling out of any deal making.
This was a tough break for Long Table, but we think it’s a great opportunity to showcase the impact of having a social media presence for your business. In fact, professional investors see it as part of a required business strategy to show viability. On this note, we’re going to provide you with some great techniques to strengthen your social media presence.
#1: Start with the Basics
The first question to ask yourself about your business is: Does your business have a social media presence? If not, you need to click here. If yes, it’s important to review how often you’re posting to your accounts and the quality of those posts. If everything you share is super salesy or provides little to no extra value, you can count on less engagement, which turns into potential new customers never approaching your business. Instead of sticking to standard posts about your service or products, consider posting about educational topics related to your business or the benefits which a customer can expect from your products or services.
Additionally, it’s important to ensure that your business is active on the appropriate social media channels. What we mean is that if you do not have a ton of authentic content to post (pictures and videos of your business, products, etc.), then platforms like Instagram might not be worth your time even trying to manage. You’ll need some expert insight to determine which platforms make the most sense for your business—but that’s what we’re here for!
#2: Audience Growth = Business Growth
So, we want to help you make a correlation here. If your audience is growing on social media, your business is growing. When you’re actively contributing to your social media presence and focusing on growing your reach, it means that more people will have your business top of mind when they need what you offer. With this growth in audience, you can expect to draw in new customers and increase the impact of your efforts. This is another great reason why making sure your social media for your business is active and healthy is important. Word of mouth is always good, but you can spread the word yourself on social media.
Furthermore, there are ways to organically grow your business through social media. These tactics include publishing authentic content, reacting and replying to comments on your posts, interacting with other business accounts, and sharing your posts to relevant groups or forums. Comparatively, you can take the sponsored ad approach to growing your audience by utilizing adspend to reach more potential new customers.
#3: Keep Up with the Trends
We cannot stress this point enough. Social media is an ever-changing and evolving industry that changes to fit the trends of content creators and audiences. You can learn more about keeping up with trends here, but we have some quick tips to keep you nice and trendy.
We’ve said it before, but authentic content is so important to how consumable your social media is. Try snapping photos or short videos around the office of staff or of the creation of your products or services. Side note – professional photography sessions can also be a great way to gather bulk content. Additionally, focus on being active on your pages. Post stories, go live and talk about something that’s happening at your business, or even consider assigning a staff person to answer direct messages on your social media platforms. This will hopefully set you up for success and solid growth.
Extra Social Media Pro-Tips:
- Post often but don’t over post (2-4 times per week is a good goal to set)
- Make your posts reflect the benefit of choosing your business
- Use a variety of posts from behind-the-scenes content to posts that provide more value to the audience
- Share events, community contributions, customers, and links that all lend to the legitimacy of your business
We know, we know. It’s a big task to get social media rolling for your business and you might not know exactly where to start. You’ll need a plan and a strategy to follow. Partner with our social media marketing experts to tell us about your goals—and we’ll do all the rest of the work for you. So, are you ready for your custom marketing strategy? We thought so.