Are you a business owner who is debating whether or not to invest time and or money in creating a strong social media presence? In this blog post we will cover the main reasons you should focus on creating an online presence for your business and what you should AND shouldn’t expect from your digital channels initially.
1. Build brand awareness/expand your audiences
Establishing a strong online presence is one of the most effective ways to build brand awareness and expand your audience. One of the reasons your business may be struggling could be that your target audience has not yet discovered you, this is where social media could help. Connecting with new potential customers online is an impactful, easy and fairly inexpensive way to get your brand name out there. You can also experiment with showcasing your brand to new audiences and with 83% of Instagram users saying they discover new products on Instagram, you could be missing a trick by not establishing your brand on social media.
2. Develop customer relationships/ gain positive reputation
Another way for your brand to use socials is to gain a positive reputation through the way you are interacting with your customers. If potential customers have any questions regarding your products/services it is really important you respond in a professional, friendly and timely manner. Additionally if a customer is singing your brand’s praises, be sure to draw attention to them and get the word out! On the flipside, if someone is speaking poorly of your products, be quick to explain your side of the story in a professional manner so it shows your customers are being heard.
3. Get direct feedback from your target audience
Forget focus groups and surveys – use your platforms to gain a better understanding of what your customers are loving about your brand and what aspects aren’t working out so well. These insights into your target audience’s pain points and preferences will be hugely valuable to the ultimate success of your brand so make sure to listen with open ears and implement your feedback.
4. Targeted ads
Paid social media ads are a fairly inexpensive way to promote your brand to the right people. Paid ads allow you to target your audience based on demographic, geography, language and even online routines which allows you to make the most of your budget and target exactly the right crowd.
5. Generate leads & traffic
Social media can be a great way to generate leads, traffic and boost sales for your brand. Creating content captioned with ‘link in bio’, paid ads with the goal of lead generation and advertising products on socials are all great ways of creating profitable, measuring results through socials.
What Social Media isn't for...
However it’s important to manage your expectations with social media, especially if you’re a new or small business with a small following. Social media channels take time to grow an engaged following and a lot of the time it’s trial and error and sometimes luck with what posts perform, especially now with ever-changing algorithms. Here’s just a few things you should not be expecting from the initial stages of your social media
- Instant results
- Double your conversions
- Go viral
- Dramatically boost your revenue
- Specific amounts of new customers
And finally, remember social media is just one part of your marketing strategy that should work alongside your other efforts.
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