Here’s a guide to getting started with your social media and how it can benefit your business.
Improves Brand Awareness
Creating social profiles on each appropriate channel can be one of the most straightforward ways to increase your visibility. 63% of consumers who search for businesses online are more likely to become customers of brands with an established social media presence. Social media marketing helps to validate your brand and is an essential way to tell your audience that the brand is active and is focused on communication. Social media channels are fantastic opportunities to showcase your brand’s voice, content and interactions.
It's Cost-Effective
Setting up a social media account is free across almost all social media platforms. If you decide to set up any paid advertising, this can be really cost-effective and the analytics provided will give you precise data about your campaign. For a reasonably small amount of investment, you can reach a proportionately significantly wider audience than using traditional advertising methods (e.g. print or radio).
Engagement Levels Rise
By its very nature, social media invites a two-way conversation with your audience. Every post, advert, blog post and follower is an opportunity to convert – social media is an effective tool for gaining new leads and to move people along the sales funnel. On the flip side, it gives you the opportunity to tap into the valuable insights social media provides. Reviews, comments, likes and shares all provide invaluable data about your clients.
Traffic Increases
Social media can drive significant levels of traffic to your website if used effectively. By sharing quality content on social media, you are giving your audience a reason to click through to your website. The more (quality) content you share, the more inbound traffic you will send to your website.
Conversion Rates Improve
Social media marketing typically results in a higher conversion rate in a number of ways. A higher number of social media followers tends to improve trust and credibility in your brand. As a result, simply building your audience on social media can improve conversion rates on existing traffic. Secondly, social media humanises brands by creating a two-way conversation with their audiences.
Improves the Customer Experience
Social media is a communication channel and every interaction is an opportunity to publicly demonstrate your customer service level and deepen the relationship with your customers. It provides a great opportunity for humour and to interact directly with customers, especially if there is a complaint that needs dealing with straight away.
Better SEO Rankings
Social media can boost SEO, but the key to success is to use quality, well-considered content – you must be offering value to your audience with your posts. It’s also worth noting that paid promotions on social have nearly doubled the SEO benefit of organic promotion. SEO should be integrated into your social media strategy, with a focus on creating and sharing quality content.
It’s clear to see that when implemented in the right way, social media marketing can lead to more customers, more traffic and more conversions. Any business, regardless of size or marketing budget, has an opportunity to grow a presence on social media.