Social media is a part of our everyday lives, whether sharing a video about an event you are attending, a picture of your next delicious meal, getting the most current updates on certain trends or politics, or just posting how you feel at that particular moment, social media is always there to inform people. The ability to inform and reach consumers on such a large scale is why social media is important to business, especially small-businesses that can now cost-effectively reach their desired markets. Using the proper strategy and “voice” when posting on social media can greatly increase the impact of a business’ message and help them stand out among the enormous amount of traffic on all the different platforms. Interacting with customers will keep them engaged with a company’s brand and allows a business to address customer service concerns. Lastly, when a business defines their goals, measures them properly and monitors their competitors they will run efficient campaigns with more value than their competition. Social media is a strong marketing tool and when best practices are applied, they can deliver remarkable results and push businesses to the top of their industries.
Social Media Connects Businesses to Customers
"More than 4 billion people around the world currently use the internet and over 3 billion people use at least one social media platform." (wearesocial.com) Social media can help businesses connect to both their current and potential customers, increase traffic to their websites, enhance their SEO (Search Engine Optimization) rankings, promote events, increase awareness about their brands, and boost their leads and sales. Each social media platform has its own unique marketing opportunities to utilize.
"YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world next to Google" (Lynda.com), "80% of people on Instagram follow at least one business" (hootsuite.com), "Facebook has over 1 billion daily active users, and 93% of Pinterest users use this platform to plan their purchases." (Lynda.com)
By informing themselves about the pros and cons of each social media platform, business owners can create the proper strategy and make better decisions about creating their social media marketing campaigns. If your business has yet to consider marketing on at least one social media platform, I encourage you to do so now. According to growthgurus.com, "social networks have a projected growth of 25% over the next 5 years." With the current worldwide use of social media and the large projected future growth, social media is an unlimited source of data and exposure opportunities that makes social media marketing a “must have” asset to all businesses. In the near future, the question “Why is social media important to business?” will not even come to mind, it will just be understood it is part of any business’ marketing plan.
Use Thought Leadership to Stand Out on Social Media
With all of the overwhelming traffic on social media, it is crucial that businesses present themselves in ways that will make them stand out over the noise. Businesses must communicate authority to consumers within their industry through thought leadership. Thought leadership refers to the quality of content a business presents to the public, such as the content on a businesses’ website, within their blogs, and of course in their social media posts. Thought leadership can be presented in a large variety of ways including written articles, entertaining videos or strong visual statements. When the message a business wants to deliver is clearly understood by their target audience it makes lasting impressions, presents the business as an authentic thought leader and continues to brand the digital voice and image for the business. Blogs are another form of social media and are often overlooked by business owners. However, this type of platform is a great way to promote thought leadership and deliver quality, SEO rich content to consumers performing research on products and services. According to both hootsuite.com and growthgurus.com, "80% of buyers said that thought leadership builds trust and 63% of consumers who search for businesses online are more likely to use those with an informative social media presence." These numbers show how much of a positive impact thought leadership content has on businesses and consumers alike on social media. Efficient business owners will perform their own research on the social media platforms they use to stay current on updates, trends and news within their industries, while gathering and using this information to create their own content in their authoritative brand voice. Once a business has established themselves as well informed and trustworthy among the public eye, their promotional campaigns for new products and services will be more successful.
"Thirty three percent of customers have sourced social media as how they identify new brands, products and services." (growthgurus.com) "On Instagram alone, 60% of users say they use this platform to find new products" (hootsuite.com)
Having a nice mix of quality informational posts along with both soft and hard promotions is what makes up a strong social media marketing plan. It allows businesses to stand out in their markets while effectively promoting their products and services, without becoming annoying and pushy to make a sale.
Social Media Is Great for Customer Service
To keep customers involved with their social media campaigns, business owners need to humanize their brands. Creating posts that engage users such as asking them their opinions, to share experiences or to participate in a contest or survey are effective ways of gathering information from consumers and creating a library of content for future posts. People are willing to share their opinion of what they like and, dreadfully, what they dislike about their experiences. However, negative criticism can be an opportunity to create a positive outcome. This is where a business can professionally address any issue in front of the public, highlighting their customer service. "People expect brands to be available on social media and seek out their social accounts for customer service, those who do not meet these expectations damage their bottom line.", says the Harvard Business Review.
In addition, "71% of consumers who received a quick response on social media would recommend that brand to others," (growthgurus.com) and "half of adults do not trust a brand until they see 'real-world proof' that brand is keeping their promises." (hootsuite.com)
"With one-third of all customer complaints never answered, mostly on social media" (Lynda.com), you can see the opportunity presented to businesses to humanize themselves by interacting with their customers, developing a strong public rapport and obtaining more loyalty among consumers in the process. This ability for a business to interact with their customers in so many different ways on such a large scale is a huge benefit to why social media is important to business.
Defining Your Social Media Goals is the First Step
Every social media marketing campaign must start with goals to accomplish. Without defined objectives, campaigns have no purpose and the analytics are almost useless. Lining goals to the proper metrics needed to measure them is the only way to judge if the chosen campaign has been effective. Whether the goal is to get more likes and followers on a companies’ Facebook page, draw more customers to a company’s website or place customers in a particular part of the sales funnel, the analytics will give business owners great insight on how the campaign either performed or is performing, as some campaigns may be long-term. Social media platforms have their own built-in analytics but business owners can purchase tools to give them more analytical capabilities if desired. Some platforms also have built-in lead generation tools to improve reach to potential customers. Aside from using social media to promote, monitor and analyze their own campaigns, businesses can use social media to monitor their competition. This may reveal weak points in their competitor’s products or services they can exploit, winning new customers already disgruntled with their competition. They can also see the quality of content their competitors are posting and ensure their own content has more value, staying ahead of the competition. Business owners that know exactly what they want out of their social media campaigns, know how to measure them and are aware of what their competition is doing are set up for success on all social media platforms.
Take Advantage of Social Media for Your Business
Business owners need to consider a lot when preparing and strategizing their social media marketing plan. Producing a meaningful impact on social media requires a significant amount of time and resources. Written content is always being developed and curated in a consistent brand voice, images have to be created or purchased to enhance the value of posts and time needs to be spent daily on social media platforms posting content and interacting with customers. This may seem like grueling work at first, but when a business has developed a strong social media marketing strategy aligned with their goals and presented in an authoritative voice, the workflow is not only smooth but fun as well. The next time someone asks, “Why is social media important to business?” you are now equipped with the knowledge to present them convincing and well-informed information. The marketing possibilities on social media are endless. Embrace your creativity and enjoy yourself as you present to the world your digital brand.
References
- https://wearesocial.com/blog/2018/01/global-digital-report-2018
- Lynda.com online course Marketing Foundations: Social Media
- https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-for-business/
- https://www.growthgurus.com/blog/business-brand-need-understand-importance-social-media/
- https://hbr.org/2018/01/how-customer-service-can-turn-angry-customers-into-loyal-ones
