A decade or so ago, social media was still being branded as a trend, and some businesses weren’t taking it seriously in terms of marketing. Since then, social media marketing has become a niche in the market, and positions specializing in this marketing style are springing up all over job sites. Yet, even today, individuals wonder if social media marketing is essential to their business model.
Social media marketing is needed for any business. Social media may not be the end all be all of business growth, but it is an integral part of your overall content marketing strategy. The reason social media is as effective, if not more than other marketing strategies, comes down to one thing, engagement.
Interaction between the business and its customer base is crucial in building trust, sourcing content, and continuing innovation in all facets of your business. It’s not enough to know social media marketing is a cornerstone to good business marketing; you have to know how to do it successfully.
What Does Social Media Marketing Do for My Business?
Whether you are a small business just starting out or a large company that has been around for decades, having a social media presence can significantly benefit your growth. Nowadays, customers have become suspicious of businesses that do not utilize any sort of social media to display their brand personality and promote their products or services.
Social media marketing differs from other content marketing by one key component, consistent customer engagement. Here is how social media marketing can benefit your business:
- Increase Brand Awareness
- Engage Current Customer Base
- Boost Your Sales and Leads
Let’s take a look at each of these factors and how they make social media marketing integral for any business.
Increase Brand Awareness
Social media platforms are one of the few sites that potential customers check daily—Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram being among the most popular. With more than half the world’s population on social media, you have virtually an endless supply of opportunities to get the name and face of your brand exposure.
A prime example of an effective social media strategy in play is the 17-point rise in ad recall for Stillhouse Spirits on a Facebook campaign specifically designed to raise brand awareness.
Engage Current Customer Base
Social media allows you to bring humanity to your business. You get to actively engage with your customer base on a daily basis by showing the faces of the company, interactions with the products and services themselves, showcasing existing customers’ interactions with services and products, and so on.
It allows you to engage with real-time feedback and source ideas for the type of content, products, or services your customers want from you. It will enable your customer base to feel heard and seen, not to mention a part of an active community, which only drives customer trust and brand loyalty.
Boost Your Sales and Leads
Generating leads is such an essential facet of any business. Social media provides an opportunity for customers to interact with and express interest in your business in a low-risk, user-friendly fashion. These exchanges drive traffic to your website, which in turn drives sales.
Successful lead generation was the case for a real estate company, McCarthy and Stone, who found that by using lead ads on Facebook, they were able to procure 4.3 more sales leads than the previous year—allowing customers to express interest without commitment through a few clicks that gave them the option of viewing properties and getting more information.
Using Others’ Social Media for Marketing Your Business
One of the key benefits of marketing that is unique to social media is creating partnerships or brand deals with social media influencers. Influencers have a built-in audience who already interact with them and trust their recommendations—partnering with influencers who have hundreds of thousands or maybe even millions of followers who engage with them consistently takes some of the guesswork out of marketing your product or service.
Influencers become a part of your businesses’ sales force, promoting your product to their followers. Trust is built through their experience with your company and glowing recommendations of your products and services.
Conclusion
To sum up, there are unique factors of social media marketing that make it essential to the growth of any business. While it may not be necessary to be on all social media platforms, having some presence on social media in a strategic fashion can produce the desired results.
