5 Reasons Why Your Business Needs Social Media

Since social media has come to the forefront on the internet, it has become almost a necessity for businesses to stay in touch with and attract their target audience. Like it or not, businesses cannot ignore the fact that most people turn to social media sites first when they go online.

Ignoring the reach of social media will cause your business to miss out on huge marketing opportunities. Social media platforms offer great ways to advertise, provide customer support and solicit feedback, and boost your over marketing campaigns and strategies.

Let’s look at five essential benefits and capabilities that social media provides to small businesses.

1.    Everyone’s on Social Media

Well, not LITERALLY EVERYONE, but it’s such a large percentage that you may as well think that way, at least for the purposes of marketing your business. Facebook alone has 2.2 billion users worldwide, and 83% of U.S. adults under 50 have a Facebook account. Even among those 65 and up, 41% are active on at least one social platform.

Do you really want to ignore this vast audience? It may take a few weeks or months to build your following on your social media accounts, but if you create the right strategy and stick with it, you’ll reap great rewards.

One way to start is to leverage your existing network of friends and customers. It’s basically the old “word of mouth” strategy in the digital age. Engaging followers, providing interesting information, offering special deals—will create hundreds, if not thousands of chances every day for potential customers to find you and existing customers to stay interested and engaged.

2.    Social Media Creates Effective New Advertising Channels

Every social media channel offers their own powerful advertising that will place your business in front of valuable audiences. Facebook and Instagram, for instance, have incredible audience targeting capabilities for their ad campaigns.

These advertising tools are flexible in that you can customize them to target particular portions of the population, selecting demographics and geographical areas that fit your target audience personas. You can expose the appropriate groups of people to your business offerings within the same content they are browsing every day.

You can use the data gathered from paid ads to make your other organic and paid marketing work more effectively. “Boosting” organic posts allows you to reach people beyond those who already like or follow you.

3.    Social Media Opens a New Communication Channel

Social media is a great forum to conduct 1:1 conversations and customer support as well as for marketing and advertising. It allows you to interact with your audience, answering questions and participating in conversations.

Customers absolutely prefer that the businesses they use be available for these types of interactions, as well. 48% of people said they will be more likely to purchase from a brand that directly interacts with customers and answers questions on social. 33% of people also now prefer to get customer support through social rather than a phone call.

Being able to wow people during these interactions pays off big, too. 71% of people who have a positive interaction with a business over social media say they’re likely to recommend that business to their peers. And since nearly three times as many people trust peer recommendations over ads, demonstrating how much you care via social counts for a lot.

But don’t fake it or try to overdo it. People want real, honest and valuable communication. If you listen to your customers and give them what they want, you’ll succeed in making a good impression.

4.    Social Ties Together Your Other Marketing Channels

One of the biggest reasons why most businesses consider social media essential is that it ties all their other marketing channels together seamlessly. For example, the information you post on social media can be constructed in ways that:

• Lead people back to your website
• Announce a new product, promotion, event, or free demo
• Share your local cable ad, or overlay a radio ad over an image slideshow.
• Offer contests to earn email signups or email followers
• Gather data on the performance for certain types of content before you invest in more expensive options like pamphlets, print ads, or search engine marketing

Using social media for these activities can increase your outreach and ROI of your marketing budget.

5.    Using Social Media Marketing Ensures You Keep Pace with Your Competition

Your competitors are most likely using social media to boost their marketing efforts. If you don’t take advantage of the benefits of it as well, you will miss out on countless opportunities and basically, hand them over to them on a silver platter.

Don’t let your competition take away current and prospective customers. Get active on social media and develop meaningful relationships. Stay engaged, offer interesting content and take advantage of all the benefits social media offers.

Let Colorado Springs SEO for Growth Help you Develop Your Social Media Marketing Strategy

If you haven’t yet developed your social media marketing strategy or you’d like to increase your outreach, contact Colorado Springs SEO for Growth today!

We can help you create an online marketing campaign that includes social media marketing to ensure your online presence is optimum.