“Social media is here. It’s not going away; not a passing fad. Be where your customers are: in social media.” – Lori Ruff
Every business owner knows the impact of social media marketing to their business. If done right, it can give you a steady stream of leads and sales.
If you are not making the most of social media yet, here are 10 quick tips about why social media marketing works:
Tip # 1: It allows you to connect with your audience
Genuine interaction with your audience is the most important pillar of social media. Success with social media is about emotional connection with your prospects and existing customers. Take time to read and respond to their comments to spark valuable conversations.
Doing this consistently, you’ll be building a community of loyal followers. Social media offers this powerful kind of relationship-building opportunity. Take advantage of it.
Tip # 2: It helps you better understand your audience
As you engage with your audience, you’ll get to learn more about them and what they need. This will help you to create a buyer persona that includes their interests, buying behavior and other relevant demographics. If you like to learn more about how to develop buyer persona with social media data, read this Hootsuite article.
Another importance of understanding your audience is it can help you to build common ground between you and your audience. You’ll be able to write a better messaging that would resonate with them all the time.
Tip # 3: It helps you decide which products and services to offer
In relation to developing your buyer persona, social media marketing can help you decide which products and services to focus on or develop.
Here are some key things you need to monitor:
- what are your customers’ concerns
- what your customers are talking about
- what your customers are looking for
- what are your customers recurring issues
- what do they love and hate about your products and services
Tip # 4: It gives you an opportunity to monitor your competitors
Thanks to social media. Monitoring your competitor is as easy as visiting their social media accounts. In a few minutes or hours, you’ll know what they are doing and anticipate their next step. With this information, you can be one step ahead of your competition.
Tip # 5: It gives you the platform to explain your mistakes
Managing negative feedback is one of the painful things you have to do. It is especially tough if you are at fault. Make sure you have a strategy in place in handling this part of social media marketing. Prepare a well-crafted message, know who to escalate it to (if necessary) and the most important thing is to act quickly.
One good practice is to provide your customers a way to get in touch with you using another medium of communication – ask them to call your customer service hotline or send a direct message with their contact details so you can discuss the issue and work on it.
Tip # 6: It helps you build authority
Having a strong social media presence is an efficient way to showcase your expertise. You can establish yourself as an authority by doing the following:
- regularly providing valuable and relevant information to your audience
- be creative with your content – use videos, images, and graphics
- engaging with your audience by answering their questions
- participating in online conversations
Tip # 7: It helps you create awareness for your brand
Connecting with your customers on social media will increase awareness for your brand. Here are creative ways to make sure your content is shared:
- hold contests and giveaways
- hold a live video question and answer
- share trending but relevant content
- create compelling images
- share influencers’ content
Tip # 8: It cuts your marketing costs
Social media marketing cuts costs. There is no need to spend a fortune on reaching your audience, creating a buyer persona, advertising, and competitor research. Over the years, social media marketing has taken over the traditional print advertising. If you’d have to invest in paid advertising, doing it on social media is relatively cheaper than paid printed ads.
Tip # 9: It gets you more website traffic
If you check your website analytics, you’ll see that your social media accounts are constantly bringing high-volume of traffic to your website. This is true in most cases. To increase your chances of being discovered on social media:
- keep a social media calendar
- use relevant hashtags
- pre-schedule your posts
- monitor posts’ performance so you can re-share them
Tip # 10: It helps you grow your sales
You will definitely reach your goal of high conversion rate if you do social media marketing the right way. Invest on some paid advertising and you are sure to reach a laser-targeted audience who will most likely buy your product.
What other tips would you like to add? We’d love to hear them. Comment below.
*Featured image made in Canva