Why is social media marketing important for your business?
Social media marketing is a must in this century for any business, big or small, to grow to its full potential. In the US alone today over 81% of the population are using at least one social media platform or more and in the rest of the world there are over 3 billion people who use social networks, with more and more people joining every single day. That’s almost half of the world’s population. Every day the social media industry is growing and it’s not going to end anytime soon, and so your business has to take advantage of using these platforms. You can reach existing and potential customers easily and use social media as a fast, inexpensive and highly effective way to grow your business.
6 Benefits of social media marketing for your business
- Increase brand awareness
With nearly half of the world’s population using social media platforms, they’re a natural place to reach new and highly targeted potential customers.
Think people only connect with brands they already know on social media? Consider that 60 percent of Instagram users say they discover new products on the platform.
- Communicate Authority
Customers are increasingly savvier and more discerning about which businesses they support. Before making a decision, they’ll do a quick search to browse your website and social media.
Will they find an empty storefront or a rich source of information? Setting up robust profiles that you update frequently with relevant content will build your brand’s authority and make sure you make a positive first impression through social media, showing that your business is trustworthy, knowledgeable, and approachable.
- Show Authenticity
Customers aren’t interested in businesses that publish dry, corporate-style social media posts.
Instead, let your brand’s personality shine through in everything you share on social media. What does your brand voice sound like? How does it represent who you are? While brands need to be polite and empathetic to their audiences, it is more important to find a voice and take a stand.
- Encourage Engagement
Sometimes, a seemingly simple social media post, such as one promoting a pair of shoes, can receive several likes, comments, and shares. People can even ask strangers in the feed if they have received their shoes, how long the shipping took, if they liked them, and other questions.
Social media opens the conversation for instant interaction, relationship building, and customer loyalty.
- Grow Affordably
Yes, social media isn’t a place to be overly salesy, but after all, it’s a marketing channel and you need not ignore the opportunity to make sales, should it present itself. Sponsored info on timelines, videos with CTAs, cross-channel retargeting and shoppable posts are the mainstay of social media.
- Provide Support
Social platforms have successfully broken down barriers between companies and their customers. Now, instead of calling a customer service line, many people turn to Facebook or Twitter to solve problems or find information.
Develop your reputation as a responsive, caring brand by offering support through social channels:
- Create a system for tracking customer comments, questions, and complaints on social media.
- Respond as quickly as possible to questions and concerns.
- Go out of your way to be positive and helpful.
- Listen to criticism and make customers feel heard.
- Know when to resolve public conversations in private messages.
How can you tell if social media marketing right for your business?
Because social media is so versatile and can help achieve a wide range of business objectives, it’s hard to imagine a scenario where it would be an impediment to a business. However, it does require a significant investment of time and resources, so it’s wise to wait until you have enough of both before taking on the task. Beginning with a big-picture objective makes the goal-setting process less intimidating.
Here are some examples for reference:
- Small business: engage local followers and grow a greater community presence
- Startup: build awareness for a new product and generate leads for it
- Enterprise company: provide a timely customer service channel to boost customer loyalty
With a broad objective in mind, you can then start thinking about specific, granular goals that’ll directly inspire your day-to-day social activities.
And hey, that leads us directly to our next point.
Setting SMART goals
Here’s where we get into the nitty-gritty.
Once you’ve gotten your big-picture goals figured out, it’s time to outline your SMART social media objectives.
The SMART goal-setting framework is insanely popular and we can’t recommend it enough for social marketers.
In case you aren’t familiar SMART is an acronym for:
- Specific: Your goals should be clear, simple and defined.
- Measurable: This is where analytics come in. You want a goal that has one or more metrics.
- Achievable: Is it achievable or is it not possible within your resources?
- Realistic: With your current resources of time and money, is it possible to achieve your goals?
- Time-sensitive: Every goal needs a time frame, whether it’s one year or several months.
Identifying your goal metrics
Next, it’s time to identify the metrics you’d like to assign to your goals.
As noted, there are KPIs and metrics tied to every goal.
Let’s use “increase brand awareness on Facebook” as an example goal. For marketers focused on this goal, you’d want to pay close attention to the following:
- Fan count
- Page and Post Impressions
- Post Reach
- Link clicks (if you are linking to your company blog)
- Website analytics for Facebook referrals
In a SMART breakdown, “increase brand awareness in the next 3 months” for a cafe might look something like this:
- Specific: Increase brand awareness on your Facebook account within a five-mile radius of the cafe.
- Measurable: Increase fan count by 15%. Increase link clicks on posts about the new cafe by 15%. Have an average Post Reach of 1000 people per post.
- Achievable: Yes
- Realistic: Boost new cafe posts with advertising by $15 per post, targeting an audience within a five-mile radius. Consider also posting neighborhood specials to get the word out about the cafe.
- Time-sensitive: 3-month time limit on achieving the goal.
Examples of social media goals in action
With a goal-setting framework established, it’s time to figure out which specific objectives make sense for your business.
Need some inspiration? We’ve got you covered.
Below are some social media objectives examples based on the top goals of today’s marketers. Bear in mind that most businesses adopt a combination of these objectives rather than a single goal.
Increasing brand awareness
KPIs: followers, impressions, traffic, share of voice, reach
Raising brand awareness is the most pressing goal among today’s brands, although it’s also the broadest.
In short, brand awareness involves making a lasting impression of your target audience.
How much are you being talked about versus your competitors? Are followers regularly engaging with your content? Brand awareness represents a long-term game as you uncover a creative trademark that scores consistent engagement.
Need some help with social media marketing?
There’s not much debate anymore about the importance of social media marketing. However, you may still have a lot of questions regarding how to go about doing it. Which channels are most appropriate? What kind of content gets the best response? And how much should you expect to invest?
If you’re still not sure if social media marketing is right for your business, or you are sure and you’re ready to get started, feel free to contact us. Our dedicated team of Internet marketers is more than happy to help you start using social media to grow your business.
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