5 Reasons Every Small Business Should be using Social Media
Katie Batchelor
Boost Your Brand's Awareness
Social media allows you to search and find potential customers who are looking for information related to your business service or products – even if they aren’t already familiar with your business. Consumers are spending time every day on these channels viewing and engaging with branded content which provides a great opportunity for businesses to publish content and gain more exposure for their brand. By uploading content which is informative and entertaining for your target audience, this can help promote your brand’s values and personality.
Generate Leads
Interaction on social media makes it easy for your potential customers to express their interest in your business. Many social media networks offer different advertising formats specifically designed to help you collect leads using their algorithms to help target and retarget specific consumer segments and demographics that are interested in your industry and business.
Boost Your Website SEO (Buddy up with The Google)
Although your content strategy is the key factor driving your search engine ranking, you can also increase your ranking by driving traffic to your optimised pages through social media links and redirections. By sharing great content from your blog or website onto your social channels, this is an easy way to get readers and clicks to your website straight away. Equally, by having a strong presence on social media, this can help you bring your social media pages to the top of search engine pages.
Build Your Brand's Reputation and Image
Social media shouldn’t just be used to pitch to your audience, unlike traditional forms of media, it can be used as a two-way conversation. Your audience wants you to authentically connect and engage with them by answering their questions, by entertaining them and informing them with relevant content.
Studies have shown that consumers prefer companies that respond to their requests and complaints quickly on social media. This in turn helps to generate brand loyalty by building a connection and rapport online which helps to maintain a positive brand reputation and image. Furthermore, it shows that your business is taking time to provide your following with useful creative content without asking for anything in return which shows that you value your customers and their opinions.
Keep It Cost Effective
One of the greatest benefits of social media marketing is that it can be used to reduce your marketing costs without sacrificing the results. Even just a few hours of online engagement a week can increase the traffic to your site, engagement with your brand, leads and purchases. Social media tracking and analytics tools can show you the full impact of your online activities from analysing your follow count, engagement through comments, likes and views as well as leads to purchases. Depending on your goals and what sort of campaigns you are planning, social media is a relatively inexpensive way of running paid ads. No matter how small your budget is, your business will still benefit from using these channels to reach new leads.
