We’re all aware of the importance of social media marketing for businesses in 2019. Not having an active social presence can be detrimental and is basically coined the equivalent of pulling out a flip phone in a business meeting. In case you’re doubting the importance of your online presence, thinking of skimping on your social spend this year, or are one of those people who keeps asking “what will social media do for me? This one’s for you!
No matter what you sell, and who you sell it to, maintaining a social media presence can help you grow your brand and achieve your marketing goals. In fact, “90% of businesses say social media has increased their brand awareness and exposure to new markets.” (Hootsuite, 2019). With a proper investment in social media management business owners are seeing increased sales and incoming leads allowing them to scale their businesses more efficiently.
We’ve broken down six fundamental benefits of effective social media management.
1. Drive Qualified Traffic
No matter who your target audience is they’re most likely online. Social media gives you access to all those potential customers while boosting traffic to your site organically from posting to your page. When you have a big announcement or a new blog gaining traction on Google can take years of hard work while social media gets it out there fast with instant shares and engagement. Social media provides a fast and efficient way to not only boost your traffic numbers but bring in the type of visitors you want to attract. Hello inbound marketing! Without utilizing social media as a part of your marketing strategy, it is increasingly difficult to reach people outside of your current customer base. I like to think of every social media profile as a big arrow pointing to your website/ sales funnels and every piece of curated content an opportunity to attract a potential customer and make a sale.
2. Social Helps You Understand Your Audience
Social media is not only a great way to reach and interact with your audience but also provides valuable insights to understand their likes, interests, consumer behaviours etc. What better way to know your audience than engaging with them on a daily basis? Each social media platform has blessed us with a curated analytics tab that provides immeasurable benefits to your marketing strategy allowing you to review analytics each month to create more of what your customer wants to see which leads to more traffic, brand awareness, brand loyalty and improved sales conversions. While you’re at it, why not take getting to know your audience one step further by utilizing the latest features such as polls, Q+A’s etc… This can give you market research responses in real time! Not sure of what packaging your customers will like better? Ask them!
3. Brand Loyalty
An active social media presence helps build a relationship with your customers starting with the way you approach it. Often times companies take the hard sell approach making every post an advertisement with a heavy call to action when in reality, customers don’t want to be overtly pitched or sold to. They want authentic engagement and connection with a brand that is tune with their values. Breaking that down; people buy from people meaning it’s time to humanize your brand and focus on your story and mission. At Social By Nature, we follow the 80/20 principle to achieve this. 80% of the content we create gives back to the communities we build and 20% is focused on a sale. The first step in humanizing your brand is to show your customers you value them not just as a source of revenue but as people whose values and opinions are taken into consideration. If you follow these social media best practices you will gain positive exposure which brings in new followers, those followers become leads that turn into customers and with a strong brand those customers become dedicated brand promoters that continue the cycle!
4. Social Media Allows Targeting & Retargeting
Social media advertising gives you the flexibility to target your specific audience from age, gender, location, interests, education level, behaviour etc. (Yes… all those memes about Facebook were right). But worth it to target your most convertible customer at the lowest cost! If you install a Facebook pixel on your website you can take targeting one step further and create audiences comprised of those who have visited your website before, placed items in your shopping cart, bought items, etc... With pixel data Facebook ads have the ability to distribute your ad to those who have been to your website, chosen a product, and for one reason or another abandoned their shopping carts. With nearly “70% of online shopping carts being abandoned”, this is a huge opportunity to retarget to customers that already know of your company, are interested in your product, and therefore most likely to buy!
5. Social Media is a key to Customer Service and Retention
Social media has become a key platform for customer service whether we like it or not. Brands must be monitoring 24/7 to keep up with public appearances ensuring negative comments or concerns are dealt with properly and in a timely manner. Customers are quick to review or send a message via social media with inquiries or concerns and with social media’s real time expectation quick customer service isn’t optional. As a result, “42% of consumers expect a response on social media within 60 minutes”(Hootesuite, 2019). Very few companies are keeping up with this request and lacking when it comes to monitoring their pages (a huge component to effective social media management) Slow response or lack of engagement may seem like a minor irritation to your customers but it directly impacts your profits. It could lead to a spiral of negative comments and feedback if customers tell family and friends about their experience, use another platform to express their dissatisfaction further escalating the issue and tarnishing your brand image. Customers appreciate when they post comments on your pages and receive a real response rather than an automated message- not too mention this helps build an engaged community of loyal fans. Having a strong, active, and engaged social media presence will create trust, keep customers happy, and allow you to maintain a positive public image. Every customer interaction online is an opportunity to publicly demonstrate your devotion to customer satisfaction which can create new customers and keep existing ones coming back.
6. Everyone Is Doing It
We hate to pull this card... but your competition is online. Most brands are on social media and having multiple platforms is now the norm with “91% of brands using at least 2 social media platforms consistently.” The world of social media is getting crowded to say the least and it can be intimidating to put your brand out there on a regular basis! We aren’t saying quickly make some profiles and throw some posts up… I mean it seems simple, every millennial knows how to post, but to be effective in the online landscape it takes investment in a strategy to make a real impact. Social media may seem time consuming, but posting for the sake of posting, or posting every first day of the month, or not taking the time to develop your brand tone can be publicly detrimental to your business and an enormous missed opportunity to reach your audience. Many do not see the strategy behind the scenes, so when they don’t yield results, they put even less resources, leaving their competitors to reap the benefits of social media at the lowest CPC.
Are you taking advantage of social media to the best of your abilities? Contact us today for a FREE consultation! info@socialbynature.com