There are a great deal of benefits in utilizing social media to promote your business, as more than half of the world now uses social media; that’s billions of people!
If you’re not using social media platforms as a way of marketing your brand, you are missing out not only on sales or conversions, but engagement with current and potential customers. With social media marketing you increase brand awareness, traffic to your website, and promote your products or services. Social media truly is an essential marketing tool for businesses.
Common Goals & Strategies
There are endless marketing goals and strategies for businesses, as not all businesses are created equal. Below is a list of common, yet important, goals and strategies:
- Creating brand recognition: generating buzz and conversation.
- Social listening: understanding the online conversation about a brand.
- Increase conversions: tailor information to encourage people to convert – buying products, completing a form submission, registering for an event, etc.
- Deliver excellent customer service: answer questions and troubleshoot problems.
- Establish Brand Authority: the more you use social media to post relevant content, the more search engines will pick up on your authority on the subject.
Benefits of These Goals & Strategies
Creating Brand Recognition
Brand awareness is the first step in the marketing funnel, making it the foundation in acquiring customers. When people know your brand and become familiar with it, that keeps your brand on their mind, especially when it comes to purchasing decisions. This will enable you to reach a wider audience, increase traffic to your website, cultivate leads, and build brand affinity.
Social Listening
Social listening allows brands to understand what their customers are talking about, what they think and feel, and what they need from your brand. This allows brands to track, analyze, and respond to conversations about them on social media. Regardless of if you’re on social media or not, people will still discuss your brand, so why not get ahead of the game to see what people are talking about and what their perception is?
Increase Conversions
Online shoppers buy from brands they know and trust. To become a trusted brand, you have to first build social proof. Building social proof requires demonstrating your brand has a strong reputation. Posting customer reviews and encouraging customers to do the same, is a great way to do this. Brands also have to create relevant, valuable content. Think about an ad that you have seen where there’s not much information and it didn’t really explain what the product or service was, or how it could help you. You think to yourself: why am I seeing this ad? Knowing your target market and providing them with relevant, valuable content will generate buzz, produce social shares, and initiate social proof, resulting in increased conversions.
Deliver Excellent Customer Service
Prior to social media, word-of-mouth, surveys, and direct contact were the ways to gain insight on customer satisfaction. More than 60% of consumers believe fast resolution to a problem is vital to good service, and brands need to start thinking that way too. By handling customers complaints (or praises) in a timely fashion on social media, it shows other customers that you’re dedicated to keeping them satisfied. Not to mention the fact that it will boost your brand’s reputation!
Establish Brand Authority
Social media is one of the most powerful tools for building and fostering brand authority. How? It all comes down to trust. People turn to search engines to discover things they want to learn more about. This is an opportunity to utilize your expertise in your field to drive users back to your website, by using the power of social media. Brand’s that have thousands upon thousands of likes and followers on social media have more brand authority than those with hundreds of likes and followers. Not all social media platforms work for each brand, however. Businesses need to discover which platforms are right for their brand and build off of that. Establishing brand authority encompasses all of the above goals. When you create brand recognition, practice social listening, create content that is high-quality and relevant, drive consumers back to your website, and use social media platforms as a form of customer service, you will start to build brand authority.
Being a business in the digital era means the old ways of using marketing are being replaced by the new digital way. With more people using the internet and social media platforms each year, it is imperative to understand just how crucial social media is for the success of a brand. Check out some stats below:
- 73% of consumers have been influenced by a brand’s social media presence when making a purchasing decision
- The average person browses social media for 2-3 hours a day
- Social videos generate 1200% more shares
- 9 out of 10 consumers prefer video from businesses
Social media marketing isn’t about spending the most money. It’s about getting your brand in front of consumers immediately. It’s creating buzz about your brand which in turn, will start to build brand recognition, authority, and create conversions for your business. Social media has become the most influential virtual space, giving businesses the ability to reach a large number of people within seconds. But social media marketing isn’t just about conversions and sales: social media gives you instant access to build relationships with customers.
At SCB, we off a wide variety of business marketing and video production services. We work with clients to create high-quality content, video, photography, graphic design, and website development. Visit our website to learn more or to contact us directly.
