The popularity of social media has grown exponentially over the years, especially for such sites as Facebook and Twitter. In 2015, there were more than three billion people who accessed the Internet, and 2.1 billion had social media accounts. The truth is if you want to engage with current customers and attract new ones, you have to be in their realm.
When social media accounts were initiated, they seemed to be more for the younger generation and a way for kids to connect with their peers — but times have changed. While kids still use social media, so do adults, and each platform can offer businesses a place to show off their brand and potentially gain new customers.
Below are a few of the ways social media can help businesses.
The Ability to Be Found
Just because you create a social media account doesn’t mean people will automatically come. Even if you constantly maintain your account and update it with new information, there’s no guarantee that will move you up in Google rankings. Some ways to increase the number of followers on social media include:
- Incorporating your social media icons onto your web page and encouraging people to follow you
- Engaging others on social media to increase the number of people who see your posts
- Following others, so you can gain more followers
Cost
For the most part, social media is free. It doesn’t cost you anything to sign up and begin sharing posts — and you can post as much or as little as you like. However, it’s important to keep in mind that even though Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram aren’t charging you to create an account, you are competing with a lot of information.
With a number of people who use social media, the number of posts being shared is astronomical — which means each business site limits the number of posts you see in your feed. If they didn’t, you would constantly be bombarded with a glut of information on an hourly basis.
Since 2012, organic views (unique people who see your post) on Facebook have been declining. That means maybe 2% of your followers will actually see your posts on Facebook. The organic views on Twitter aren’t much better.
To increase your customer reach, you have the option of creating ads. On Facebook, these have the potential to reach existing and new customers. While creating Facebook ads costs money, it also has the potential to make you money, which will give you a return on your investment. The same outcome could also occur when advertising on Twitter.
Targeted Ads
Creating ads on social media gives you the opportunity to tailor your message to certain demographics. If your campaign is targeting a certain age group in a certain geographic location, it’s easy to have your ad be sent to those specific people — and you have the ability to track the results of your efforts in real time.
This gives you the opportunity to know if your campaign is having an impact. If not, you can make changes so it does. The insight in knowing whether or not your message is reaching the intended target is priceless.
Analytics
One of the amazing things about Facebook and Twitter is their analytics. These invaluable numbers allow you to see exactly how your post is doing. They show you how many people have seen or engaged with your post, which gives you the ability to know what is working for your campaign or what you need to change. Again, like targeted ads, this allows you to know if your message is reaching your audience.
Know What Your Customers Are Saying
Using “social listening” gives you the opportunity to see what customers and others are saying about your business. You then have the ability to take that information and incorporate it into your business strategy to offer them the best experience they can get. If they have complaints, social listening gives you the opportunity to make things right.
Monitor Your Competition
Social media can also give you insight into what your competitors are doing. There are numerous social media monitoring tools you can use to gain insight into what is working for others and how people are responding to their campaigns. Once you have this insight, you can make decisions that will benefit your company and keep you ahead of the competition.
Build Relationships
One of the most important reasons to be on social media is to build relationships. Unlike traditional advertising, social media gives you the opportunity to create a dialogue with customers and potential customers. However, just shouting, “Buy my product!” probably won’t have the results you’re looking for on social media. If your plan is to engage customers and start a conversation, though, you might be more successful.
Some easy ways to engage customers is to ask them questions. These can be specifically about the products you offer or even about the weather — the sky is the limit. Since this is your business page, you probably want to keep it professional and free of controversy, but again, that all depends on how you plan on portraying yourself. There will always be those people who appreciate what you’re doing and those you don’t. Your task is to figure out what interests and engages the largest population of people.
Tailor Your Content
Each social media platform has its own idiosyncrasies. It may be tempting to blanket all of your accounts with one common message, but it might not work on all platforms. While it’s fine to share the same message across social media boards, make sure they are tailored to fit each particular site.
For example, Twitter only allows you to post 140 characters, so attempting to put your entire blog post in the feed isn’t going to work. Yet, if you want people to read your blog, you need to post something on Twitter that entices them to click on the link.
You have a little more space when it comes to posting on Facebook, but most people on the site aren’t going to take the time to read a huge post. Keep your message short and to the point. You can always link to the longer post, which gives those who have interested the opportunity to read it at their leisure.
Also, keep in mind that people are accessing your information from a variety of different devices, from computers to tablets to smartphones, so your content has to be responsive, which will also help your Google ranking.
Social media can be daunting, and it’s easy to get lost in the vast amount of information that is shared on the various sites. However, it can also be an incredibly powerful tool to help your business get its message across and gain new followers and customers.
