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Social media has changed businesses. Why? Social media can help you drive business growth. Through online marketing on social media, you can build connections with your audience and make them loyal customers. Imagine building a loyal community around your business for free, how much more business would it mean for you?
Whether you’ll do it yourself, hire a social media manager, or contract a social media marketing agency the benefits to your business cannot be ignored.
Create a strong social media presence by optimizing your profiles and keeping them fresh with relevant and valuable content.
Benefits of Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing will contribute to your business growth in several ways.
- Builds Brand Reputation and Loyalty
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The first place people go to seek information is online. If your business has active socials, it’s a sign to your audience that you are serious about. And that they can trust you. Without an active digital presence, your customers may think you closed shop or didn’t exist in the first place.
Use social media to build a community for your business. Interact with people, take part in discussions, answer questions people ask, participate in challenges and so on. The secret is to realize that social media is about engaging with people. People want to feel seen and heard. Make them know, like, and trust you.
Build a reputation of a business that always offers value and delivers on its promise to the customers.
2. Drives Website Traffic
Inbound marketing is an effective method of driving traffic to your website. Traffic that converts because these people are interested in what you offer and want more.
For instance, through a blog, you provide fresh and relevant content that solves your audience’s pain points. If they share this content on their socials, your traffic will increase 10*. It’s almost definite that people in their networks are similar to them and so they are also part of your target audience.
3. Increases Brand Exposure.
If customers don’t know you exist, how will they buy from you? But how can you spread the word about what you do without breaking the bank? It’s simple. Social media! It’s in your hands, and most importantly, it’s free.
With over 5 billion people on social media, chances are your next customer is scrolling on their phone. Bridge the gap and reach them right where they are. The best part, you can do this from the comfort of your sofa or office. Could it get any better?
With a consistent content strategy, your business will reach more people. And with the right strategy, you’ll get more sales in the process.
4. Provides Valuable Audience Insights
Social listening tools help businesses to know in real time what their audience is discussing online and what trends they are interested in. So you’ll create business strategies that align with your audience.
When you know where and your what audience is talking about, then you can take part in those discussions and let them know about your solutions.
5. SEO
People have moved from always going to Google for search. Social media is the new search engine. 22% of consumers search for brands on social media rather than in search engines. That’s one in every four individuals.
Social media gives more credible information that the customer needs. This is because they will find information that has been shared by other users.
For instance, a user looking for restaurants near them can see the reviews people have left and the images tagged. We share our experiences and feelings online. An optimized profile will help more people discover your business when they search for phrases related to your business on social media.
6. Partnership
When you share content on social media, you attract followers who resonate with your brand and its messaging. These may include potential employees, strategic investors and influencers, or people you can collaborate with.
7. Reduced Expenses
Sharing content on social media is free. The only expenses you incur are if you decide to outsource management to a social media marketing manager or agency. Other fees will include when you decide to run ad campaigns.
But creating the content, posting, and engaging with your audience on social media is free.
A Simple Guide to Get You Started With Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing does not need to overwhelm you. Follow these simple steps to get started.
- Define your business goals
Social media can help you achieve a lot. But, you must have goals and a plan. This ensures all your social media activities are geared towards accomplishing your business goals. Moreover, it will guide you on what to do and what to avoid.
2. Determine the best social media platform for your business
Different businesses have different audiences. Identifying where your audience hangs out and the type of content they consume will help you create an effective social marketing strategy for your business.
Ask yourself, which social media do my clients use? Do they watch videos, look at images, or read long-form content? Then you can decide what type of content to create and the channels you should focus on.
3. Create a content strategy
By this point, you know what you want to accomplish on social media, the channels you’ll focus on, and the type of content you will create. The next stop is creating a business social media strategy. You don’t want to be jumping on every trend or posting at random times on random days of the week.
Here’s how to create a social media content strategy for your business:
- Define your target audience
- Optimize your social media for search
- Focus on a few key channels
- Make a plan for customer service
- Identify your KPIs
- Measure results
- Adjust as needed
Your social media strategy will serve as a guide. But don’t be rigid. Refine the details as you go.
4. Create a content plan
A content strategy points you in the direction you should go. A content plan on the other hand will give you specific directions. Think of the strategy as a compass and the plan as a map. One cannot work without the other.
Your content plan includes your content calendar and your engagement strategy. Remember, social media is more than just posting. You need to be social. You need to engage with other people, react to their posts and be part of conversations that are happening in real time.
I know this sounds overwhelming. But worry not. Tools such as Hootsuite or HubSpot help you manage your social media activities from one platform. Here, you can create and schedule your posts, respond to comments and questions and get analytics reports.
5. Start posting and engaging consistently
With a strategy and a plan, now you can get started posting on social media. If you lack ideas on what to share, look at other businesses. What are they sharing and how can you create something similar? But remember to be authentic and consistent.
Choose and maintain a consistent branding theme. Invest in branding for your business. Your business needs a professional logo, colors, fonts, and other branding assets. This will help build credibility with your audience.
By consistently using the same colors and fonts, your audience will identify your content when they see it. That’s how you build a memorable brand. Think of your favorite brand. A color or logo immediately comes to mind, right?
6. Analyze metrics and adjust your strategy
Run A/B tests. For example, you can post at the same time for a week, then change the time for another week and look at the analytics. There’s no one-size-fits-all. Every business is as unique as its audience. The only way to find what truly works for your business is to put yourself out there, experiment, and adjust your strategy and plan as you go.
Look at the analytics. What type of content resonates with your audience? Which posts did people share? Which posts got them talking?
At Iconick Digital Marketing, we understand how overwhelming it is as a business owner to decide which, how, or what to share on your social media. You know you need a strong online business, but how to go about it is the million dollar question. Why not leave this to us? With a proven track record and expertise, we’ll create a customized social media marketing strategy that’ll get you the results you desire. Sound good? Check out our social media management packages here.
Your target customer is already on social media interacting with their favorite brands on different levels. Your business is only a click away from becoming one of the brands that live in the minds of your customers. Contact us today. Call 0719608795 and we’ll make it happen for you, easy peasy.