Even today we talk to businesses that are not on social media. These typically are small businesses where the main decision maker is not on social media themselves, or they may be on Facebook but can't see the point for their own business.
It can be difficult to see the benefits without actually being there, especially as it can be difficult to measure some of the less tangible results like building trust. So here's why you need to become active on social media.
1. Social media helps you to build your brand
Social media is a place where you can show your human side by posting updates that tell a story about your business or industry, replying to comments, and getting involved in discussions.
Showing the people behind the brand name can help people connect with you more easily and can be a differentiator between you and your competitors especially if they are a bigger brand.
2. You can reach a wider audience
There are some parts of your customer base that may make their purchasing decisions solely on what they hear or see on social media. So by being there you are getting in front of a group of people that you may not be able to reach otherwise through traditional channels and media.
You can target these people directly with social oriented campaigns and offers that appeal to their social natures.
And when people share things on social media it means you are reaching their family and friends – some of which will have similar desires and motivators that your service or product will appeal to.
3. It helps you get to know your customer
If you aren't doing regular customer surveys, it can be very difficult to know exactly what your customers desires and concerns are.
Social media is a way to get a feel for what is top of mind for them so you can tailor your marketing communications and service offering.
You can also use it to gather feedback quickly.
4. It helps to build trust
If your customers are looking at you and comparing you to your competitors they are going to look for a number of ways to decide who they can trust and who they'll feel more comfortable with – and social media is one way they'll do that.
Seeing that you are active on social media helps to fill potential customers with trust, it signals that you care about your customers and should anything go wrong, that it will be easy to contact you.
It also is a way to demonstrate your expertise through sharing your content, further developing trust in your business.
5. It helps you keep front of mind
The ideal situation is that when a customer has a problem they want to solve or an opportunity that needs a solution – they immediately think of your business.
Social media is a great way of keeping your business or brand in the mind of your customers but regularly posting updates and engaging in conversation.
6 It helps you manage your reputation by delivering better customer service
Facebook or Twitter is often the first place people will go to complain about poor service – where everyone can see it.
Leaving these unanswered makes a business look like they just don't care so if you are on social media don't leave them unattended.
It's not a reason to be shy about being there though, every complaint is an opportunity to show how willing you are to make things right – and these people can often turn into your biggest advocates. So it's a way to manage your reputation as well
Not only that, but it's a place were they can show their appreciation for a job well done.
See our example in the post How to deal with negative reviews
7. Social media helps your SEO efforts
Content marketing is critical in terms of Search Engine Optimisation. Help increase awareness of each new blog article or news post that you publish, by posting them on social media.
While social media posts and commenting hasn't been shown to influence search rankings as such, getting people to share and link to your website content means more backlinks – and this definitely does helps with your search rankings.
8. Social media drives website visits
Being active on social media will help you increase the amount of traffic that your website receives.
We see it whenever a client has a flurry of social media activity – it leads to website visits. Even if they don't lead to an immediate sale, it helps build awareness of your business and starts people on the journey to becoming a customer.
9. Social media comments about you show up on Google
Even if you aren't on something like Facebook, if someone has published a post in which you are mentioned - it will show up on the search results. Have you tried Googling your company name and "on Google" eg "Essentee on Google" - you may be shocked at what you find.
If you are all over your social media sites, it's less likely that your (disgruntled) customers comments are being seen.
Comments mentioning you will also show up in the internal search on Facebook etc.
10. Because your competitors will be there
Social media is a long game – you can't just establish a presence and build an audience overnight so it will take time.
There is a very good chance that some, if not all, of your competitors will be on social media.
If you wait too long, your competitors may well get so far ahead of you that you can't catch up.
Before you start
As a business, understanding your audience and how they use social media is key in determining how to best to use those social networks to connect with, and grow your audience. Knowing your own unique value proposition and understanding your customers well, will help you tailor your content and messages accordingly.
You will also need to asign resource in your business to create content, actively monitor and respond to social media activitly – your marketing and/or customer service departments are the logical place to start.
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