Why Social Media Is Important for Business Marketing

Let’s start with one simple fact: your business needs a social media presence. It doesn’t matter if you run a small local shop or a big national company. Social media is more than just a trend. It is an essential piece of your business marketing strategy. But by itself, social media is not enough to drive business growth. Social platforms can help you connect with your customers, increase awareness about your brand, and boost your leads and sales. But you need to start with an always-on mindset and a solid content marketing strategy. Quick Takeaways Social media is an effective way to reach new audiences with engaging content Social engagement helps you build trust, authority and also to show your brand personality You need a solid plan for engaging content to distribute via social media With more than three billion people around the world using social media every month, the users and engagement on major platforms just keep increasing. social media users What you might not know is that you’re ready to get your company’s social media off the ground right now. You don’t need to know every intimidating buzzword or have the magic number of followers. You can get started immediately—and even enjoy yourself in the process. Social media provides immense potential for businesses because consumers habitually log on to it daily and are exposed to companies. It also presents huge challenges for businesses, however, because it’s an ever-changing space that is extremely noisy and crowded. It can be difficult to keep up with evolving trends on social media, so B2B reviews and ratings firm Clutch partnered with marketing agency Smart Insights to learn the current state of social media marketing; they surveyed 344 social media marketers from around the world to determine the value of social media, the most engaging content to share, common challenges, and what social media resources businesses are investing in. The results? 52 percent of social media marketers believe social media positively influences their company’s revenue and sales. The five most valuable social media platforms: Facebook (89 percent) LinkedIn (83 percent) YouTube (81 percent) Twitter (80 percent) Instagram (56 percent) Nearly 80 percent of companies share mostly original content on social media. The most important metrics for companies are engagement (36 percent) and conversion rates (35 percent). Social media is more valuable to B2C (58 percent) than B2B companies (46 percent). The biggest challenges with social media are: Not having enough human and financial resources (26 percent) Lacking a formal strategy (24 percent) Building a community of followers and influencers (24 percent) If you’re still not convinced, here are six things you can try out yourself to realize that social media is a wise business move. 1. Get Attention and Build Awareness If people don’t know about your business, they can’t become your customers. Social media boosts your visibility among potential customers, letting you reach a wide audience by using a large amount of time and effort. And it’s free to create a business profile on all the major social networks, so you have nothing to lose. Here’s a fact: social media content gets attention. However, it’s really easy for a consumer to become overwhelmed on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media platforms filled with noise from companies trying to promote their brands. How can a company create relevant content in such a crowded space? In the above survey, articles, videos and images were most successful at engaging customers and breaking through that noise. “These content types are effective in getting cut-through in newsfeeds, so it’s important to not only use them, but to invest in them so the quality is there,” Smart Insights CEO Dave Chaffey said. This is where original content intersects with quality design. Between GIFs, memes, Facebook Live and more, a content strategy has to be carefully thought-out and executed. What message do your customers want to see, how are they going to identify with your brand, and what will get them to click on your post or comment on it to garner a conversation? Define what you want to get out of social media to develop a social media strategy for brand awareness. Do you want new customers to discover your services? Do you hope to bring more local shoppers into your stores? By keeping your strategy specific, you can determine which social media channels are the best fit for your business. 2. Communicate Authority Customers are increasingly savvier and more discerning about which businesses they support. Before making a decision, they’ll do a quick search to browse your website and social media. Will they find an empty storefront or a rich source of information? Setting up robust profiles that you update frequently with relevant content will build your brand’s authority and make sure you make a positive first impression through social media, showing that your