Why Your Business Needs Social Media

You are no doubt sick hearing about social media by now but there is no escaping it (its also handy for passing time on toilet breaks). I can be a daunting prospect getting your business onto so many different platforms and managing them. However Ive listed ten reasons why your business should be on social media:

1. Get insights into your customers

Who wouldn’t want a huge amount of data about their customers? There are 500 million tweets, 4.5 billion likes on Facebook and 95 million images/videos uploaded to instagram every single day.

This isn’t just about having a nosey at people – Having data about your customers can help you make smarter business decisions. Knowing which products your customers talk about most or least is invaluable to advancing your business.

2. Increase brand awareness & loyalty

Customers will find it easier to find you and contact you if you are on social media. By connecting to your customers you will increase the customers experience and in turn increase their retention and brand loyalty. Customers are more likely to be loyal to a brand which engages them regularly. If they have liked your page then you can regularly post into their news feed.

3. Legitimize your brand

I know I can only speak for myself but if Im making a big purchase from a company I haven’t heard of before I do a bit of research. If I see they have a big social media presence with good reviews from customers this legitimises the brand and makes me feel more at ease about my purchase.

This can also work in the opposite way. If I hit a Facebook page and it hasn’t been updated or posted to in months it would make me think that the business isn’t putting time into looking after its customers. I may even assume the business is defunct and they are onto plums.

4. Running targeted ads with real time results

Adverts are great but more often than not people who won’t be customers will see them and your money will be wasted. E.g. putting a flyer for a new bar into the mail of someone in another city is a bit pointless as chances are they will never visit. With social media you can tailor your ads to be seen by only the people you want to see it. E.g. people who live in a certain distance from your business, people in a certain demographic  or people with specific interests listed on their social profile. This is great targeted advertising. Not only that, you can see real time reports of who the advert was seen by, their age, location and how they reacted to it.

5. Generate higher converting leads

Engaging with your customers leads to higher sales. It is the same with face to face salesmanship, if the customer feels looked after then they are more likely to spend.  I know I don’t like spending my cash on faceless corporations. See here for a better explanantion: (grab a coffee its a big one) http://www.salesforlife.com/blog/the-roi-of-social-selling-5-data-driven-outcomes-infographic

6. Provide rich customer experiences

Even if you aren’t on social media I will be you that most of your customers are. Nowadays people want to contact you in the most convenient way possible and often expect 24/7 customer support. (there is always one eejit who will message you at 3am – no its not me) If you can deliver that then you will be winning my friends. Your customer will feel supported and looked after with their purchase =  more sales! Kerching!

7. Increase website traffic and search engine ranking

With every website we have we see the biggest source of traffic to be social media. Social media is a tool to direct customers to your website. Not only that if your posts on social media are popular and start gaining lots of shares and interactions then our old pal Google will push you up the search engine rankings and help your website be discovered more. At this point you are no doubt thinking of interesting posts for your social media pages – good!

8. Find out what your competitors are up to

Everyone in business will have competition. How better to check on your rivals than to scope out their social media pages? On Facebook you have tools to monitor how successful your rival pages are doing. You can then look in and see what is successful for them and apply it to your own business.  This isn’t exactly Mi5 levels of spying but learning from others mistakes/successes is vital. Even better, see what they are missing and apply it to your own business.

9. Share your content faster and easier

Do you have a new product or service to sell? How will you let people know about it?

You can have this on social media in an instant! It will be right in the feeds of all your page followers and they can then choose to see more information or ask questions – I can hear the tills ringing already.

10. Build relationships

Social media isn’t just about incessantly posting sales pitches (take my advice – don’t do this, people will get bored). Its a two way thing – building a good relationship with your customers leads to more sales. Yes some customers have to be wrapped in cotton wool but, for example, imagine you ran a hotel – you could engage with your customers prior, during and after their stay. This would help you improve your standards, it will build customer trust and improve their overall experience.  Traditional advertising can only dream of giving you this interaction.

Still think you dont need to be on social media? 

DigiAye media can help you with every aspect of your social media from management to advertising. Please get in touch with us and we can get the ball rolling.