Social Media Marketing: How it Can Help your Business

Top 12 Blogging Tips for WordPress
August 11, 2020
Biggest Advantages of Focusing on Your Internet Marketing Strategy
August 21, 2020

How Social Media Can Help your Business Grow

Social media marketing is something that it is safe to say that most businesses are doing in today’s business world. For some businesses, it has become a pillar of their operations and marketing strategy. However, there is more to social media than snapping a picture or writing a nice status and posting it. There needs to be a plan in place to get your business in front of more potential customers and then convert those customers as well. We are not going to focus on specific social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, or even Snapchat. Instead, we are going to focus on just what social media can do for a business or even your business.

  • Cheaper than Traditional Marketing
  • Advertise to Ideal Customer
  • Interaction with Customers
  • Can Help Business in other Ways
  • Create your Own Narrative
  • Networking

Cheaper than Traditional Marketing Techniques

This is something that cannot be overstated. The bottom dollar for a business to reach 1,000 people on social media versus how they may reach those same thousand people through traditional marketing methods is a huge difference in the final cost. It takes time to build a solid social media following but if a business has one they can reach those thousand people on a consistent basis with no extra charge beside maybe the paid advertisements that brought their attention to the business in the first place. However, we will get to that in a moment.

To get an idea of what it would cost to get your business in front of the eyes of a thousand people with traditional methods it would be quite a bit more costly. For instance, if you are trying flyers or door hangers than you need to buy the paper, the printer, toner, and everything else required to print the flyers to place them in your local area. This is easy over $100 and depending on the price of living in your local area it could easy be $200.

Additionally, you have to factor in the time that is spent in that whole process. If those funds were put towards a social media or digital marketing campaign it could potentially have a reach of five to ten thousand people versus the one thousand you received with the flyer or door hanger. Social media platforms can let you advertise to the businesses specific target audience.

Marketing on social media platforms

Social Media allows you to Market to Ideal Customer

This is called your target audience. Essentially, it is who you believe will be more interested in your business and who your ideal customer is. An example would be a store that sells hunting and camping gear on social media platforms such as Facebook, a business can target those specific interest and try to market their products that way. For instance, some of the interest would be things like hunting, camping, fishing, outdoors, shooting, and maybe even some hunting television shows such as Meateater (great show by the way). This is a huge advantage the digital marketing world has on traditional techniques.

If this store were to use the traditional method to find someone to buy their hunting or camping gear the first method may result in some customers. However, it may also result in them giving out flyers to people who have absolutely zero interest in anything outdoors. Now some people may say “well they could buy a gift for someone else” and while this is true. It is more likely that they are simply going to toss that flyer in the trash can. What is the result when someone just tosses a flyer in the trash? Waste of MONEY, which is the exact opposite of what you want for your business.

However, with the digital route, the company at least knows every penny spent is going to get their business in front of someone that is at least interested in the activities for the products that they are promoting. This is not to say traditional marketing methods should not be used, but they should be used in addition to digital and not instead of. Facebook is the social media giant when it comes to running advertisements. Find out some of the most popular Facebook marketing trends here.

Instagram marketing for business leaders

Social Media Allows Easy Interaction with Consumers

As a business owner the consumer is what makes you able to keep your doors open and be operational. Why would you not want to experiment with something that can help you engage with them more? Engagement is a huge tool that social media offers. A flyer or a radio commercial is nice and can remind them of your business but as a business owner can you effectively engage with your audience then, let alone do it for free? Quite sure you know the answer to that.  An engagement could help build trust or it could just simply help boost your post to the top of other individual’s news feeds with the way social media algorithms work.

Social Media Help in Other Areas Outside of Marketing   

Bad reviews are something that are just going to happen sometimes no matter the type of business you run or even how professional you are. The saying is true that you just cannot please everyone. However, those reviews that you may receive can show you ways that you as the business owner or manager could potentially need to improve.  Also, do not delete the bad reviews, reply to them if you can in a sincere way and offer some type of solution to help the customer. You could potentially turn a bad review into a good one and keep the individual as a customer as well.

Create your Own Narrative

Social media gives a business the ability to find their own identity and put it out to their potential customers. Something that is hard to do with other forms of marketing. Share who you are as a business leader and what your company is about. It allows direct to the consumer communication on different platforms. This can help businesses manage their reputation in their local communities.

 

marketing effectively on Facebook

 

 

Networking on Social Media 

Many people think well I got to sell my product or service otherwise my business will not be successful, and this is true. However, networking is a long game strategy that can potentially lead to some new customers who may not have seen your business without that networking connection. The best connection is one that is within your niche.

If a wedding photographer is looking for possible connections to make business in the wedding niche would be best. Business owners or leaders in flower shops, wedding venues, and DJ services. The best way to go about this would be in person but that is not always a possibility. Look in the local area and see what connections can be made and then follow those businesses. Have a few real engagements with them on their post of even their direct messages. This could lead to them referring potential customers who are looking for a wedding photographer and vice versa with whichever business within the niche that the connection was made.

Social media is one of the biggest tools a business has at its disposal. With its low-cost structure, it has a great chance of having a high ROI. The biggest cost is just the time it takes to build an audience, creating content, and engaging with your fans. If you do not thing you have the time, then ask a social media or digital marketing company (such as us) to assist in some of these tasks.