Here are a few benefits of a business being on social media.
Once you know the possible benefits, you may be able to figure out what your business could gain.
After you have figured this out, you will be able to effectively decide what platforms will suit your business and what type of content you should be posting.
Real Customer Insights
For the majority of businesses, big and small, their customers will be on numerous social networking sites. Therefore, it is an effective way to reach customers. Sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, allow a person to contact the brand directly. If the person is angry or pleased with the service they received, it is common practice to share this with others on the brands social media pages. This may sound scary- people announcing to everyone else that they are unhappy, but there is an upside to this; it allows you to contact them immediately. You can nip the problem in the bud, apologise or sort the problem out, and turn the unhappy customer into a happy one. This allows your business to offer better customer service.
Manage Your Reputation
The way you tackle complaints affects your business’ reputation. Responding to customers quickly and in the right manner, will in no doubt help and improve a brands reputation. Not only that, it also offers a way for you to display your brands personality through the way you communicate with your customers.
Better Knowledge
Not only does social media allow you to communicate with your customers, but it allows you to fully understand who they are. You can see what they like, what adverts they’re more receptive to and you could even see what other pages and profiles that they like. Knowing this information could help you make future decisions, for example; with selective advertising.
Brand Awareness
Being on a platform where potential customers are, is only going to improve brand awareness. It offers a chance for people who haven’t heard of your business or know that it exists, to find out about it.
Increased Traffic
Once more people are aware of your brand and business; it kind of comes hand in hand that more people will start visiting your website. You could also post links to your website, whether that be via new blogs or case studies. If you do decide to post links make sure it isn’t excessively, have a bit of diversity in the content you post. This is a good example of why knowing your aims, before posting content, is helpful; if you know that you want more traffic then you can post content that will send people to your site.
Free Promotion
As well as posting about your recent blogposts and case studies, you could also use your page to promote your services or products. The best part about doing this on social media is you know that you are promoting to people who are already interested, as they have liked your page… Not to mention that it’s free.
More Sales
More promotion plus increased brand awareness has a high chance of resulting in more sales. It makes sense that when people need the service or product that you offer, after seeing your name regularly and liking your content, that it’s you they think of to buy from.
Keeping Up With The Competition
There’s a high chance that your competition are already using social media to market themselves. You don’t want to lose out on potential customers because your competitors got to them first.
Shows Expertise
Social media offers you a platform to show your expertise. Other than sharing blogs, case studies and information on your products or service, you can also share your knowledge on relevant news stories related to your industry. You could also use these platforms to answer any questions or give advice to your followers.
Be More Accessible
Allowing your customer to have access to your business at all times (more or less) will make your company seem more trustworthy. They will feel more at ease with a company that they can research more in to, than those who only have their website to use as research- it gives more of a look at the brands personality and morals than the polished website ever would.
Once you decide for what reason your business should be on social media, you can start making other important decisions. For example, if you want to keep more of a serious and professional brand personality and talk to potential clients, or even network, then LinkedIn may be perfect. If you want a better way to build a relationship your customers and answer any questions they may have, then Twitter or Facebook should do the job.