The majority of people in 2024 will be on one or multiple social media platforms.
Usually, this is a fun and easy way to stay in touch with friends and family around the world while also keeping an eye open on the marketplaces to see if there is anything that you would like to buy!
However, social media is so much more than this, and as any marketing team will tell you, it is important if you are looking to grow your business to get your social media marketing up to scratch, irrespective of the marketing or business goal. If you are able to choose the best social media marketing tool for your business and learn it effectively, you can overtake your competitors and help grow your business with a strategy that is not only effective but also affordable.
With that in mind, how exactly does social media help businesses to expand? Read on to find out.
Advertising
Many companies use social media as a platform to advertise.
This is important when you have a service or product that might be commonly searched for on social media but may not be so commonly searched for on search engines. Indeed, one of the benefits of a social media marketing strategy is that the majority of social media platforms allow you to advertise your product or service for a set price per month, which may or may not entail pay-per-click.
So, if you are unsure about how to market your product on social media, it may be best to talk with a marketing team. They will help you make use of the platforms that allow for free advertising, to help grow your business without additional costs to your company.
Branding
When you are looking to build a brand, you will want to ensure that as many people are aware of it as possible. Social media platforms can reach millions of people and are the perfect platforms to showcase your services, products, and brand. Your brand identity incorporates the mission and values of your business and is often associated with logos, labels, and mottos. You will need to ensure that when you get on to social media, your brand identity and company logo are distinctive from competitors and are recognizable by customers.
If you think your brand does not have a platform on social media to market, consider that the toothpaste brand Colgate has over 4 million followers on Facebook. So, branding reaches a lot of people, regardless of the product, if the marketing is done well.
Customer Engagement
Another part of social media that is often overlooked is customer engagement.
Suppose you were selling plants online via social media and you had people commenting that they were having issues with growing their cheese plants; this offers the perfect opportunity to engage with them and ask them questions or to point them in the direction of a blog on your website which can show them how to grow a healthy cheese plant, thus upping the organic traffic. It also allows you to engage with customers who may be less than satisfied with the services or products they have received from you. This may seem contradictory, but positive customer engagement is crucial to business expansion when the feedback is bad or mediocre, just as much as responding to positive feedback is.
Constant Content
Constant content is vital on social media and the perfect way to keep your customers and potential clients engaged with what you can offer them. Creating constant content can be very time-consuming, especially if you are on more than one social media platform. However, for your business to expand, you need to post at least once a day. This may vary based on the platform; for platforms like X or formerly Twitter, 2 to 3 posts a day will get you expanding, whereas LinkedIn will need you to make 1 to 2 posts per day. Be sure to research the appropriate number of posts and stick to them to help get your client base engaged and purchase your goods or products.
Links!
Social media is the ideal place to put links to your main webpage. Indeed, most business-based social media accounts have links to the main pages across them, so customers and/or clients can click these links to book services or buy products.
The best way to do this is to offer a taster of what you can sell/offer and then have a call-to-action statement, which says something like ‘click here to buy’ or ‘click here to book.’ These will increase the website conversions and, hopefully, sales.
