May 7, 2019

Social media is part of everyone’s daily lives. Companies without a social media strategy are missing opportunities to connect, build trust and increase revenue.  Keep in mind, that 90% of all marketers say social media marketing has increased their business exposure. Furthermore, 66% of marketers that spend at least 6 hours on social per week have seen more leads. Using social media as one of your marketing tools can grow your brand and increase revenue.

So, you might be asking why you should start or increase your company’s social media presence? Fair question… here’s some food for thought.

Social Media Advertising and Marketing increases Web Traffic.

1. Social Media posts drive targeted traffic. Use that to your advantage. You want to send them to content rich pages specific to your post. Don’t mislead traffic to the home page or you lose your lead unless the specific information they need is on your homepage. Always make clicks relate to your post. Keep in mind that more than one billion people are active on Facebook. Additionally, there are 100 million users on Instagram every month. According to a recent Pew Research Center study, 78% of 18-24-year-olds use Instagram. So, some companies may want to focus their efforts there. Don’t think just because your clients are older, that social media doesn’t matter. As we grow as a society, social media is reaching into those older demographics. Even among Americans 65 and older, there are 37% using social media.
2. Social Media for business boosts your site’s SEO. Search engine crawlers know what pages are earning the most consistent traffic. Killer content strategy is key to search rankings but driving traffic to your optimized pages will help elevate your site on the climb to the top. Create that clear link between websites and social profiles. Furthermore, creating feeds that bring social into website can prove beneficial as well if you are in need of fresh content to boost your website SEO.
3. Social Media can increase your reach from quoted experts. Try using a quote from a company with a top-notch social presence in your next blog article. Of course you’ll want to link to their site and when you go live, you’ll want to share that link with them and encourage them to share. Consider leveraging your own social media channels here.

The Best Tool to Connect and Learn from Consumers, Industry Leaders and Influencers

1. Social media helps you understand your audience and how they respond to different types of information. Why are they here? What type of posts yield higher interactions? What do people share? What products are they buying and why? When you start to understand your customers, you can create better content and more compelling posts which lead to traffic conversion and sales. Don’t invest six months and six figures into a big content project. Try smaller pieces and learn how your audience is reacting. Then use that information to guide your content strategy and future investment. Social media is a perfect place to try different ways of advertising the same information to figure out which methods produce the highest ROI.
2. An active social media presence builds relationships with your audience. Keep in mind that current and future customers view Facebook, Instagram and Twitter as social outlets and not marketing opportunities. Many companies make the mistake of hard selling on social which results in low engagements and low growth in followers. Followers want authenticity and respond more to companies offering useful and engaging information over sales pitches.
3. Social media allows highly targeted advertising which is customizable to your consumer’s needs. Target based on age, location, education, industry and even user behavior.
4. Social Media helps you get noticed at events and earn media coverage. However you measure your events, an event will always demand effective promotion. Social Media is a proven success method for events. Just this past month, we promoted a wrestling event in Missouri with a social media feed happening prior-to, all weekend and post event with times where private messaging boosted up to 50 messages every 30 minutes. Those connections build engagement but more importantly, trust.
5. Social Media allows you to connect to industry influencers. Finding those influencers through continuous research is key. Engaging with those influencers can elevate your game to the next level.

Brand Image on Social

1. Reputation Management – Many social media sites (especially B2C) serve as review and rating websites. Make sure you leverage these reviews to your advantage. Not seeing good reviews on these sites? Consider tweaking your customer service and making those first impressions, be positive first impressions. Make sure you properly address any negative responses, so you can gain the reputation that your company deserves.
2. Social Media is key to customer service. In today’s world, people expect fast answers and will come to social media to get it. If there’s a problem with a product or service, they need to know that you are there and will answer quickly and help solve the problem. A Sprout Social study showed that customers want social media responses within 4 hours, but average response time is 10 hours.
3. A strong social presence builds brand loyalty.
4. Social Media is a perfect addition to your PR strategy helping you connect with your fans. Unlike traditional press release distribution services, social media allows you to connect in a more personal conversation about the brand. And if customers have questions, they can immediately connect and ask you.

The Right Social Media Marketing Strategy can Slay the Competition

1. Your competition is already social. (If they are not, you’re in luck and have a huge opportunity. Seize the day!) Make sure you are posting quality content as rich as your competitors. Look at types of posts, frequency and engagement.
2. Marketing on social media is a fairly level playing field. So, giants in your field can’t dominate too much.
3. When it comes to sharing news, social media is the king! If you are able to jump in when people are engaged, it leads to viral posts, increases traffic and provides greater visibility.

Social Media Sales and ROI

1. Social Media can get you sales.
2. Social Media helps you find potential customers who don’t already know you. Social provides a different type of reach. Search can provide people with answers to a specific query. Email marketing is limited to existing audience (unless your buying lists). Social allows your company to organically get in front of a referral audience when followers engage with content and it shows up in their feeds. Additionally, we can target friends of followers through our advertising.
3. Social Media establishes you as a leader in your industry. When you post on your website, it’s basically a company talking about themselves. When we use social media to gain reach, connect with fans and influencers and amplify content, then we allow an audience to see us in a new perspective that is more approachable. Social allows opportunities to answer questions and demonstrate your expertise in the industry. This builds trust and brand loyalty… increasing the chance of fans to come to your site and purchase your products.

Social Media Price (or ROI) can’t be beat!

1. ROI on social is key. Google Adwords can lead to larger price tags on specific keywords, while boosting the right targeted posts can convert at only 15-40¢ each. Reach farther by controlling when your message gets boosted and strategizing on which posts your consumers react better to.
2. Social Media connects with people! Social Media makes you authentic to your fans. Building those relationships with potential customers is key to your success. For without your customers, who would you be?

To be the voice on social media, you need a team. You need strategists, creators, writers and planners. Let us bridge that gap in your social media team for a fraction of what a full-time social media manager would cost. We’ll provide a social media analysis and strategy, a calendar, content creation and management.  Are you ready to grow your social media channel?  Call us with any questions. We love to sharing our experience with others.