We live in a digital world where small businesses can no longer depend only on their brick-and-mortar shops to grow and expand.
Now more than ever, they need an online presence to bridge the gaps with large corporations in their respective industries.
However, a generic online presence by itself won't do much. On the other hand, social media can help set up a two-channel communication with customers.
Most importantly, it is home to virtually every customer. According to the Digital Global Statshot Report, 58.4% of the global population uses social media.
The best part: the number of digital natives will always increase. In the US alone, the number of social media users will reach 323.07 million by 2026.
Bottom line: your small business needs social media. With social media marketing, you can capitalize on the growing population of digital natives to scale up. Think of the whole idea as setting up shop amidst a heap of gold.
10 Reasons Why Small Business Need Social Media
Targeted Brand Awareness
As a small business owner, you can't afford to create random brand awareness. Your budget is already stretched.
You need a funnel that targets users that meet your customer profile. Fortunately, that is what you'll get with social media. With social networks (like Facebook and Instagram), you can launch campaigns that target users within defined demography. When you do, you can rest assured of lead generation and conversion.
The best part: you can tweak the details of your campaign and choose targets based on their online behaviors.
However, ensure you pick the right social network for the best results.
Here is what we mean: For example, Facebook is often towards household and family products. On the other hand, LinkedIn serves professionals.
In essence, do your research on the best social network before launching any campaign. And while you're at it, ensure that the audience of your preferred network matches your customer profile. Suggested reading: How To Promote Digital Marketing Agency On Social Media
Getting To Know Your Customers
After helping with targeted brand awareness, social networks can provide real-time insights into customer behaviors.
You'd think the platforms are only about "likes," "emojis," and "comments."
But they are far more robust than that. Do you ever wonder why you see specific Facebook ads after you must have asked about a product in a comment or direct message? How about when you did the research of the said product on Google! Here is what you might not know: All social networks monitor users' behaviors.
These platforms have data that entails how their users react to posts, what they like, and what drives their clicks. Beautifully enough, that information is what you need for your small business. With such valuable data, you can make SMART decisions on what product to launch or when to do so.
Customer Interaction And Engagement
If you wondered why you must learn about your customers, this section is why. If you don’t know the behavior of your ideal customer, you will lose your leads even before they materialize.
But with social media, you can change the narrative. You don’t need to be “extra” careful with your interaction with potential clients.
The data from the networks already provided insight as to what to expect. All you have to do now is follow the guideline, show up and let your audience see that you're human. Also, communicate your ideas clearly. What next? Unlike traditional marketing channels, social media lets you receive feedback from your customers.
They can react to your post, comment on it, or even send you a DM. Either way, you will have a surefire way to gauge your customer sentiment.
Do they like your product? How do they even feel about your brand? What are people saying about your business? Sentiment gauging aside, social media is an affordable medium for customer relationships. It is free to use 24/7 to reply to your messages, host live videos, and share updates about your product.
Creating User-generated Products, Content, And Ideas
So far, you have built an engaging community around your business. Social media can further help to turn awareness and engagement into assured sales.
Here is how: You can ask your followers how they feel about your products. Do they prefer some modifications? Or should you launch new products altogether? If you want even more engagement, you can create polls. List two to five product ideas, and ask users to vote for what they prefer. That way, you won't only boost your sales but increase your customer loyalty.
Your customers will feel a sense of responsibility to your business – the business will no longer be "yours" but "ours." Note: you can use the polls for anything regarding your business. You can even use it to create content about customers' inquiries. And while you’re at it, encourage your followers to use hashtags when suggesting ideas for your business.
That way, you can attract traffic to your community. Also read: How To Create Engaging Content For Social Media [With Examples]
Staying Relevant
Don’t get us wrong: we understand that your business is legit and relevant. But your followers and potential customers need to know it and remember it.
In other words, you need to stay on top of their minds. Luckily, social media is the perfect way to stay on the minds of your customers.
All you have to do is create a content calendar. And be consistent with it! And because everyone will likely visit their social media profile at least once per day, rest assured that your content will reach your target audience. Funnily enough, some customers forget they need something until they see reminders. For such customers, your content will be a reminder.
However, you might need a scheduling tool like Content Studio.
Thought Leadership
Staying relevant on social media with occasional content is commendable. Still, you need to use the network more to establish yourself as a thought leader to upscale our business and convert potential customers. The way to do better is to be intentional with your content calendar. How?- First, research all the possible questions about your business. You might need a keyword research service.
- Create the content.
- Create a schedule for posting the said content. While you're at it, don't leave too much space between your posts. You can start with 3 times per week.
- Most importantly, focus on delivering value before pitching your business.
When you follow the listed steps, you'll establish yourself and your business as trustworthy.
Also, you will reduce the several steps in your sales funnel. In other words, you will boost your sales by at least thrice the original limits.
Beyond sales and trustworthiness, being a thought leader will increase your chances of appearing before similar small businesses when customers make inquiries about services in your niche. In other words, you’ll get free traffic towards your social profile.
Reputation Management
Another reason your small business needs social media is to manage public opinions.
It doesn't matter if you use the networks or not; your customers will always talk about your product and services. Unfortunately, such talks could derail your sales effort.
For that reason, you need social media to respond to negative feedback. And since you don’t have the pull of large corporations who can handle legal battles, it’s better to nip the issues before it escalates.
Aside from negative feedback, you also need social media to respond to positive reviews. According to BrightLocal statistics, not responding to reviews can make your business lose up to 57% of customers.
Besides, if you manage positive reviews rightly, you can turn them into case studies, have more content for your thought leadership, and boost your sales. Pro tip: when managing negative feedback, handle it with care, and move the conversation to email as soon as possible.
Checking Your Competition
Aside from your business, you also need to check your direct competitors. What are customers saying about their products?
Is their customers' sentiment positive? Can you adapt and improve their methods? You need social media to answer the questions! You might argue that you'll find the answers on your competitors' websites.
Well, you could. However, website information is limited. While checking your competition, also look for updates about their product launch. Most importantly, seek out the pain points about their customers’ negative feedback and use those as the unique selling propositions for your business. Suggested reading: How To Increase Customer Lifetime Value
Learning About And Capitalizing On Trends
Another crucial social listening benefit of social media is enabling you to stay on trends. Twitter is the best network for this part.
You can check the different locations of your business base and see what is trending. More importantly, you can repurpose your content and product to meet such trends.
By doing so, you can set the pace and skyrocket your sales even before your competitors. However, do your due diligence. Don’t just jump on any trend; do so for only the positive kinds that can help your business. If you don't know how to set and exploit trends, you can get help below:
SEO
Several digital marketing experts claim there is no correlation between SEO and SMM. But the fact remains that the two marketing techniques drive traffic to your website.
Besides, you can use your social media account to drive more traffic to your website. For example, you can share links to your press releases and blog posts on your profile.
Also, you can use the accounts as backlinks. Either way, social media will boost your chance to be on the first pages of search engine result pages. Now, we hope you see why your small businesses need social media. If you've not created a social network account, it is high time you did so. All the best!
Download