Why Does Your Business Need Social Media Marketing?

Why Does Your Business Need Social Media Marketing?

What Is Social Media Marketing?

Social media marketing is a way of using social media platforms as a business in order to build awareness, drive traffic and increase sales. There are many social media platforms that businesses can choose to use, including the major platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn as well as YouTube, Pinterest, Snapchat and Tik Tok.

Why Does Your Business Need It?

Over 3.6 billion people use social media worldwide so if your business isn’t using social media, that’s a vast audience of potential customers that you’re missing out on! Having a social media presence and using social media effectively can help people discover your business, make them want to learn more about your products and services and help you gain more customers. Social media marketing is a key component of a successful business marketing plan.

What Are The Benefits of Social Media Marketing?

There are many benefits to using social media for your business. Social media marketing can:

Increase brand awareness

Social media is one of the most cost-effective methods available to increase the visibility of your business. Even the simple act of creating social media profiles for your business and posting content will increase the likelihood of someone finding or noticing your business online.

As people begin to interact with your business on social media, through sharing, liking or commenting on your posts, your brand awareness will grow further and begin building an online reputation for your business. With no upfront costs and only a few hours of work per week, social media marketing can greatly increase your brand awareness and can eventually generate a wider audience for your business.

Increase inbound traffic

Social media marketing helps you reach an audience outside of your existing customer base. With every social media platform you use, you’re increasing your audience and your ability to connect with potential customers who aren’t already aware of your business.

People use social media in a variety of ways and different demographics will use different platforms in different ways too. By being present on a number of platforms and posting consistent, well-thought-out, high-quality content you are broadening the scope of your marketing efforts. This can lead to increased engagement on your social media channels and an increase in traffic to your website or online shop.

Improve search engine rankings

Whilst social media marketing won’t directly improve your search engine rankings (SEO), by consistently utilising social media as part of your ongoing marketing strategy, you can expect to see improved SEO rankings longer term. Creating high-quality content that utilises your targeted keywords and sharing it on social media, will begin to build the credibility of your business.

Content such as blog posts and infographics, social media posts about recent case studies, projects or awards can all improve the visibility of your business online. This can also lead to other people within your industry recognising your efforts and accomplishments and they may write about your business on their own site. Good quality backlinks such as these can directly increase search engine rankings too.

Increase conversion rates

People prefer to do business with other people and social media marketing enables you to humanise your business. By sharing blog posts, images, updates and videos with your audience, you can generate a positive impression of your business and help your customers feel that they are getting to know you. This makes you more trustworthy and increases the likelihood of them considering your business when they need the products or services you offer. It means they’re more likely to visit your website if they want more information and ultimately makes them more likely to buy from you.

Improve customer satisfaction

Using social media allows customers to directly interact with your business, whether to view new products or services, ask questions about your business, leave a review or even make a complaint. Some businesses are fearful of this direct engagement in the public eye but it’s actually a fantastic opportunity to build the reputation of your business as one that values customer satisfaction. By responding to your customers in a polite, prompt way and maintaining a clear, open dialogue, you can help to establish customer loyalty and improve customer satisfaction. It also demonstrates to potential customers that you are a business that takes the time to listen and respond appropriately, meaning they’re more likely to consider your business in the future if they need a product or service that you offer.

How Can Shine On Digital Help?

As you can see, social media marketing is an important aspect of the marketing strategy for your business and a great way to get your business noticed online and reach potential new customers. We understand that for many businesses, however, starting out on social media can feel daunting and for those already on social media, there may simply not be the time in the day to give your social media accounts the care and attention they require. Shine On Digital can help with all aspects of digital marketing.

Our Social Media Audit services can analyse your existing social media strategy to find what is working well for your business and what improvements can be made. We also offer Social Media Management, where we manage your social media platforms on your behalf, creating and posting regular, high-quality content so you can focus your time and energy on other aspects of your business. We can also help you develop a clear Social Media Strategy to help you reach your business goals.

To chat about how Shine on Digital can help your business get noticed online and get results from social media marketing, give us a call on  01706 482017 or get in touch.