Sometimes when we think about social media, there can often be trepidation about how we can navigate our way through the plethora of information that is out there and if at all it is possible for us to cut through the noise to make an impact.
The good news is yes you can make an impact; however, you will require a couple of weapons on your quest:
First, you will require the tenacity and perseverance to see your plans through as social media strategies can take a little longer than expected to see the fruits of the labour – in most cases, it can take anywhere between 12-18months, to really see your progress.
Secondly you will require a robust and agile content marketing strategy as your foundation as none of the steps discussed will have the capacity to make the impact and difference on your business that you would like to see. Embarking on a social media campaign without a clear plan and intention of what is your business would like to achieve is futile without these two steps.
In a recent article by top social media platform Hoot Suite, they stated that there are 10 top benefits to using social media as a means to drive your content. These are:
- Build relationships
The most important of reasons to use social media is in building deep meaningful relationships with your audience. It’s a way to create dialog and an opportunity to find out first hand what your clients are looking for and expecting from you. - Gain valuable customer insight
You have the ability to know in real time, what your customers are thinking about your products and/or services. - Share content faster and easier
When it comes to launching and promoting new products, this couldn’t be easier now, social media has the ability to reduce our route and cost to market. - Increase brand awareness and loyalty
By being on social media you increase the ways in which customers can connect with you and the more your customers can connect the more likely they are to grow in loyal. - Provide rich customer experiences
Did you know that over 67 per-cent of consumers go online for customer services? So the likelihood of your customers expecting to see you on a social platform and conversing with them and providing support is very high and would be a great way to cultivate relationships. - Increase website traffic and search ranking
Social media can have an impact on your website traffic as it not only directs people to your site, it can also affect your search ranking as if people are engaging and sharing your content, it pushes higher ranking on Google’s search engine results page. - Run targeted ads with real-time results
You can yield real time results on campaigns that you are running with very focused ads and these can be done by location, gender, age, different demographics – the possibilities are endless and you can easily track and measure the performance of your social ads in real time. - Generate higher converting leads
Social media can help to increase sales and customer retention through regular interaction, again this ties in with receiving real time insight and results. - Find out what your competitors are doing
With social media you can gain key information on what your competitors are doing and this can of Intel can allow you plan, make decisions and be “on your toes” assisting you in improving offerings, product development and content. - Geo-target content
Facebook is one of the best social media platforms that lets you find your target audience and communicate the right content to them as well as use geo-targeting to find the conversations relevant to your brand.
As you can see, there are many benefits for your business to use social media – from increased brand recognition to higher conversion rates – if strategized properly, your brand can potentially reap from these benefits, which in turn can help to increase your bottom line.
And if you would like to find out more about social media – get in touch with us email@powwowcreative.co.uk