Social media has become a big part of our everyday lives. But does your business need social media?
With 4.5 billion active social media users, social media needs no introduction. It’s a powerful tool, and one that can be used very effectively for small businesses!
Need some convincing? Here are 4 ways social media can help your business grow.
1 – Increase customer awareness of your business
With 4.5 billion people on social media worldwide, there are so many opportunities to be seen. You’re able to showcase your business to potential customers in a matter of seconds. One way of doing this is through hashtags, as your content will be shown to people searching for what your business does, allowing you to reach an engaged, wider audience.
Using social media makes it easier to build a community than ever before. All you need to do is create content with purpose, and consistently engage with your audience.
Engaging on social media is as simple as liking and commenting on other posts, which is completely free!
2 – Make your business approachable
This is not about promoting your business 24/7, but showing the human side of your business, sharing your expertise and using your personality to stand out in your market. This approach is more relatable and engaging for prospective customers than simply trying to ‘sell’ your business.
How can you go about this?
Through social media, you can make connections and build a community with other users. When you do this, make sure to take out any technical jargon and keep your content relatable and simple. No one will take the time to read something that makes no sense to them – focus on creating friendly, relatable content which is clear to understand.
One thing we find gets the most engagement with prospective customers time and again is sharing what makes your business unique. Nine times out of ten this is your employees.
Seeing the people who work in your business is authentic and builds engagement with your ideal audience. After all, we’d all rather engage with other human beings rather than automated robots!
3 – Stay in touch
With the world moving at such a fast pace, it can be hard to stay up-to-date, right?
It doesn’t have to be!
In fact, social media makes it easier to stay in touch. From celebrities, trends, to worldwide news, social media is seen as an effective and live resource. 82% of worldwide people use online media (including social media) for news.
How is this relevant for small businesses? We believe it’s crucial.
For example, a bookkeeping business can easily track government financial decisions in real-time, and share the latest news and impact with their customers promptly and effectively.
4 – Reporting and analytics
Here are some examples of how data from social media can help your business.
Understanding what your audience are saying about you
Social media tells you how your (current and potential) customers perceive your business. Even complaints can be turned into opportunities. If you receive a negative comment on social media, you’ve got an opportunity to show off your customer service and how effective you are as a business.
Optimise your channels and content
When planning your social media strategy, always start with your potential customer in mind when deciding on the platforms you’ll use.
Remember – you don’t have to use all social media platforms available. It’s better to focus your time and energy on just one or two platforms based on where your customers are.
For example, if you are a hairdresser, Instagram will be a great place to share content as it’s so visual.
Meanwhile, if you are an executive coach, LinkedIn will be better for you as you’ll be able to connect with like-minded professionals in your field.
Even with a couple of platforms identified, it can sometimes be difficult to decide what content is best to share, and posting on social media is sometimes a trial-and-error process as not all your posts will have the best engagement.
Remember, the main goal of using social media for small businesses is to build engagement and create authentic connections with others. This is where understanding the data from your activity comes in, as this will show you which content is working best at driving engagement.
By reflecting on performance each month and assessing which content is performing most strongly, you’ll be able to guide your future content creation.
As part of our process, we provide monthly social media dashboards. Read more about these here!
This sounds great, but I’m a small business owner with a lot going on!
We believe building a social media presence for your small business is crucial to stand out and gain new customers, but it can understandably be stressful and time-consuming.
The small business owners we work with recognise the benefits of social media, but often lack the time, will or skill to do it themselves – which is why they come to us.
At Charlie Puffin Digital, we help small businesses build their online presence to its full potential. We don’t do geek speak or long-term contractual tie-ins; we simply help you achieve real business results based on your goals.