Despite constant changes in how people use Facebook, Instagram and Co. over the past decade, it’s clear that social media is here to stay. And while the changes mean it may no longer be the “go to” marketing channel that it used to be, there are still a lot of benefits that come with it.
Most people are in agreement that now, social media alone is not a reliable long term marketing strategy. The challenges faced when dealing with platforms you don’t own or have control over are many! But, in combination with your other marketing channels, it still absolutely has its place. For brand awareness alone it is worth putting time and effort into!
So, if you’re feeling a little disenchanted with it all, have a look at these benefits of social media marketing. You’ll learn how you can use it to get your brand name out there and attract more of your ideal clients.
Benefit 1: Brand awareness
The biggest of all benefits of social media marketing is exposure. If you enter the stage of LinkedIn, Instagram and other social platforms, you can reach out to thousands of new potential customers – while keeping in touch with existing contacts.
Being active online is also a huge credibility boost. You show potential clients you are very much in business and here for them whenever they need you.
However much social media has changed over the years, it still gives you the opportunity to showcase your brand and attract like-minded people – aka the ideal audience for your small business.
How to get started:
Make sure your profile name, company description (or bio on some channels), your cover photo and profile image reflect your small business brand. Your content should be relevant to your ideal customer and reflect your unique positioning. And it doesn’t matter if you share it from third parties, your own blog/website or a mix of both.
For example, if your company promotes a sustainable business practice, show how you make it happen and what new approaches you are trialling. If you’re a friendly family business, choose your tone of voice accordingly and post lots of pics from your team at work. The goal is for customers to recognise your brand through visuals and voice, even without your logo.
Not sure where to start? Read this post to find out which types of content to post on social media.
Benefit 2: Research
This is one of the most underrated benefits of social media marketing. When you’ve gathered your target audience around you, you can use it to learn more about your potential customers.
No other marketing platform gives you a faster and more direct response from your ideal clients than social media. You can find out easily what works and what doesn’t, ask them questions and even use your followers for some small-scale market research.
How to get started:
You can add polls or link to surveys on most social media channels, and these can be incredible for engagement. You can also invite your most active followers to a beta test of your newest product and get their feedback.
Additionally, comments, discussions, messages, reviews and even the number of shares on your profile give you an invaluable insight. Use it to further optimise your products, customer service and marketing. And the same goes for special interest groups on Facebook and LinkedIn – join your target audience online and get to know them better.
Read more about things you can learn from existing and past customers.
Benefit 3: Influence
While you’re already listening to what your followers have to say about you and your small business, take part in the conversation! Don’t sit quietly on the sidelines.
People will likely talk about your business and/or product and services on whatever channels they’re using anyway. But with you being present there, you can respond and (to an extent) control what is said about you online. Showing customers that you are active, engaged and up for a conversation is a huge positive. By communicating like this, you’ll begin to build that all important community.
How to get started:
By monitoring comments, mentions, reviews and messages sent directly to you, you can see what the word is on the streets and reply accordingly. Got a bad review? Make sure to publicly respond to it as quickly as possible. This way you can steer the complaint into shallow waters before it turns into a full-blown viral campaign.
You should also use people’s reaction to your small business to improve your products and services. And if you get really good feedback, spread the word, share and let even more people know about your business.
Nervous about dealing with bad feedback? Here’s how to best respond to negative reviews.
Benefit 4: Customer service
That brings us directly to another one of the main benefits of social media marketing: It’s ideal for your customer service! Never has solving problems, answering questions and increasing customer loyalty with excellent service been easier than now.
Additionally, it increases repeat business from your happy customers and the chance that they recommend you to their friends and family.
How to get started:
Make sure to be available for your followers by checking for messages or questions on your social media channels regularly. This will enable you to respond quickly to complaints and questions.
Also, deliver a fast, easy and direct service and the customers will eat from the palm of your hand. And, quite possibly, shout about your amazing customer service.
Benefit 5: Grow your Mailing List
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – your mailing list is so important! Unlike social media platforms, which are owned by other companies, this is something you are building for yourself.
Social media, however, is a great way to get people to hear about your mailing list and, in turn, to sign up! And the same goes for your podcast, events and other marketing channels.
How to get started:
This one is fairly self-explanatory – include your sign up link across all of your social media platforms! This means adding it to your instagram bio, having it visible on your LinkedIn profile, etc, and, crucially, remembering to talk about it often!
It’s easy to just pop a link in a bio and then assume people will notice it/think to click on it. But it’s important to work your mailing list regularly into the content you’re sharing. And, you need to make signing up worth their while!
Make sure you have your newsletter elevator pitch down to a T before talking about it on social media. Why should someone add your emails to the (probably) long list of subscriptions they already have? How will yours postively impact them? Work this in to any posts about your mailing list.
You could even start off by posting on social media offering a freebie – this could be a downloadable template, access to a secret webinar or mini-course, or early access to a new product or service. Just make sure to follow relevant local privacy regulations – for example, GDPR doesn’t allow tit-for-tat freebies that people can only receive in return for signing up.
Benefit 6: Leads
Another big one of the many benefits of social media marketing is growth. Being able to reach out to so many people gives you the opportunity to generate new leads for your business.
Social media, when done properly, is like a virtual word-of-mouth system. People that follow and enjoy your content will share this with like-minded friends. They, in turn, will like it and share with their friends and so on.
They trust their friends’ recommendations more than any advertising in the world, so this is the perfect way to grow your small business and reach out to larger audiences.
How to get started:
As mentioned above, your followers can share anything you post and a lot of social media platforms show your friends what you’ve liked and commented on. That’s why your content should be interesting and engaging with your brand and social media strategy in mind.
Read more about how to turn your social media followers into paying customers.
Benefit 7: Low cost
In comparison to conventional marketing channels, one of the benefits of social media marketing is that it’s cheap. Posting content on Facebook and sharing your offers on LinkedIn can save you lots of money otherwise spent on expensive print advertising or marketing material.
All you have to invest to get started is your time and brainpower. And even if you get a social media marketer to help you, it’ll still give you a better return than any cold calling campaign ever will.
How to get started:
Your profiles can be set up for free and you basically only pay for additional advertising if you want to boost your page or specific posts.
Of course, you’ll have to create and curate content for your posts, your cover photo might need a custom-made design and sometimes you have to pay for a good management and scheduling tool.
But that’s nothing in comparison to the cost of a telemarketing campaign or an advert in a nationally distributed magazine. Often there are free versions of services that you can use to help you with your social media marketing. And there’s nobody keeping you from writing your blog yourself.
Benefit 8: Share Your Expertise
Positioning yourself as an expert in your field is really important in building trust with your potential customers. So, any opportunity to put content out that does that is worth taking.
While I talk often about using your blog for this, social media is also a great avenue to go down if you’re looking to build that sense of expertise.
How to get started:
Your social media content plan will be really helpful here. This is something I’ve talked about at length before, and it’s a really useful place to start.
Try to work your blog posts (if you have them) into your content calendar regularly. Social media is a great opportunity to utilise evergreen content that you’ve written. You can reformat quotes and snippets from blog posts into shareable social media posts, highlighting your expertise!
On top of that, you can do things like host a Q&A on your social media platforms. Share a post or story asking for questions! Not only is this a great way to share your knowledge, but it’s a good opportunity to boost engagement too.
I have a whole post on the value of Educational Content, which you can check out here!
Final Thoughts
So, if you’ve recently set up a new business and are looking to get started, or have become disillusioned with social media marketing and needed a reminder of why it’s worth keeping as one of your marketing channels, I hope this has helped!
Remember that you don’t have to be everywhere – in fact, it’s better to stick with the one or two platforms you know your audience uses. Work on your content plan, be consistent, engage with your followers and you’re sure to see the benefits.
KEEP READING
If you are interested in reading more about this topic, have a look at these:
How to Avoid Social Media Overwhelm as a Small Business Owner
Turn Your Social Media Followers Into Leads
Why You Should Focus on Your Social Media Engagement
How to Create an Editorial Calendar for Your Social Media Success
