Many people in Nigeria are gradually coming to know the advantages that social media offers. No wonder why there are currently more than 33 million people actively using social media. Most people use social media because it allows them to instantly communicate with the rest of the world.
Precisely, that popularity and massive use are what also make social media interesting from the point of view of digital marketing.
One of the benefits that social media offers people in business is that it provides them with an immediate connection channel with millions of people related to their brand. And this helps them to generate a community of people interested in what they can offer them.
Are you still unsure about why you need to put your business on social media? Or did you just jump on the bandwagon without knowing the opportunities that it offers? In the following, I’ll let you know what you stand to achieve by putting your business on social media.
What's in this guide?
Main advantages of social media for business
Here are the reasons social media is good for your business:
Build your brand image
Currently, more than half of the world’s population is connected on social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Thus, these platforms have quickly become places where you can easily find your potential customers – because most people spend most of their time there every day.
Also, according to surveys, while users follow brands they already know on social networks, they look out for products that interest them. Hence, if your business is still new, that’s an opportunity to build your brand image.
Humanize your brand
Social media also allows you to create a real, human relationship with your customers, beyond the commercial relationship. Several solutions are available to you to do this:
- Introduce your team members,
- Present your business values,
- Show how your products and services function, etc
The essence of humanizing your brand is that it increases trust between your business and your potential customers. To better achieve your goals, you can call on an influence marketing consulting agency. That’s if you can afford it and don’t have much time to do the work yourself.
Also Read: How to use social media to grow your business
Increase in website traffic
Without marketing your business on social media, your inbound traffic is limited to your regular customers. Because it’s only the people who are already familiar with your brand that will likely search for the same keywords you’ve already ranked for.
Hence, without using social media as part of your marketing strategy, you’ll have a much harder time reaching anyone outside of your circle of loyal customers.
But when you integrate your website content to as many social media platforms as possible, it allows even new people to organically reach your business.
Through social media ads and posts, you can drive traffic to your business website. To do this, you have to create interesting and relevant content that will arouse the interest of readers. Also, regularly post your website link or a link to good content on your website in your social media posts
Improved search engine rankings
Although social media does not directly increase search engine rankings. However, as explained above, you can use it to generate more visitors to your website. And the more visitors you receive on your website, the higher in the Google ranking your website is. That’s a good one for your business.
Social media creates word of mouth
Previously, word of mouth would mean someone telling their friends, colleagues, family… about your business by talking. Things have changed now. The new way of word-of-mouth advertising is done online. When someone comments on your social media posts, likes, retweets or shares them, their friends or followers will see your activity. That is, your business will be visible to a new network of people, which can lead to them becoming potential customers
That activity of liking, commenting, or sharing your posts communicates to their network that they endorse your products or services. This will make more people know your brand and therefore give your business a big boost.
Also Read: 9 Secrets to turn your startup into a profitable business
Getting to know customers
Social media also allows you to get to know your customers faster. Information such as interests, behaviour and location may be of interest to your business. Via Social media monitoring, you can also see what (potential) customers are saying or posting about your company or store on other platforms. By learning more about your customers, you can approach them in a more targeted way.
You can easily follow your competitors
Your competitors are probably also on social media. Check out their pages, follow them or like a post to see what they are doing. Learn from them to improve your products and services.
Your customers are more loyal
53% of people who follow a brand or company on social media are more loyal to these companies. So it is important to regularly give valuable content to these loyal customers, otherwise, they would not have started following you.
Receiving a nice message from their favourite webshop ensures that the love and loyalty for your brand grows.
Also Read: Types of Business Ownership & the Pros and Cons of Each
Save marketing costs
Here’s a very important benefit. It’s ideal for a business to try to save on marketing costs, especially if it’s a new business. Social media marketing is relatively cheaper than most traditional marketing.
You don’t need anything to start in the first place with social media marketing. There are practically no costs associated with setting up a social media account.
Because it (usually) only costs you time, the costs are generally a lot lower than the traditional forms of marketing.
Powerful feedback tool
Do you want to launch a new product or service? Then you could very well ask your followers on social media for feedback. How about a poll on Instagram stories where you ask your followers for their opinion? You could also ask your customers why they choose to come to your store or purchase a particular service from you. Due to the low threshold, social media is the ideal channel to ask for feedback.
Optimize communication
You can optimize communication with your customers in different ways:
- Manage reputation: you will find all the information and opinions about you on social media, whether positive or negative. This way, you could highlight the good points and make sure to remedy the bad ones.
- Manage crises: if the worst happens, your presence on social networks will help you get out of a crisis more calmly.
- Engage the public and customers: Thanks to the pages of social networks, the interaction between customers and companies is much easier.
Also Read: Google Business Profile: How to use, Benefits, get customers & more
Conclusion
It’s clear that social media marketing has its benefits, so if your business doesn’t already have the right profiles, create them! Fill in your business information and post engaging content to start gaining followers.
With consistent updating, the right social media marketing strategy will lead to increased traffic, better SEO, higher conversion rates, better brand loyalty, and so much more. So, take advantage of this right away!
