Social Media Matters: Why Small Businesses should be a Part of the Wider Network

  • Content
  • Marketing
  • Social Media

Written by: Zoe Christodoulides

If you run a small business and believe that being active on social media isn’t really necessary, think again. “Do you really need it?” you may have often wondered. If you want to stay competitive and reach out to as many people as possible, increase brand awareness and gain a competitive advantage, then the answer is yes! Not only is social media a fabulous marketing tool, but it can also help to make a big difference at a low cost. It’s no understatement to say that most popular social platforms (from Facebook to Instagram, Twitter to LinkedIn) have become marketing giants, but if you’re a newbie to the world of online marketing, it may be hard to understand exactly the reasons why. Action Digital breaks it down simply!

 

1. First and foremost, it’s about raising brand awareness

Social media is a great way to spread company news and share content, be it content from your website or something you feel is newsworthy that will help build your brand identity, increase loyalty and raise awareness about your product or service as you give your customers a new way to find and connect with you. Competitions and giveaways are always a great idea, as is sharing good quality eye catching photos that tie in with your brand identity and ethos.

 

2. You’ll increase web traffic

As you raise awareness on social media, you should also be enticing your target audience to click on your website. Share links of specific website blogs or dedicated landing pages that will then feature specific CTAs (Call to Action). But more than just web traffic, the more social media shares you receive, the higher you will rank in search engines.

 

3. It will help create a wider network

A strong presence on social media will help you create a good network and hopefully, loyal brand ambassadors and potential repeat customers. Encourage people to share images with your company hashtag and be sure to promote your social presence everywhere – on brochures, business cards, leaflets – anywhere where people will get to see them.

 

4. Good content makes for good customers

People love to read good content. Short, snappy and interesting- you’ll have people hooked and they’ll want to know more about your brand. Be consistent with your content and be sure to be regular with your posts; make your followers look forward to hearing something from you on a daily basis. And if you want to make more of an impact, social media ads (be that on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn), are a relatively cheap way to promote your business in the online world.

 

5. You’ll gain valuable customer insights

What many small businesses overlook, is the fact that social media helps you generate and collect a great amount of data. If your followers are actively engaged with your brand on a daily basis, you can then gather useful information from across your social media channels via sites like Agorapulse on who your followers are, what their preferences are and much more, to further increase sales.

 

6. It will give you a competitive advantage

Being active on social media is not just about customer insights, but you will also be more clued up on what your competitors are doing, with valuable knowledge gained. By monitoring social media and keeping an eye out for trends, you’ll be able to stay ahead of the game, get more ideas about what kind of content you should be sharing, what kind of deals people respond to, and the list goes on!   Our creative experts at Action Digital can devise an effective strategy especially tailored to your business while fully managing your brand identity online. From creating your posts and professionally answering all online messages, to crisis management, performance tracking, gathering statistics and more.

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