Social media & your business
Introduction
Social media users are expected to hit 4.41 billion by 2025. For small businesses, this means social media can be a powerful source of custom and marketing. Suppose you are looking for ways to grow and evolve your business and connect with customers. In that case, there is quite literally no better or easier way to do so than via social media.
If you are yet to make an impact for your company on social media, you are doing your business and your brand a disservice. Creating a brand image can be time-consuming. Cultivating what you are about as a company, reflecting that in any imagery branding you use and visual media and pushing this message through your core values for employees and clients alike takes time and effort.
However, social media gives you a way to instantly see how powerful your brand is and how people see your company.
Branding and Social Media
Social media users are used to getting the information they need instantly. 57% of social media users will check out a company or brand on social media to find out more about them, while a further 47$ will follow the accounts to keep up to date with the latest news. As a marketing tool, this is pretty effective. But what else these types of insights offer you is a way to dissect the consumer behavioural pattern and use it to your advantage.
Creating compelling social media copy that engages users will get your accounts in the eyes of your followers will assist in giving you real-time insights into what they are looking for and what they expect from you as a brand. When creating your brand image, you want to be appealing to your customer base, and social media can give you the insights to see how well you are performing.
Never before has there been a better way to humanise the brand and allow consumers to see exactly what goes on behind the scenes. Don't be afraid to give people a behind the scenes glimpse at how you work, who you are and what you do. Authenticity builds trust, and creating trust with consumers is essential to retain clients, boost positive brand awareness and drive sales.
Part of creating a successful brand is consistency and recognition. While other advertising mediums have the capacity to help push your branding and get your company in front of new potential customers, social media allows you to create a consistent campaign that drives you into people's feeds to keep you at the forefront of their minds every day.
A successful social media campaign embraces who you are as a company and holds genuine or those values. Staying on brand, creating a regular posting schedule and engaging with followers can support your efforts and allow you to keep fresh and relevant. Did you know that 49% of social media users check their social media accounts each day? The average daily time a user spends on social media is around 145 minutes. Not always at once, so use the analytics available at your disposal - typically found in your creator accounts, to find out when your audience is online, and what it is that gets them engaged.
The Benefits of Social Media Marketing for Small Businesses
Firstly, creating social media accounts for your business can be done for free. There is no cost associated with getting started on social media except for an investment in your time. And while you might not have the power behind you that more prominent, established companies do on social media; you have the connection consumers want - community and individuality.
Small businesses are at ground level and able to engage with people in a more personal way. This means you can replicate the attentive experience people get from your company in person and online which not only reflects well on you but supports the creation of your branding to boost your reputation and visibility.
Another massive benefit of social media for small businesses is that you can effectively target ads to the right people for a smaller budget. Take Facebook, for example; when creating an ad - you can tailor who see it by adjusting your audience and selecting people to target. If you are aiming your services to a millennial market in one geographical location, you can alter the age of users you want to find, the desired location and any interests or online habits you think might be applicable. For example, you can target 25- 40 years olds in the NW area of London who have shown an interest in categories and businesses similar to yours. This allows for a more exact target to your ad than simply all users on Facebook.
Social Media Management and Small Businesses
Looking at the leading social media accounts, you have;
Facebook - 1.6 billion users
YouTube - Advertising reach of 2.291 billion
WhatsApp - 2 billion users per month
Instagram - 1.36 billion users in total
TikTok - 732 million accounts and growing at around 45% per month
Snapchat - 108 million users worldwide
Creating content for multiple social media channels can be time-consuming and effectively a full-time job as a small business.
Many major brands and companies will have dedicated employees for creating, posting and engaging on social media.
Social media management companies exist to take over this role or smaller business and have a wealth of expertise in this area to be able to harness the data available and create a publishing schedule that can provide an ROI on social media to support your marketing efforts.
Few small business owners genuinely have the time to effectively manage multiple social media. With 71% of small businesses worldwide using social media, putting yourself ahead of the competition can ensure an effective way to boost your marketing efforts and attract the right people to your business.
Simply put, social media and, by extension, social media management can give your company a massive boost. While there are notable disadvantages to using social media - negative feedback and falsehoods can be problematic, there are numerous benefits to using social media to support your company branding and to help you create a brand that is instantly recognisable and trustworthy too.