Should my business use social media?
If your small business doesn’t have a social media presence, you may be missing out on significant benefits for your brand.
Through social media, you can gain new customers and engage more insightfully with recurring ones.
Social media can be a highly cost-effective and personalised way of reaching your customers while providing valuable insights into your brand.
Here are just a few business benefits that social media can provide:
Brand awareness
Billions of people worldwide use social media every day, and it makes sense to put your business where your customers are. A high percentage of people use social media platforms to find new products, so it is an invaluable tool for building a brand. Social media can form part of a bigger brand awareness campaign, which Osborn Communications can help to deliver.
Brand personality
It’s becoming more crucial than ever for businesses to have a distinct voice and engage with customers on a human level. Social media provides an easy avenue for creating a visual brand, allowing you to develop an identity and a voice to showcase your brand values and engage with followers.
Thought leadership
Social media allows businesses to become thought leaders and stand out from their competitors. You can do this by sharing creative content on Instagram, writing thoughtful blog posts for LinkedIn or showing a fresh perspective in tweets.
Increased website traffic
If your followers like your social media content, they will want to find out more. This can lead to them visiting your business website to learn more about your company, which means higher website traffic and the potential for more sales.
Reputation management
Reputation is everything, and social media gives you the perfect opportunity to communicate with customers and solve issues quickly. You can even create a unique hashtag your followers can use if they have a question or complaint to ensure the right people see it. You can also use social media to highlight positive reviews or comments.
Analytics and insights
Most social media platforms have analytics tools, allowing you to monitor follower counts, engagement rates and click-through rates. These numbers can help you determine the kinds of content your followers respond to best and tweak your marketing strategy accordingly.
Targeted advertisements
It’s easy to create adverts on social platforms, and the benefit is that you can specifically target them to suit your audience. Research has shown that users respond better and are more engaged when advertising is tailored to them.
Networking
A presence on social media can enable you to build up a network of useful contacts. Relationship building can lead to new business wins and can also help with the recruitment of skilled staff.
Competitor analysis
Aside from engaging with customers, social media helps you monitor your competitors. Follow your competitors and note what works well for them and what doesn’t. Work those insights into your social media marketing strategy.
If you need support with your social media accounts, Osborn Communications might be able to help. We offer a full social media package that includes content writing, management of platforms and campaign measurement. Our social media campaigns not only align with but complement PR strategies.
You might also be interested in workshops we offer covering topics including PR, communications and social media.
For more information, please get in touch.
