Why Does My Business Need To Market on Social Media?
As an agency eager to support professional organizations, one of the first places we look to connect with them is through social media. Too often, we’re surprised to discover so many businesses either don’t have a presence on any social media platform, or their content has not been updated for months (sometimes years!). If you are a business planning for success beyond 2015, marketing on social media needs to become a priority. Already, marketing analysis is revealing 50% of marketers see improved sales from social media, and that number increases as the hours spent marketing on social media platforms increases. Take for example, the 74% of reported marketers that gained new business by spending over 40 hours each week promoting on social media, all according to this year’s social media tips report from the Social Media Examiner.
Encouragingly, it only takes as little as 6 hours per week of engagement to begin seeing lead generation benefits from social media. But if you’re not one of the businesses interacting and advertising on social media, you’re in the drowning minority. 83% of marketers report they have integrated social media into traditional marketing, with 94% of them using Facebook.
OK, So Which Platform Is Right For My Company?
So how do you know which platform on which to promote? That depends on whether your business targets business-to-business or business-to-consumer. The survey found Facebook as the most important platform for B2C, whereas LinkedIn is the most important for B2B. To gain any significant visibility on Facebook, your business needs a healthy advertising budget. The main goal here is to interact within your community, display your products and services in unique, appealing ways, and post content that interests your buyer. Twitter however, is more of a free-for-all. The more people you connect with, the better. Try to follow other experts in your field as well as prospective clients. Listening to others’ concerns and problems, then offering a solution is the key to marketing on Twitter. When marketing B2B, LinkedIn provides that professional, credible approach for networking.
How Do I Build Connections?
But most importantly, be sure to connect, follow, friend, like, comment, share and re-tweet other individual’s content to establish a natural relationship. Get to know them through their social media persona then from there, offer a solution to a problem of theirs once you have connected instead of immediately pitching a sale their way. Building relationships on social media outweighs generating leads.
Also be sure you’re not being self-serving. When you post, try to give your clients an idea of what it’s like doing business with you. Exclusively posting about your products or services turns clients away. It’s all about personal relationships on social media. In order to build on those relationships, it’s important for businesses to listen to feedback. Make your clients feel as though their voice is valued by responding to their comments and incorporating their ideas. Another way to remain generous and build relationships is by becoming an expert in your field. Offer free tips online to help your clients and build your credibility as the go-to source.
So, whatever social media platform you choose to promote your business, the important factor is to adopt a unique voice and approach that reflects your brand and keep it consistent across all platforms. And if you’re new to social media, just dive in! Create a profile, upload some images from your business and begin to post content. With over a billion users on social media, it’s proven to be simple.
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