Last updated on August 3rd, 2023
Approximately three-fourths of small businesses use social media in some way to promote their brand.
Are you part of this group, or are you hesitant to jump on the social media train? Have you been asking questions like “Does social media work for small businesses?” or “Should all small businesses have websites and utilize social media?”
If you’re not sure why small businesses need social media, keep reading. Here are some of the most noteworthy reasons to start focusing on it.
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Stay in Touch
How does social media marketing affect small businesses? One of the main ways that it can affect your company is by helping you stay in touch with your audience.
When you post on social media on a regular basis, you have lots of opportunities to connect with those who follow your brand. You can respond to their comments and answer their questions about your products or services. This, in turn, can help you to convert people who are merely interested into paying customers.
Another great thing about connecting with your audience via social media is the fact it operates in real-time. You can respond to commenters, as well as those who send messages to your brand’s account directly promptly. This helps to improve customer satisfaction and helps people to have a more positive view of your business. More and more, consumers are getting used to taking their support requests to places like Twitter and Facebook Messenger. If you’re there to help them at the first place they turn to for help, it will go a long way towards ensuring they leave that interaction satisifed.
Learn More About Your Customers
In addition to staying connected to your customers, you can also use social media to learn more about them. Encourage your audience to interact with your posts and get valuable information so you can cater to them better in the future.
You can publish posts on Facebook or Instagram asking your audience what their favorite product of yours is or what they’d like to see from your business next. People love participating in polls and sharing their opinions. Let’s say you run a small brewery, for example. You can use a social media post to find out what kind of style beer you should make next. Not only will you get valuable market data, but the people who participated in the poll will feel a sense of ownership in that new release and that they are valued as customers.
You can also use social media to conduct polls or surveys to gain other valuable insights into audience and customer demographics. This includes information like the average age of your customers or their location.
Keep Up with the Competition
Remember, the majority of small businesses are using social media for promotional purposes. If you want to remain competitive with other companies in your industry, you need to start using it, too.
Social media also helps you keep an eye on what your competitors are doing. You can gain inspiration from their posts (without copying them, of course). You can also see what they aren’t doing and beat them to the punch when it comes to social media marketing campaigns and best practices.
Increase Brand Awareness
If you want your small business to grow and thrive, people need to know that it exists, right? Social media is a great tool for increasing brand awareness and spreading the word about what you have to offer.
When you post content on social media on a consistent basis, people are able to share that content with their own friends, family, and followers. This, in turn, helps more people to learn about your brand.
As an added bonus, it doesn’t require an additional time or financial commitments from you! All you have to do is create great content that people will want to share. From there, they take over and do the heavy lifting while you enjoy the benefits of a growing audience.
Utilize Influencer Marketing
Another benefit of combining social media and small business is the fact that you can utilize influencer marketing.
Influencer marketing involves teaming up with social media influencers. These are people who have social media followings and have cultivated trust from their audience around a niche. Ideally, their personal brand will also line up with your business’s brand values.
When you partner with these people, they promote your business and share your products or services with their followers. This helps you reach a larger audience of people who are likely to be interested in what you sell. As a result, you can see an increase in customers and a boost to your business’s bottom line.
This is an emerging type of marketing that can be quite low-cost in terms of dollars but is likely to involve a good deal of time and might require trial and error.
Save Money
Some small business owners are hesitant to start using social media because they worry that social media marketing is too expensive. In reality, though, this can be a very affordable way to promote your business.
It doesn’t cost any money to create a social media account or to create social media content. You can do a lot when it comes to growing an audience and connecting with those who follow you without having to spend a dime.
There are aspects of social media marketing that cost money, it’s true. However, it’s easy to scale your expenses to match your budget. Investing some money upfront in paid advertising or influencer marketing can lead to big returns later on as well.
Increase Brand Loyalty
Of all the small businesses that need social media marketing, those that are interested in increasing brand loyalty should focus on it.
People who follow brands on social media tend to feel a greater sense of loyalty to those brands. It makes sense when you stop and think about it. If you’re going to go to the trouble of following a company on social media, you’re probably going to be more inclined to buy what they’re selling.
One reason why social media can be so effective when it comes to fostering brand loyalty is the fact that it provides businesses with a chance to give back to their customers. Brands can post useful content on their social media profiles and show their customers that they’re thinking of them.
Let’s use the brewery example again. A brewery can create more customer loyalty by sharing photos of their customers enjoying their beer in unique locations, such as at the summit of a mountain or at the side of a lake.
The company can also host giveaways or announce sales so those who follow them have new opportunities to get more of their products. All of this encourages loyalty and will keep people coming back for more.
Humanize Your Business
Long gone are the days when businesses were faceless, soulless entities. Now, people want to see the person behind the product. This is especially true for small business owners.
You can use social people to give people a chance to get to know you, your business partners, and your employees. Share pictures or videos that give folks a glimpse behind the curtain. You can also use tools like Instagram stories or Facebook Live to answer questions and connect with your audience on a deeper level.
If people feel that they have a connection with and know the people behind a particular brand, they might be more loyal to that brand. They might also be more inclined to choose it over a different, less personal one.
Increase Credibility
Another reason why small businesses should use social media is the fact that it can increase their credibility.
Because most small businesses these days have a social media presence, the absence of one can be a red flag to some people. They might question the validity of your business. They might also decide that they’d rather give their money to a company that they’ve been following for a while.
Social media allows you to address potential concerns and objections people might have about your products or services. If people are unsure about what you’re selling, they won’t want to buy it.
You can use social media to show people what you’re selling, how it works, and why it works. You can answer questions and let folks know that you and your company are the real deal.
Start Utilizing Social Media for Business Today
There are lots of reasons why small businesses need social media. Now that you know more about the importance of social media marketing and its impact on small businesses, it’s time to get to work.
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