How using social media can benefit your business

Social media has never been more crucial to a business than it is right now. According to a report by Hootsuite and We Are Social, there are 3.8 billion social media users across the world – that's a huge potential audience. 

In 2020, your business needs a social media presence. Whether you're a huge corporation or a small local company, social media can help you to engage with your customers, increase your reputation and drive sales.

Starting your social media presence 

Your business needs to be visible, show authority and authenticity. If you don't currently have a presence on social media, or perhaps you haven't updated your page in a while – think about which social media channels are relevant to your business and focus on those. Here are some questions to think about when creating your business pages: 

• Who's your audience? 

• How do you want your business to be known? 

• What content will you be posting? 

• What are your goals? 

• What company's social media do you admire? 
  

By answering these initial questions, you'll gain extensive insight into what you want your brand's social presence to be like. 

Creating engaging content 

By posting content created by your brand about subjects that represent you and your business as a whole, you will be able to show your authority within your industry. 

Content helps you to engage your audience, drive your brand's awareness and create loyalty. By creating and posting articles, you're able to show your audience your authenticity, alongside showing your companies' personality.

Lights, camera, action 

Photos, videos and infographics are essential for your business social media presence. Visuals tend to perform best on social media; in fact, according to Twitter, tweets with photos tend to receive [on average] a 35% increase in retweets. Additionally, engagement on Facebook increases to 37% when an image is used, in comparison to text only, according to Jeff Bullas. 

By seeing which pieces of content creates the most engagement, whether that's a photo, video or an infographic, you can then make informed decisions in the future about what to post on your social media. 

Easy engagement with your audience 

Social media allows you to be present and engage with your audience in a way like never before. When a customer has a problem, no longer do they call a customer service line, but instead, they head over to the brands social media to solve their issue or find information to help with their issue. 

Ensuring you're responsive to complaints, queries and general feedback is crucial for building your brands awareness and authority. Responding to comments can help drive engagement, too. Try leaving an open question when posting your content, your audience will feel more inclined to leave a comment, and when other's see this engagement, it encourages them to leave a comment too.

Final thoughts 

Starting your businesses social media presence today is free, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Share rich, consistent content, and you'll gain a loyal and engaged audience that is ready to interact with your brand, and possibly turn your social media posts into sales conversions for your company.