We all like to believe that we are successfully running a social media marketing campaign, but is your business really doing social media the justice it deserves?
Let’s talk about that.
How many people do you think are using social media globally?
One hundred million?
A billion?
TWO billion?
If your answer was any of the above, or less, you would be wrong. Around 58.4% of the world's population uses social media. The average daily usage is 2 hours and 27 minutes (January 2022) - according to research by Global WebIndex.
That number is unfathomable for a lot of people, but this number is exactly why your business solely relying on its ‘presence’ on social media is not enough.
Now, if someone were to ask you about your business’s social media approach, what would you say?
“We are active on ALL socials!”
There’s a lot of companies that follow this model, but being active on all social media may not be the best way to create an engaged audience. If you are a business focused on finance, do you really need to be posting on TikTok without having a strategy in place?
“We have accounts but… none of them are in use”
Now with dead accounts that aren’t in use, you may as well have no accounts at all. Anyone who researches your business, or wants to check in with what you’re doing, won’t want to follow or engage with you because there’s nothing for them to consume. You need to think about what you want to offer to your audience, and what your overall goal is.
“We are posting CONSTANTLY on one platform”
The thing with posting on one platform is that you’re putting all of your eggs in one basket. Is it the right basket? Is this where your target audience is most active? Are you receiving great engagement? If so, then you’ve analysed your business and buyer persona well.
However, if not, then you’re probably not on the right platform. If you want to change this, it’s best to create an audience persona. You can do this by taking a look at your competitors’ audience, who your current and ideal audience is and analytics. Once you have created an audience persona, this can help you decide which social media platforms to focus on and who exactly you are trying to reach.
“We are posting all of the time on ALL social media!”
As the saying goes, you need quality over quantity. If you’re strictly posting quality content at a high rate, that’s great but unlikely and unachievable for many businesses.
Create a social media content planner, you can find these everywhere with a simple Google search, or get creative and make your own that suits your needs.
It helps to be able to see what you’re going to be posting on a weekly and monthly basis, and a social media content plan helps you to stay organised, as well as being ahead of the curve. Additionally, if you decide you want to post anything extra, this won’t eat into your day as you’ve already scheduled/planned your content. A win-win situation! Planning! Yay!
“We post regularly but it doesn’t represent us as a business. We do follow all of the latest trends though!"
It’s great to follow trends, but only those that represent your business. If you’re a finance business, it wouldn’t make sense to tweet about the latest fashion trends - sounds obvious right? You’d be surprised!
Try to focus on the trends within your industry and comment on those, show your expertise and you’ll be surprised at how much that in itself can increase your engagement.
In social media, it is always worth trying different things out to see what works and actually helps you work towards your goal.
Regardless of whatever KPI you’re measuring, you’re always going to have to try different ways of achieving them, and sometimes… You have to fail to understand what really works.
Completing a social media audit is perfect for understanding your successes and fails. Once again, you can create an audit yourself or find so many examples within Google. Isn’t the internet just amazing?!
But, Annie, why does my business NEED social media marketing and why do we NEED to use it properly?
Social media is a powerful tool when used correctly. That’s where your customers are, and that’s what your customers are on at all times of the day.
Business awareness
People don’t just interact and connect with businesses they already know on social media. Think about how many businesses you’ve come across, which you probably wouldn’t have without the power of social media. I imagine it’s quite a few, right? Exactly!
If your business is on social media, you’re being seen and you’re being seen, all the time. If you’re posting content that represents your business, you’ll find the conversions just come through. If you’re posting the right content, your engagement analytics and audit will show that. Get your business out there and make people aware.
Endless benefits
There are endless benefits to being on social media. Not only can you increase business awareness, you are also able to present your business as a thought leader. What does presenting your authority within your industry create?
Well, it creates benefits that can positively impact your whole business. If you’re running a successful campaign, you should be able to see the following:
Increased website traffic
Leads, leads and more leads
What’s better than leads? SALES!
Better customer service
There is no better customer service than a business that is accessible via multiple channels. Gone are the days of ringing up a business, being put on hold and listening to that awful music. Now we have so many options to choose from.
Whether a customer wants to get in contact in regards to sales, complaints or queries, it’s an excellent idea to have multiple channels that your business can be contacted through. Being accessible via social media, phone, and email allows your business to resolve issues before they become even bigger issues.
What’s worse than a complaint?
A complaint on social media.
However, complaints on social media can be a good thing: providing that you respond quickly, appropriately and direct them to someone in your business who can solve their complaint.
Being able to talk to a customer immediately ensures the longevity of your business, and other consumers being able to see exactly how you handle comments and engagements will build essential trust and loyalty.
It’s FREE
Don’t we all love a bargain? The beauty of social media is that predominantly, it’s free - if we don't count WiFi, laptop or electricity costs.
It’s free to sign up, it’s free to engage and interact; social media is your oyster. If you want to spend, great!
You can choose exactly how much you spend in advertising and promotion. Social media works to your budget, and usually, if you’ve created a suitable campaign, you can see a huge ROI due to the fact that yes, as I’ve said, the rest of your social media activity IS FREE!
So, what am I saying?
If you want your business to reach its full potential, and reach a huge audience - you need to be on social media. It gives you the opportunity to gain insights into who your customers are, who you are reaching and how you can be better.
If you’re still not sure, think about these questions:
Would you be able to know your customer's online behaviours without social media? Probably not. Would you be able to retarget advertisements without being on social media? Nope.
Would you be able to improve your business through social listening without social media? It certainly would be difficult.
The key benefit of social media is that you can constantly adapt and evolve your business for the better. So, get your business out there and make people aware.