Since the advent of Social Media in the early-2000s, platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have become a cornerstone of our technological society. These days, everyone has some form of social media – from private citizens to major governmental organizations and everything in between. Major news, both foreign and domestic, is often disseminated first through social media because of the incredible reach and engagement social media platforms offer. With that kind of power, it’s no wonder that many businesses, both large and small, have a presence on most platforms.
Why Does My Business Need Social Media?
If you have a Facebook profile, why can’t your business? You probably created your profile to stay connected with friends and family members, and share photos, videos, and stories with them. The same can be true with your business! Having a business page is a seamless way to connect with your customers, share important updates with them, or even advertise a new product.
Still not convinced? Let’s take a look at some of the numbers: Facebook has an incredible 2.8 billion monthly active users, Instagram (a Facebook company) has 1 billion monthly active users and Twitter has over a billion registered users. In 2020, 80% of the US population had some form of social media, with 190 million people using Facebook in the US alone. When we take into account these numbers, businesses that don’t have a social media presence are leaving a lot on the table.
Build Brand Recognition
Having brand recognition is one of your business’s most important goals. Customers want to buy brands they recognize, and social media has created an opportunity for simple, yet effective brand building. Many users on social media often follow their favorite brands, including the local ones. When it comes to online brand discovery, 52% of discovery happens on public social media feeds. Having a social media page allows your potential customers to find you with relative ease and share your content with their friends. Never before has a business been able to build its brand so quickly and easily.
Generate Qualified Leads
Leads are the lifeblood of any business – and getting customers into your sales pipeline is often a difficult task. With social media, lead generation has never been so simple and inexpensive. Sharing content on social media is 100% free and with the right strategy, you can generate leads with little or no cost.
With a few posts on your Facebook page, you can direct customers to your website where they can enter their email or place an order. You can take this a step further by developing a paid advertising campaign, where you can specifically target your core consumer base. These paid ads can lead back to your point of sale or website, where customers can seamlessly enter your sales funnel. It’s that simple.
Create a Community
Perhaps one of the most powerful aspects of social media is the opportunity to build a community around your brand. To put it simply, a brand community is a group of consumers who are emotionally invested in your brand. These consumers are often some of your most loyal customers and will gather on your brand’s social media page to engage with, discuss and share your content. Customers will interact with each other on your page and encourage others to engage with your page as well. With a strong brand community, you’ll be able to get an accurate read of your customer’s sentiments about your brand, and feedback on your products.
Powerful Paid Advertising
The power of social media doesn’t stop at brand awareness and community building – you can also create dynamic advertising campaigns! While organic reach is a potent way to reach your target consumer, paid advertising has the ability to extend that reach to places you’ve never thought possible. Whether you want to sell a product or service, or just increase your likes and shares, paid advertising gives you the ability to dynamically target your preferred audience and consumer.
With paid advertising on social media, you’ll also have the ability to put your ads in front of customers you otherwise might not have been able to reach. According to Twitter, there were 152 million monetizable Daily Active Users – meaning those were users who logged onto Twitter and were shown paid advertising. Facebook has similar metrics, reporting that they have a whopping 1.85 billion Daily Active users, many of whom were shown paid ads. We can go even further: over 27% of internet users say they find new products and brands through paid social ads; that number increases to 31% among 16-to-24-year-olds. According to Snapchat, their users are 60% more likely to make an impulse purchase when presented with a paid ad. Now here’s the crazy part – according to Nielsen, 72% of Gen Z users (people born between 1997 and 2012) who use Snapchat are completely unreachable by television ads. Data also shows that Snapchat, on average, is seven times more efficient than TV at reaching an advertiser’s intended audience.
Social Media is Here to Stay
As a business platform, social media has become a powerful tool for companies and is undoubtedly here to stay. It has never been more important to create and maintain a social media presence for your business and the need to have a presence will only increase as social media becomes more ubiquitous. When we look at the numbers, it’s clear that consumers are spending an increasing amount of time online, especially on social media platforms. With social media no longer restricted to just a home computer, your consumers have the ability to engage with your brand at all times of the day, right from their phone.
So, what’re you waiting for? Create a social media page! If you need help with your social media strategy, PriMedia offers full-service Social Media Management and Web Presence Optimization services so you can maximize your online presence. If you’re interested in enhancing your social strategy, contact us right here on our website!
