Social Media is definitely the cool kid on the marketing block, but it’s more than just a popularity contest. Sure, having a big audience helps with exposure and brand recognition, but that doesn’t mean you need a following in the millions or hundred-thousands to reap the benefits of having a well-managed social media presence. In fact, having too many followers can actually do more harm than good if they’re not authentically engaged with your content.
This obsession with page likes and follower counts leaves some businesses chasing this white whale of social popularity so much that they miss the bigger picture and often end up losing out on benefits and opportunities right in front of them. Even with a modest, but engaged following, your brand needs a social media presence, and here’s why.
Social Media Is Where Society Lives
Yes, yes, we can complain about millennials ruining industries and being disconnected by phones and devices until we all weep in a powwow and collectively resurrect the napkin industry, but the truth is, most people are on social media – and it’s not just millennials.
According to data from Statista, over 2.5 billion people use social media in 2018, with those numbers projected to continually rise over the next few years. Obviously that whole market can’t be accessible to a specific brand, but even a small fraction of it is a huge market to be missing out on if you’re not even in the space.
When you know there are specific platforms where over 75% of the population spends a substantial amount of time each day, there’s no reason not to jump on board.
It’s the same principle behind TV and radio ads – find out where people are spending their time en masse and market to them there. Besides, when the place where your audience lives has a built-in demographic profile of each one, it also becomes a great place to experiment with audiences.
You Can Target Your Audience
One of the awesome features of some social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc., is that you can target specific audiences. Want to reach more parents in your community for your in-home daycare, or do you need to target HR professionals for your recruitment company? Several platforms can target your ads to specifically…well, specific demographics.
And this is important, because your ads won’t go as far or work as well if they’re not even being seen by the people who would benefit most from them. Wouldn’t It be more cost effective to spend money on ads you know are going directly to people of interest to you, rather than wasting cash showing your adds to the general public, many of whom may not even care about what your business offers?
It Increases Awareness
We started this blog discussing why your brand can benefit from a social media presence regardless of its size, and it’s true! Don’t go chasing follower waterfalls, folks. But that being said, the bigger your social audience is means more people know about your company, and that’s not a bad problem to have.
Each time a new person sees your page, something you posted, or even a friend’s comment on your content, they become aware of your brand, and potentially a new customer.
Did you know that 60% of people on Instagram say they discover new products on the platform?
People want to explore and find new points of interest on social media, and they’re more than open to learning about new brands, products, and services on the platforms they frequent.
This is a huge departure from traditional marketing, which tends to disrupt consumers’ lives with pervasive ads that may or may not be interesting or even relevant to them. These days people don’t want to be beat over the heads with ads, but they will actively search for products and services they want, and are open to learning about relevant ones in the communities they frequent online.
It Helps Lead People Back To Your Website
Your website should be your online hub for any relevant information about your company. What your business provides, the area it serves, how your product or service benefits your customers, your contact information, and anything else relevant should be posted and easy for anyone who visits your site to find (these are the reasons people visit websites, after all.)
A website is your opportunity to pitch a new audience on what you provide and try to convert them to customers, but you need to get people to your website, first.
Any brand, regardless of its industry, can leverage its social media presence to lead people back to its website (where the copy there should be working to convert visitors to customers, but that’s for another post) and continue marketing efforts. Sharing content from your blog or offering freebies, samples, and consultations are great ways to lead your social followers back to your website to continue their buyer journey.
It Allows You To Connect With Your Customers
Remember how we said people don’t like being advertised to (You’ll notice that’s a trend with us)? One of the reasons for that is because they don’t like being thought of as faceless consumers to a company only interested in its bottom line. Having a social media presence gives your brand a chance to connect and interact with its fans. That back and forth communication helps humanize your business from a faceless corporation many people will perceive it to be.
And aside from making you more trustworthy and welcoming, interacting with your followers is also a fantastic way to do market research that many brands don’t consider. Why waste time trying to figure out what new menu item your customers want to try next or why they’re buying the blue mug design but not the red one, when you can just ask them?
Social media pages are a convenient and powerful soundboard to learn about your customers and what they want from your brand; rather than wasting time, money, and resources playing a guess-and-check game until you get it right or run out of options. An engaged social following is basically a voluntary focus group – don’t let that information go to waste.
Whether you have a following of one-hundred, one-thousand, or one-million followers, your brand can benefit from having a solid social media presence that works in conjunction with your other marketing efforts.
What has been the biggest obstacle keeping your brand from adopting a social media marketing strategy?
