In the world today, the competition in marketing through social media platforms for small businesses is more cutthroat than ever. With changes in the ease of transport, all businesses are essentially competing with other companies around the world. Whether you like it or not, we have now entered the era of the global economy. If you want your business to compete, you must make sure that it is just as visible to consumers as other global companies or brands.
For some, this realization might be intimidating and even discouraging. New business owners may ask, “how can my small business compete with global corporations that have their own dedicated marketing specialists?” Well, this is not something to worry much about. While the competition has gotten tougher, strategies for marketing have also become more accessible. Right now, reaching a target market has become easier and more affordable.
The key is to be smart, aware, and in touch with your market. According to Beth Comstock, a business executive and former vice-chair of General Electric, present-day marketing is about being “where the world is going.” Right now, the world is going online. That said, the online world is a modern business’ playground.
Social Media: The World is Online
Statistics from Invesp tried to check how much of the world population is online. From the data they’ve gathered in the United States, this includes 84.2% of the country’s population. In figures, that translates to almost 280 million people. To put this number into perspective, this number is larger than the population of Russia and Mexico combined. With these many people connected to the internet in the United States alone, this can make you wonder, what do people normally do online?
Statistica answered this by uncovering the most common internet activities by the US population. From their findings, social media has become one of the most common activities, with over 73% of the population engaging in social networks. On average, people spend over 2 hours a day on social media. As a small business, a simple analysis of this information will convince you that social media is an important tool for promoting your brand.
Why Use Social Media for Business?
With social media becoming one of the world’s most common platforms, it comes as no surprise that engaging in the social world is not just important but essential for all businesses. There are many different ways social media can help impact the performance of your business.
(1) Increase Brand Visibility
Social media is one of the most effective ways to make your brand known to consumers and your target market. Through effective advertisement and entertaining content, you can get a lot of brand exposure from social media. For brands, creating “viral” content is one of the ways to improve brand recognition.
One perfect example that shows the potential of social media for marketing is the 2020 viral TikTok apple juice trend. If you’ve been in the loop, you must have known about how some TikTok users discovered that biting into the plastic bottle of Martinelli’s apple juice sounds like biting into an actual apple. Because of this, a TikTok challenge started inviting people to try it for themselves.
Many were intrigued and a lot of people began participating in the viral challenge. For months, the product was trending. Countless YouTube videos, TikToks, and online blogs have featured Martinelli’s product. Simply by searching “TikTok apple juice” on google and you can find numerous results. Internet trends spread like wildfire. Use them to your advantage.
(2) Connect With Your Customers
Because of the availability of various channels to communicate with your customers, creating relationships with your customers is an important part of marketing in the present day. Being active on social media, interacting with your customers, and being easily accessible for questions, comments, or complaints can have an impact on a customer’s brand loyalty.
One of the brands making it big through social media is Starbucks. This company has even been a topic of many marketing studies due to its unique and effective strategy. One of the most notable actions by Starbucks is their “listening” strategy as a way of innovating the customer’s experience. When customers have suggestions, they take these seriously. And when these recommendations are well-received or backed by the community, Starbucks center their campaign around these customer suggestions. By listening to their customers, Starbucks has been able to launch several successful viral marketing campaigns over the years. There’s always another “trendy” Starbucks drink that everyone wants to try.
(3) Boost Your Brand Searchability
The more you improve your social media strategy, the easier it is to find your business online. Search engines use algorithms to determine the relevance of a certain website to a recent search. If no one is talking about your brand, then it’s quite easy for the Google algorithm to assume that your company is not what the search is looking for. The lesser your relevance, the least likely it is for your website to appear on search results. But if your company posted a lot of content and people are talking about your company, the algorithm considers your company as relevant to the kinds of keywords it is involved or associated with.
To better understand, think of this as an example: have you ever tried looking for something online, whether it be a service or product? When searching, the top search result is often a very valuable spot as not many people tend to look through the later pages of Google. To make it to this top stop, it is important to continually post relevant content and engage with your customers on social media. By sparking discussions, you can grow your brand’s searchability. When this happens, it becomes easier for you to access new customers.
(4) Make Advertising New Products More Convenient
If you have developed a dedicated list of followers for your social media account, it becomes easier for your business to introduce new products or services. People following your social media will be automatically notified when you have a new release. Through social media, even simple posts can be enough to communicate new information to your clients.
As elaborated by marketing writer Brent Barnhart, the age of the internet has made these social media platforms the ideal product launchpads because of their potential for product discovery. Social media is affordable, scalable, and has a lot of room for creativity. Also, creating a social media campaign is generally low-risk with high-reward potential compared to other expensive, high-risk options. That said, a product launch done through social media is a bit more friendly and forgiving, especially to smaller and newer businesses. Social Media Platforms for Businesses
Now that the benefits of social media are clear, what kinds of social media platforms are there to explore?
(1) Facebook.com
Facebook is currently the world’s largest social network with almost 2.9 billion active monthly users. That said, it is one of the biggest platforms that can help businesses connect with the largest audience.
There are many ways businesses can use Facebook for their business. The platform can be utilized to find people who are interested in your products or services, create a mailing list to advertise your company, and even interact with or assist customers who have inquiries.
In creating advertisements, you can opt for paid or unpaid features. You can pay to have Facebook promote your posts so that you can reach audiences beyond your followers. For unpaid features, you can simply create engaging social media content that will entice people to follow your page. When this happens, interactions such as likes, comments, and shares can expand the reach of your content.
Pros: Facebook marketing is an investment that will definitely pay off! Many individuals make use of Facebook as a part of their daily routine. Once you grow a decent following, even simple posts can reach a sizable audience. When you put your work into growing your audience, your audience participates in helping your page grow.
Cons: Setting up a successful Facebook page can be a long and tedious process. Growing, especially if you opt-out of paying for Facebook Ads, can take years. If you are not able to generate interesting and eye-catching content, there is a chance that your Facebook page may simply stagnate. Your business needs to dedicate time, effort, and patience to grow in this social media platform.
(2) Instagram.com
Instagram is another social media platform that your small business can use to grow. As a platform optimized for visual or photo sharing, it allows you to advertise your company beyond traditional text-based or text-heavy posts. Instagram’s photo feed serves as a perfect catalog for businesses to show off their products. This aesthetic platform provides more opportunities to entice buyers.
For example, clothing companies can demonstrate the different ways one can style or wear their clothes. Real estate companies, on the other hand, can use Instagram as a way to showcase different properties. Basically, Instagram is a platform that allows companies to boost the desirability of their products to viewers.
Apart from that, Instagram also has other features including “Instagram Stories” which has interactive features to connect with consumers. It can also be used to give quick updates to customers regarding different business matters.
Pros: The highly appealing aesthetic of this platform makes exploring your company or products more enticing for customers. In terms of audience, this platform reaches the younger audiences who have moved out of Facebook. Lastly, as an application designed for mobile, Instagram is easier to access even when people are just on their phones during commutes, while queueing in line, or when simply waiting for time to pass.
Cons: Instagram, unlike Facebook, has misleading metrics for businesses. It also doesn’t support clickable links. Additionally, Instagram requires businesses to have aggressive posting schedules to remain relevant and visible in their followers’ Instagram feeds.
(3) Twitter.com
Twitter is another platform that can heavily drive engagement. For businesses that are extremely reliant on the mass consumer base, Twitter is a powerful platform to utilize.
Unlike Facebook and Instagram, Twitter is a more conversational platform. A lot of people tend to simply lurk on Facebook and Instagram. But, on Twitter, the way that the platform was built encourages people to tweet, engage, and converse. It becomes easy to interact with people and easy for posts to reach a wide audience. With its casual tone, Twitter is a platform for businesses to be fun, creative, and relatable. Drawing away from the marketing-heavy posts, Twitter is a way to make your business personable. When people enjoy your account and its interactions, your following will soon grow.
Another feature that makes Twitter an engagement hub is how easy it is to reach big names through this platform. Artists, influencers, and even politicians often use Twitter. As these names are more accessible, even a single witty, funny, or interesting post to engage these big names can draw thousands to your profile. Just make sure you draw the right kind of attention.
Pros: Twitter ads, according to marketing analytics, are more successful than ads on Facebook. It is easier to grow on Twitter and reach larger audiences. You can also target your content through hashtags and content tagging.
Cons: Twitter is one of the most engagement-intensive platforms. To maximize your success in the platform, you have to create several posts a day. For some small businesses, keeping up with Twitter might be too exhausting and time-consuming. Also, while Twitter drives a lot of traffic, this does not automatically translate to bigger sales.
How Can Proweaver Help?
Proweaver is a company that is an expert in online marketing. We have a team of social media specialists, content experts, and analysts to help you and your business create the most effective marketing formulas across the different major social media platforms. This way, you can outperform your competitors. As mentioned earlier, the world is now online. Will you allow your company to be left out? This is the future of business, and we at Proweaver will take your business to the future. Call us today at +1 (877) 300-6564. Our representatives will be in touch with you!
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