MARKETING TIP VIDEO: How Social Media Helps Business – 5 Reasons You Need It
October 6, 2020
Social media marketing is now an integral part of a comprehensive online marketing plan. Here are 5 ways social media helps you drive sales and increase brand awareness.
#1. It’s Where Your Customers Are
It doesn’t take much to realize that today, most of the consumer public uses social media. Younger demographics that are growing-up with online connectivity (digital natives) have relationships anchored on platforms like Instagram and Snapchat. People looking for all types of inspiration and novelty go on Pinterest, and LinkedIn is a strong business networking platform. Facebook is Google’s rival in overall use, with unequaled access to user data and demographics. Marketing has always been about finding the “happening” place and fitting a useful – yet promotional – message in. Social media is really happening.
#2. Social Proof
When it comes to influencing buyers, one of the most influential elements is social proof, which is the way we take cues from others to guide our own decisions. On social media, social proof connects to FOMO (fear of missing out). When people see something is popular, they want to join in to make sure they don’t miss the latest and greatest. Think of this like two restaurants. One is always full and brimming with activity. The other is empty, with outdated music echoing through the vacant dining room. You could easily get a table at the empty place – but you don’t want it. You want to be where the action is. Because the other restaurant is full, you assume people in the know are there because the food and service are awesome. You want your social media accounts to be the busy restaurant.
#3. Referrals and Recommendations
Word of mouth referrals are business gold. Every business person worth their salt makes getting referrals part of the marketing strategy. People still talk to people, but they also use social media to ask their social media friends (a much larger group) for recommendations and referrals. Facebook even has a way to create a post that specifically asks for recommendations. In fact, Facebook reviews are no longer ratings with 1-5 stars. They now use a binary yes/no to recommend a place, where you can also leave a review and select tags you’d recommend about the business.The bottom line is that people communicate on social media, and one of the things they talk about is businesses they like. Make sure your presence makes it easy for people to recommend you.
#4. Brand Awareness
Often businesses start out wondering if social media will directly help their sales. For the most, it does not – directly. Social media has not, to this point, proven to be a good platform for direct response sales copy. People don’t really want sales ads interrupting their interaction with friends. However, when you ease your promotional message into the conversation in a way people accept, you can gain a lot of brand awareness. It’s actually brand awareness that is the main goal for a lot of social media marketing campaigns. You put out fun, interesting, informative content that simply gets your brand name in front of people. You add to the conversation rather than put ads into the conversation. This makes all the difference when it comes to engagement, which is the real goal behind most social media marketing. Don’t try to sell directly with most of your social media. Instead, create brand lift that supports your sales channels and builds revenue over the long term. Read this case study on social media branding.
#5. A Competitive Channel
There are many details involved with social media marketing. You have understand your audience, get on the right platforms, and develop an approach that enhances your brand. But one detail that can’t be overlooked is you need a presence on social media. You have to be there and you have to compete for that audience share. Because if you don’t capture it, your competition will. And consider something. You can set up all your business assets on social media platforms for free. If you’re a local service business, there is no reason not have a Facebook business page. If you sell fashion on your eCommerce site, you must be on Instagram and Pinterest. If your target demographic is teenagers, you’ll want to get your Snapchat going. You can create a lot of content yourself. Give it some personality; social media is a great way to show the people behind your business. You also may need to get some social media management, where campaigns are organized around specific goals and supported by ads and boosted posts. What you can’t do is nothing. You can’t blow social media off as a fad. It clearly isn’t just a fad – it’s here to stay. Social media is the fabric of many people’s digital lives, and by extension of their lives overall. In that way, it isn’t just what’s “happening”. It’s a component of our lifestyles that has a deep, ongoing impact. If you’re marketing a business today, you can hardly expect to skip something that significant and be competitive.