Do you know how much of an impact using social media could have on your business? If you’re failing to utilise the digital tool you could be missing out on accessing a much wider audience, boosting customer loyalty, and receiving invaluable feedback. Today, social media is a must for ambitious businesses that want to expand their horizons and drive growth.
If you’re not convinced that social media could help your business grow, these facts might just change your mind:
- Globally there are over 1.6 billion active social media accounts.
- More than 80% of the millennial generation check social media platforms at least once a day.
- The majority of social media traffic comes from mobile devices, giving you the power to reach your audience on the go.
- 7 in 10 consumers that have a positive social media experience with a brand are likely to make a recommendation.
Whether you’re targeting the consumer market or other businesses, social media offers a lot of potential. It gives you a chance to not only share your products, services, and promotions but the opportunity to showcase your brand’s ethos and messaging. By using social media, you can establish a connection with your current customers, encouraging them to share your own updates and giving you access to their followers in turn.
Follow these 5 steps to start or boost your social media strategy to reach an even bigger audience:
- Pick the right platform – Facebook continues to be the biggest social media platform but that doesn’t mean it’s the right one for you. Look at the users of each platform to identify where your efforts should be focused. Younger generations love Instagram, Twitter is ideal for sending short, timely messages, and LinkedIn is a must for connecting with professionals and other businesses.
- 2. Set a tone – Your tone should reflect your business but it’s important to recognise that social media is an informal platform. Your style of posts should be friendly, engaging, and capture the attention of your audience. Set out guidelines beforehand to ensure a consistent tone, even when multiple people are responsible for content.
- Make a schedule – You’re not going to see huge results from a social media strategy straight away, view it is a marathon not a sprint. You need to regularly post links, images, and comments in order to see your following and influence grow. Set out how frequently you’ll post and achievable milestones to work towards.
- Be aware of what you post – Do you know what posts your followers engage most with? It’s easy to think your social media platforms should be all about you but they’re places to share interesting things. Share posts, articles, images, and more that’s related to your business or sector to keep people coming back.
- Monitor your success – Social media is constantly changing and your approach needs to reflect this too. Monitoring your success and looking at what competitors are doing can help to identify opportunities and create viral posts that will get you noticed.