Small businesses, short on time and staff, often question the value of social media.
We get it. We’ve worked for many small businesses where being scrappy was the name of the game. Resourcefulness was essential as every penny had to be spent driving revenue. As social's immediate effect on the bottom line isn't always obvious, it is often shrugged off as a waste of time. Though it can be time-consuming and perhaps a bit daunting, social media is the definition of scrappy and resourceful and can be an amazingly powerful tool for small businesses. It's one of the most efficient ways to build your brand AND contribute to revenue generation.
Here are 10 reasons why your small business should be on social media
First and foremost - it's FREE. And if used correctly, it can be used to drive consumers, revenue, web traffic, and brand awareness. The opportunities are endless. You just need to tap into it and do it right.
Social media allows businesses to create conversation, interact and engage DIRECTLY with consumers to build trust and rapport in a non-customer service hotline kind of way. Have fun, show your business's personality, be a human vs. a business.
Most social platforms offer very affordable, very targeted advertising opportunities that will drive results. And it is so easy! Demographic, geographic, behavioral, interest, affinity - the targeting opportunities are VERY specific - no wasted dollars.
Social media posts drive traffic directly to your website. Traffic to your site is step 1 in turning users into customers. From there, you can find a way (newsletter, request for more info) to CAPTURE potential customer data/information. Now, you've just created another direct way to communicate to qualified (they are interested in your business) potential customers. Win/Win
Traffic from social sites to your site boosts your site's SEO. When users click links from social sites to your site, it increases your site's credibility, moving you up on results pages on search engines. WIN/WIN again
You are in control. There are no other marketing channels where you control the content, who sees the content, when the content is delivered, and be optimize at any time in real-time - Social media is THE ONE. Whoops, you found a typo. No worries, change it. No one is liking or engaging with your post. No worries, swap out a picture or edit a caption.
Social media is a reflection of your business and serves as an online storefront. When consumers want to know what you are all about, they will look at your website then head to your social pages. How you manage your social pages (do you even have a social presence? Are your pages complete?, updated regularly? etc.) will give consumers more indication of what they can expect from your business.
Love it or hate it, Americans spend, on average, more than TWO hours a day on social media a day. (That's more time than we do anything besides work and sleep) SOURCE: https://www.digitalmarketing.org/blog/how-much-time-does-the-average-person-spend-on-social-media
Social media has transitioned from being a source of recreation to a tool used for information. Back to point 7, users (AKA potential customers) look to social sites to find information. They're researching products, looking for menus, and reading reviews on social platforms. That's where you want to be.
Nearly HALF of the world's population is on a social media platform. 3.96 BILLION people, to be exact. 2.8 BILLION are on Facebook alone. Again, we repeat, HALF the world's population is using social. With media channels becoming so fragmented and traditional media, well, dying off, social is the biggest bang for your buck. (Did we mention it's FREE?!) SOURCE: https://www.digitalmarketing.org/blog/how-much-time-does-the-average-person-spend-on-social-media
As a small business owners, marketers, and non-profit founders, we rely on social media every day to build businesses, generate leads, increase web traffic and drive revenue - it works!
