Social media marketing for businesses
Social media marketing is a low-cost, high-impact method of getting through to your clients online. dsquared’s Sofiane Kennouche shines a spotlight on some of the key benefits.
So, you’ve decided to embark on a content marketing strategy, sharing compelling content such as blogs, thought leadership articles and interviews on your own website. You may now be considering using a variety of social media networks in your marketing plan.
Not convinced about the upsides? Worried that it takes a creative genius to get the best out of social media? It’s far easier than you think, and a social media presence is essential for any business large or small.
Let’s take a look at the some of the key benefits of social media marketing for businesses.
It’s where your audience is
With more than four billion of the world’s population using social media each month, active user numbers and engagement rates continue to grow across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Seven in ten Facebook users, for example, admit to using the site daily, while 83% of Instagram users have discovered new products while using the service.[1]
Having an active social media presence with enriching content is a modern example of ‘owned media’. This is media controlled and developed by the brand publishing it, where the organisation has full editorial control over its narrative, content and brand positioning. The opposite of this is ‘paid media’, where an investment is made in return for access to a customer base (such as paying for your business to rank at the top of Google’s search results when a certain search term is used, or paying to run an advert on YouTube).
Online content which is enthusiastically adopted by your customer base can become ‘earned media’ and go viral. This is where your content is shared further afield, repurposed or even remixed by your customers or the general public, having been shared in groups, online discussion threads or private WhatsApp groups, for example. Content which reaches this level of popularity often comes from brands which enjoy a high level of trust with their customer base, as a result of a coherent strategy aligned with their organisation’s brand values and mission.
Leading the conversation
A number of recent studies have outlined a collective decline in public trust in governments and media institutions since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, with business institutions still enjoying a relatively high degree of trust[2].
Regardless of your business niche, social media gives your organisation the chance to become a thought leader through articles, reports and case studies which address your customers’ needs, making your organisation the definitive source for information in your business area. LinkedIn is particularly well-known for this, and the network’s Publishing Platform is the ideal place for your longform written content.
If you’re concerned about the volume of social media posts you’ll need to produce to stay relevant, scheduling tools such as Hootsuite and Buffer enable you to stock up on content which can be published at a steady pace, instead of having to post on an ad-hoc basis whenever you are available.
Reputation management
Social media is a key driver of traffic to your website, and by replying to comments and messages, you can engage with your audience to create lasting connections. A prospective customer may not be ready to purchase today, but by conversing with them, you’ll be far more likely to be front of mind when they are in a position to buy or use your service in future.
Keeping a regular watch over your social media feeds (and using social listening tools such as Sprout Social) could mean the difference between a very public complaint, or a successful resolution of an issue – helping to bolster your reputation online, and providing a free platform for real-time customer service and support communications.
Knowledge is power
From click-through rates to interactions, shares and comments, social media platforms generate vast amounts of data which can be used to better understand your customer base. All of the main social networking platforms have their own in-built analytics data, giving you demographic information about the people interacting with your account.
This data can also be applied when comparing your brand’s performance online to that of your competitors. Monitoring your competition on social media will give you the edge in addressing pain points their customers are facing – in turn, winning them over to your brand.
Metrics such as interactions, shares, comments and follower levels will enable you to gauge the popularity, tone and sentiment of your brand online – with LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube (to name but a few) all including their own guides on how to interpret and analyse the data they offer.
Social media gives you direct access to your customer base, while helping you influence the narrative around your brand and position yourself as a leading light in your industry. For more information on how our results-driven focus can help improve your social media presence, get in touch with Denise at denise@dsqmarketing.com.