Does My Business Really Need To Be On Social Media?

As a small business owner you may be on the fence as to whether you need to be on social media or not. It’s understandable, as simple as these platforms are they do take time and money, two things you cannot giveaway without careful consideration. There are some businesses that would greatly benefit from utilizing Facebook marketing as well as other platforms. However, if you feel that you are an exception to that then there are a few things you need to consider:

• Branding: The main difference between your business and your competitor is your brand. You can sell the exact same product for the exact same price, or even cheaper than the competition but if your brand isn’t well known people will pay a little more in order to feel more comfortable with the purchase. Building your brand cannot be overlooked and needs to be part of your marketing strategy.
• Reputation Management: When you type your company name into a search engine what comes up? There’s your site, and then you see a lot of review sites that talk about you. If those sites aren’t flattering then that could cost you sales down the road when potential customers research information about you. Social media is a great tool because those profiles get ranked high on search engines and push a lot of those review websites down.
• SEO: When you hear about search engine optimization you may think that it refers to Google. Yes, these platforms will influence Google as discussed with reputation management. However, they also are utilized by users to find information, just like any other search engine. Facebook alone has over 1.5 billion searches a day from its users.
• Cost-effective: The beauty of Facebook marketing as well as being on Instagram and Twitter is that they aren’t expensive. Even hiring someone to manage the accounts for you isn’t expensive. As far as money that goes into it, you decide the budget. However, keep in mind that you can spend money towards promoting content (a sale, blog, video, etc) or you can spend money to get more followers. Both have their own benefits.
• Create followers: When you talk about clicks Vs followers, you have to understand the difference between the two. When someone clicks on a page they may be there for a second or for an hour. If they make a purchase that’s great but there is also no guarantee they will ever return to that page again, especially if they don’t buy anything. However, if they follow you then they see your posts, they interact with you, they can share it with their friends and you create an actual follower.
• Promotion: If you are having a promotion, there is no better or more cost-effective way of broadcasting it than with Instagram, Twitter and Facebook marketing. Rather than paying per click or just sharing the news on platforms that may go unheard, you know that people are seeing your ads and interacting with them. They want you to get likes and clicks because that means you will put more money into the ad boosts.
• Reminders: Ever notice you see the same ad a few times when you are looking through your feed? If you click on an event you are given reminders that it is coming up as well as any updates for the event. It’s the perfect way to get people to sign up and keep them informed of what you have going on.
• Shares and tags: The best part of being social is that people will be social with you. If you post a promotion there’s a good chance that your followers will like, comment and share it with their friends. Another big benefit is when someone visits your location or purchases your product, they can post it on their account and tag you in the post or at your location. That allows all their friends to see the activity and introduces you to thousands of possible consumers.

No matter what kind of company you have, you need to make sure that you have a social media presence. Even if you do not get conversions, it helps with branding, protecting your reputation and provides a new platform to promote news about yourself and your industry.