Did you know that social media has a global penetration rate of 45%?
Partake in it or not, social media in its various forms is here to stay. Maybe you scroll through Instagram every hour but hate Twitter, or possibly a Facebook devotee but eschew all other platforms. Perhaps you’ve only ever considered social media as something to use in your personal time, to share photographs with your nearest and dearest.
The social media management service for small business has become a big deal and if you’re not using it to promote your goods or services, you’re missing a HUGE trick. In Nashville alone, the metropolitan area is expected to reach two million people by the time of the next census in 2020. That’s a lot of people not to connect with via the world’s cheapest and most prolific platforms.
Can you afford for your business not to be involved in social media marketing for small businesses?
Will social media services make me money?
Before the internet, the most common forms of advertisements were on TV and radio. These were, and still are expensive, making it harder for small businesses to get their products out to the masses. The internet has become the ultimate business equalizer.
Did you know that 70% of the US population has a profile on at least one social media networking site?
- Social media gives your business a voice. It allows you to show your customers why and how you’re unique and if you plan your campaign well, you can stand head and shoulders above your local competition.
- The correlation of what you post and how much money you spend is not 1:1 but using social media services will get you the momentum and exposure you need for your business. These are just a few of the many social media benefits for small business.
In this article, we’ll explain how social media can help small business and how a social media management service for small business can impact your bottom line.
Can social media management impact your rankings?
There isn’t a direct correlation between more engagements or posts to organic rankings, but social signals ( likes, shares, votes, pins, Retweets etc.) are highly correlated and will contribute to your website’s organic search ranking. In other words, there is correlation not causation.
So how do you start increasing social signals? Here are a few strategies to increase your social signals right now:
- Know your audience – post content that they are most likely to engage with.
- Grow your audience – utilize paid likes / follow campaigns as well as contests that attract like-minded individuals.
- Show your audience – post regularly and work your way up to about one post per working day (plan out a month in advance when possible).
- Manage your audience – when considering how to manage social media for small business, it’s crucial to etch out time to engage with your audience regularly, whether that is through replying to comments, direct messages, or reposting their content.
So, how can social media help small businesses like mine? Put simply, the more engaging and targeted content that you post, the more likely you are to get the right people looking at your social media posts, engaging, liking and trusting your brand. This will ultimately drive traffic to your website that has already done 80% of the decision-making required prior to making a purchase.
Social media’s impact on consumer research
Choices, choices, choices. We have so many options when choosing a product or service to solve our problems, but how do people choose the right company? The reality is that most evaluation of a business nowadays is done through social media. We check out the company’s Facebook, Twitter feed and Instagram pages, and read the reviews. Other people’s opinions have never figured so largely in a company’s potential success or downfall.
So, how do you make sure that your social media pages reflect the very best side of your business? Aside from consistent branding and accurate contact details, your page should show your company to be:
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- Thoughtful and caring for your customers and employees;
- A strong supportive member of your local community; and
- A source to buy exceptional products and services that have benefited others in the past.
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When a client is on the fence about who to call, your social media presence really can set you apart and seal the deal.Get in on the Nashville social media scene by talking to the experts at Take the Stairs, a social media management service for small businesses; we’re here to show you how social media can help small businesses make a big difference.
Social media impacts repeat customers
Why do massive companies like McDonald’s, Nike and Coca Cola advertise?
Everyone knows who they are and what they sell, so what’s the point?
The point is actually pretty simple. For every McDonalds restaurant, there’s a Burger King or Wendy’s selling very similar tasting burgers. For every Nike pair of trainers, there’s an equally flash pair of Adidas shoes to be bought. And Coca Cola has long tried to fend off Pepsi in their particular brand war. Each of these dominant, global brands need to stay top of mind to maintain their market share and brand loyalty. Each wants to be the ‘go-to’ brand and by using social media services, their logos are brought into billions of households every day via the internet.
Think of social media feeds as a highway of digital billboards:
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- People see them every day on their way to work, school and college.
- Brands that message regularly to their audience receive greater unprompted customer recall of their brand. People start seeing that brand as the solution to the particular problem they face.
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Staying in front of your audience is crucial to remaining on your customer’s radar, especially when you’re considering how to manage social media for small businesses. If they see your social media posts on every platform they follow, your brand is more likely to be the one they recall. And recall on your brand is only a couple of small steps away from deciding to make a purchase. This is just a few of many benefits of social media for small businesses.
