It’s hard to imagine our lives without social media in the contemporary world. The importance of social media platforms has grown exponentially during the past decade as we progressed further in the digital realm. Social media is not just limited to connecting with other people online, it is also extensively used by businesses.
Social media platforms are emerging as a powerful tool for businesses that are marketing their products and services to the targeted audience. Social media channels offer a revolutionary way to advertise new products and services without investing a huge sum of money. It also helps to establish trust in your audience. Let’s delve deeper into how you can use social media to grow your business.
1. Understanding your target audience and demographics
There are various types of social media channels available today. All these channels are used for different purposes and are used by different audience segments. Learning about the pros and cons of each type of social media channel is very important to effectively leverage it to your advantage. You just can’t blindly spend your time and resources on any social media platform.
Learning about your target audience and demographics is quite important in choosing the right social media channels to grow your business. Let’s take a quick peep into the popular social media platforms and how they can be used.
Facebook: When it comes to reaching a wider audience base and tracking key performance indicators for your online marketing campaigns, there is no better platform than Facebook.
Instagram: You will be surprised to learn that over 80% of the users are outside the United States, and over 68% of the users are female. If you have a product primarily for females, Instagram is a great platform to reach them.
Twitter: When it comes to a platform that can offer a good international reach for an established community, Twitter is the real deal. Over 79% of Twitter users reside outside the US.
Pinterest: This is among the most underrated and underused platforms for marketers who want to advertise an aesthetic product. A beautiful product picture can work wonders for your business.
LinkedIn: If you want to target corporates and senior executives of big corporations, LinkedIn is the most suitable platform.
YouTube: According to some Youtube statistics, YouTube’s third-quarter advertising revenues in 2020 was USD 5.04 billion – which is a 32% year over year increase. If you have the bandwidth and resources to produce good and relevant marketing content, then YouTube is among the best advertising platforms in the contemporary world.
2. Type of content you want to produce
Reaching the right audience using the wrong type of content will result in lower marketing ROI and sales amount. If you want to make the most of your social media marketing endeavors, you should learn about the content used on various social media channels. If you want to produce a thought leader content to drive traffic, then LinkedIn can be your best bet.
If you want to produce ‘how to’ videos, then you should think about advertising them on YouTube. If you want to promote a lifestyle brand and market their products, platforms like Instagram and Pinterest should be your go-to choice. Depending on the type of product you want to market and the audience you are targeting, you should choose a suitable platform.
3. Improves your search engine ranking
If you want to grow your business organically without solely depending on paid advertisement channels, you need to work on your social media strategy. If you have a robust social media strategy, you can easily improve your search engine ranking and, in turn, increase your revenue figures drastically. The content shared on social media channels is shared by users freely, and this can help boost the organic traffic on your websites. This, in turn, will increase the domain authority of your website and improve your search engine rankings.
Most consumers prefer to visit the social media pages of a brand to understand their business better. It helps them make more informed decisions and establishes trust, which is needed to create a loyal customer base and a sustainable business.
4. Boosts lead generation
Most small businesses use social media to increase the number of leads generated for their business. There is a difference between lead generation and quality lead generation. When compared to other lead generation channels, social media helps to provide quality leads with a high probability of conversion.
Using relevant content that your users might be interested in, you can use various social media channels to increase the leads for your business. Designing visually appealing graphics using online video editors that can be easily understood by your target audience, creating compelling writing excerpts, and using catchy CTA can help to aid your lead generation efforts on various social media channels.
5. Facilitates competitor research
Since most of the brands are using social media to connect with their audience and market their product. It is very easy to keep a tab on your competitor’s activity using social media. You can reverse engineer their approach to find quality leads and target potential customers.
Social media platforms have made it more transparent for businesses to research and learn about their competitor’s strategies. You can easily monitor the leading businesses in your segment and can take inspiration from their activities to perform better. Introducing a unique element in an old strategy always helps you open new doors.
6. Establish trust with customers
Gaining the trust of your customers is very important when it comes to creating a loyal audience base. Social media channels offer a great way to connect with your customers on a more personal note. It makes everything more transparent and also helps to establish trust among the customers.
Developing a loyal follower base also allows you to easily market any new offerings. Customers are more likely to purchase from a brand that they trust. Posting unique and authentic content on various social media channels can help you create a solid customer base. Engaging with your audience frequently is also important to grow your business using different social media channels.
