The Benefits of Social Media for Growing Your Business  

As we all know, 2020 was the year businesses were forced to rapidly change their marketing strategies. Between global lockdowns, budget cuts, and uncertainty all around, many brands scrambled to implement new practices to stay afloat. Many brands took this time to prioritize and refocus on their social media marketing strategy. 

Social media allows marketers to connect and engage potential customers where they are at: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Youtube  and even some of the younger platforms like TikTok. With a strong social media strategy and the ability to create engaging content, businesses could still engage their audience while the world remained in isolation. 

Social media will continue to be an important strategy in 2021 and beyond, and if your company hasn’t added it to your digital marketing strategy you need to today.  Below is a list of the many ways in which social media can help you connect with your target audience, engage with customers and grow your business. 

 

Benefits of Social Media for Your Brand   

 Increase brand awareness 

With over half of the world’s population using social media, platforms like Facebook, Instagram or Twitter a natural place to reach new and highly targeted potential customers. 

Humanize your brand 

The ability to create real human connections is one of the key benefits of social media for business. Introduce your followers to the people who make up your company and showcase how existing customers are using and benefiting from your products. 

Stay top of mind 

Seventy percent of social media users log into their accounts at least once per day, according to a 2021 study by Pew Research Center, and many people (49 percent!) admit to checking social multiple times per day. 

Increase website traffic 

Social media posts and ads are key ways to drive traffic to your website. Sharing great content from your blog or website to your social channels is a great way to get readers as soon as you publish a new post. 

Generate leads 

Social media offers an easy and low-commitment way for potential customers to express interest in your business and your products. Lead generation is such an important benefit of social media for business that many social networks offer advertising formats specifically designed to collect leads. 

Boost sales 

Your social accounts are a critical part of your sales funnel—the process through which a new contact becomes a customer.  As the number of people using social media continues to grow and social sales tools evolve, social networks will become increasingly important for product search and ecommerce. The time is right to align your social marketing efforts with sales goals. 

Partner with influencers 

Recommendations from friends and family play a huge role in consumer decisions, as do reviews. When you get people talking about your product or company on social media, you build brand awareness and credibility, and set yourself up for more sales. 

Promote content 

Promoting your content on social channels is a great way to get your smart, well-researched content in front of new people, proving your expertise and growing your audience. 

Reputation management 

Your customers are already talking about you on social media, whether or not you’re there to respond. If you and your team are on the ball, you can pick up on important social posts about your brand to highlight the positive and address the negative before it turns into a major issue. 

Crisis communication 

Does your company have a plan in place for dealing with a crisis? While small businesses may not have a crisis blow up to the same sort of scale as, say, an issue with Starbucks, a smaller number of shares can have a devastating impact within a tight-knit community or niche. 

Customer and audience engagement 

Social networks allow you to interact directly with customers and fans, and likewise give them the chance to interact directly with your brand. Unlike traditional media, which offers only one-way communication, social media is a two-way street. 

Customer service and customer support 

People expect brands to be available on social media and seek out their social accounts for customer service — and beyond that, about half of social media users expect a response from brands on social media within three hours. 

Learn more about your customers 

Social media generates a huge amount of data about your customers in real-time. You can use that information to make smarter business decisions. 

 

Have more questions about adding social media marketing to your digital marketing strategy for your business? Contact us today to learn more!