July 29, 2020
6 Reasons Why Social Media is Essential to Small Businesses
While having a website with contact forms, email addresses, and phone numbers are extremely helpful, your small business needs to have other avenues for customers to get into contact with you.
Why?
There are real-time advantages that come with social media channels that other mediums just don’t provide you.
Customers may want to chat with you through a live platform rather than wait for an emailed response, they may want to share news about their order arriving, or even leave you a testimonial.
The best place for these things to happen? Social media.
1. It Allows You to Connect with Prospects
While having a website is critical, so is having a social media presence, because social media is what brings the conversation to your prospects.
Your website doesn’t talk to, connect with, or engage audiences in the same way that social media can.
Use social media to create a community for your business so that you can connect to your customers through real-time discussions.
2. Your Customers Are Already on It
There are billions of people who use social media platforms daily; there really isn’t a reason to not be on it if you are a business.
Want to get in front of your perfect audience?
Find them on social media and position yourself to solve their pain points.
3. It Attracts New Customers to You
In using social media platforms, you get your small business in front of billions of people.
Your friends and family may recommend your company to another, which can spread the word to those who haven’t seen your products and services yet, effectively bringing in new customers to you.
The more you post, share, and engage with social media, the more you push your brand out in front of fresh eyes.
4. It Helps Keep Costs Down
Anyone can have a social media account, including small businesses and it is free to sign up for.
While you may eventually decide to place a little bit of money into your social media accounts through paid advertising, posting, sharing, and commenting are all free to do.
Keep those costs down and be strategic about how your market your small business.
5. It Improves Your Search Engine Rankings
Your social media presence can have a major impact on your search engine rankings.
If your company is being talked a lot about through genuine and authoritative content, your search engine ranking is going to go up.
The more engagement you generate, the more customers you will attract, and the higher visibility you will have.
6. It Can Be Used to Garner a Lot of Feedback
There are a lot of metrics that you can track with your social media profiles, pages, groups, and advertisements.
You can gain insight into your target market’s behavior, what their interests are, and what they best respond to.
You can measure conversions, see how many people are clicking on your posts, and measure total impressions to see how many people your small business is being exposed too.
Beyond this, customers can leave you testimonials and spread the word about your company both offline and online.