Using social media as part of a business's digital marketing strategy can have numerous benefits. With more than 4 billion users worldwide, social media platforms offer an efficient, quick, and cost effective way to connect with about half of the world's population. Let us look at few ways in which social media assists businesses in building their brand and grow their business.
Benefits of Social Media for Brand Building
Increase brand awareness: Social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook provide an excellent opportunity to reach new and highly targeted potential customers, including those who may not be familiar with your brand. Instagram users, for example, discover new products 83% of the time.
Humanize your brand: One of the significant benefits of social media for businesses is the ability to create authentic human connections. This helps establish trust and build marketing receptiveness. By showcasing the people who make up your company and how existing customers are using and benefiting from your products, you can build authenticity and trust. Social media may well be utilized for demonstrating how the brand values are being put to practice, the way products function in real-life, and how your company keeps interests of customers and employees ahead of its own.
Establish thought leadership: Social media provides an opportunity for businesses to establish themselves as thought leaders, the go-to source for information on topics related to their niche. Regardless of the industry, social media can help position your brand as a thought leader. LinkedIn, especially the LinkedIn Publishing Platform, is an excellent network to focus on when trying to establish thought leadership.
Stay top of mind: A Pew Research Center study two years ago showed that almost seventy percent of users on social media visit their accounts once every day, and almost 50% of them use social media channels several times in a day. By keeping social media posts engaging and informative, businesses can connect with their fans and followers every time they log in, thus keeping their brand top of mind. Post scheduling tools can help businesses plan their social media content well in advance, so they don't need to monitor their accounts continually.
Benefits of Social Media for Business Growth
Driving Website Traffic: By sharing high-quality content from your website or blog on social media, businesses can attract readers and gain clicks. In addition, participating in social media chats can increase visibility and showcase expertise to drive traffic to websites. It's important to provide value to the audience, rather than solely promoting the business. It's also recommended to include website URLs in all social media profiles to make it easier for the audience to learn more about the business.
Generating Leads: Social media offers potential customers a low-commitment way to express interest in the business and its products. Additionally, social media platforms have advertising formats that collect leads.
Boosting Sales: Social media accounts are an essential part of the sales funnel process. Social selling will become increasingly important for ecommerce and product search as social media usage continues to grow. Aligning social media marketing efforts with sales goals can help businesses gain more sales.
Partnering with Influencers: Influencers can help increase brand awareness and credibility through social word of mouth. Influencers have a large following on social media and can draw attention to the brand, leading to positive reviews from the audience and more sales.