Does having a social media account impact your business?

 

The short answer is: Yes

 

Nowadays, it is compulsory for businesses to set up their social media presence. This is regardless of whether your business is B2C (Business to Customer) oriented or B2B (Business to Business) oriented.

 

Why?

 

Consumers’ behavior has shifted into more convenience-based shopping that exposes them to brands and companies through virtual advertisements on their electronic gadgets. Restrictions that were put in place due to unforeseen circumstances such as the global pandemic have also rendered many of the more traditional brick and mortar shops invisible – and it hurts their bottom lines!

 

If you don’t have a presence online on any of the more popular social media platforms, chances are, your businesses will struggle to keep up. 

 

That being said, the positive impact of having your company’s presence on a social media platform (or several) extends beyond just visibility.

 

Let’s get into what are the benefits of having a social media account for your business.

 

The Experience

 

The experience your customers feel when they connect with your brand should be immersive, consistent, and altogether enjoyable.

 

A study done by SDL in 2014 has shown that most consumers (60%)  love and expect uniform experiences when interacting with the brand, regardless of platform, and whether it’s online or offline.

 

Every aspect of your company’s brand should be cohesive: your boutiques, websites, and social media look and feel should always carry your company’s DNA to create a non-confusing and seamless transition whenever your customers navigate their way throughout your brand presence. 

 

For example, if your brand contains a certain dominant color or uses a specific color palette combination, that design aesthetic should be visible and present throughout your presence on all platforms.

 

Social media platforms are one of the best avenues to exploit your visibility as most consumers’ initial interactions with any brands are through the brands’ social media presence. Give your consumers a good, aesthetically pleasing, and cohesive experience upon browsing through your social media page, and you will have a good chance of anchoring more than half of them to your brand.

 

Brand Humanization

 

Can we humanize your business i.e, making your consumers feel as if they’re interacting with living, breathing humans whenever they are immersing themselves in your brand through social media platforms?

 

Yes we can!

 

Social media can concoct an experience that humanizes your brand so that consumers don’t feel like they are interacting with corporate machines who are trying to get them to fork out as much money as possible to buy their products and services.

 

Several ideas to humanize your business:

 

– Feature the founder(s) of the company on your social media platforms! Post a reel of these key people talking about the brand – or just have them talk about themselves.

 

– Feature the staff and employees who are part of the daily running of your businesses. Just like the founders feature above, have them talk about themselves and the company they are working for. Encourage the people who are featured to be themselves to show diversity and a positive working environment.

 

– Feature how your goods and services are produced and executed. Consumers love to see how the things that you are offering are made or procured behind the scene. 

 

Relatability is key to continuous consumer engagement. When they can identify themselves with the persons who work behind the scenes, or how the products and services of your business are made, they tend to be more willing to patron and ultimately purchase from the business.

 

Visibility

 

How can potential consumers know of your products and services if they barely go to bricks and mortars shop to solve their needs? 

 

By having a presence in social media!

 

Awareness

 

For potential consumers to purchase your products and services, they need to be aware that you exist.

 

For them to even be aware of your business, you need to be visible to them, and one way to be visible is to set up your presence on platforms that are used by most of your prospects – and that means having a social media presence.

 

According to statistita.com, the number of social media users in 2020 reached an astounding figure of 3.6 billion people – that is half of the earth’s population. That number is only going to increase exponentially with a projected figure of 4.41 billion users in 2025.

 

Let that number sink in for a minute.

 

As per digitalmarketing.org, the average person spends 2 hours and 3 minutes browsing through social media platforms. If you could find the peak hours when most of your target demographic spend their time browsing social media, you can schedule your posts or targeted ads to coincide with the golden period. 

 

Use the free and available online tools to help you with your analytics and decision making such as Google Analytics and Hootsuite.

 

Optimize your social media use and presence with the help of an effective and targeted social media strategy, and your business could potentially reach the relevant demographic globally. Convert that visibility into purchases. Have a slice of that half of the planet’s population pie – and eat it too!

 

Company Identity

 

Social media handles of companies nowadays can act as your business cards and company profile, depending on how you choose to curate the content of your platform.

 

Tech-savvy consumers (which is a lot of them nowadays) tend to go online in trying to solve a problem they have, and traditionally, a business’ website would contain all the information that these consumers need. This action is usually done through mobile devices for convenience.

 

But with a lot of businesses’ websites yet to be optimized for mobile devices, companies’ social media presence has become potential consumers’ go-to if they want to seek information and contact points of the companies. 

 

Social media accounts can also be the hub of all of your businesses’ presence outside the platform. Information about the company’s website URL, office address, hotline, and e-commerce platforms can all be contained in a single social media account. A click on the provided links will land your potential consumers in any part of your business ecosystem – something a bundle of company profiles and a printed business card cannot do. 

 

Credibility

 

Have you ever encountered this experience:

 

You became aware of a business that has the potential to solve your needs and problems. Then you go online to look for the business’ complete address or phone number and couldn’t find any.

 

The business would probably seem fishy to you, right?

 

That principle can now be applied to any business’s social media presence. 

 

Just like you would be less likely to trust businesses with minimal information regarding their location and contacts, today’s consumers are also iffy about businesses with sparse or zero social media presence.

 

An active social media account gives credibility to your business, as it is the first telltale sign that your business is still running. The number of followers and likes of your business can also be viewed as reviews, positive/negative sentiments, and popularity, which are factors that would affect the decision-making process of your potential consumers.

 

Setting up a social media account on any of the major platforms is free of charge and quick, so there is very little reason why your company would not want to do so.

 

Engagement

 

Do you know what keeps a visiting consumer anchored to your social media page? Good and interesting content. Your content might solve the problems that they came to your page for or solve problems that they’re not aware they have. 

 

They might also find aspects of your content such as the visual aesthetic or the smart and witty captions to be mindlessly enjoyable. The experience of browsing your page becomes a joy for them. They are engaged.

 

All the good experience usually translates to likes, comments, and shares, which are the basic engagement metric that can be found across the major social media platforms. Those metrics tell you about the number of measurable interactions your consumers have with your social media account.

 

Get a good ratio of those metrics to your followers’ numbers, and that is a recipe for success for your business.

 

Why?

 

Because if you could get your consumers to perform interactive actions such as likes, comments, and shares, they would be more likely to invest in your products and services the business is offering!

 

Those metrics are easily visible on your social media accounts to you as business owners. That’s one major advantage of having a handle on any of the major platforms.

 

But there are other ways to keep your consumers engaged other than curating interesting content through visual aesthetics and smart captions. 

 

Customer Service

 

Just like your customers can be present in your place of business “virtually,” your customer service team can also be there to satisfy inquiries and complaints “virtually” all on one platform.

 

Because just like the fact that your customers go to your business’ social media accounts for information that would solve their problems, they also expect your customer service team to be responsive on that account. Your account is a one-stop shop for the customers.

 

Marketing research done by khoros.com shows that customers expect a prompt response – within three hours of lodging inquiries or complaints. Now compare this to a business hotline where you have to be put on hold for a while – and if you are calling during peak periods, your call might not even go through to the customer service team!

 

This social media customer experience is generally speedier than the more traditional channels, and again, this would humanize your brand more in the eyes of your customers.

 

Reputation Salvation

 

Social media platforms are today’s go-to avenue for public announcements. Why? 

 

Because it’s quick to execute and it would reach your audience much faster and effectively.

 

Having an effective customer service team that skims through several social media platforms regarding the public’s sentiment about your company will keep you abreast of any issues that might arise.

 

Highlighting positive posts about your business can help your other customers to see your brand in a positive light.

 

Clarify any misunderstandings that are presented in negative posts and tell your truth, and you could avoid having to experience major reputation damage.

 

And if for some reason your company had been misrepresented in a negative light by any of your employees because of the actions that they have taken, you are able to issue a swift and sincere apology in a single post, along with the actions that you are planning to take and the consequences that you’re willing to bear.

 

Being expeditious in your responsibility can create a positive sentiment for your consumers, and social media platforms allow you to do just that.

Social Media Marketing

 

How does doing marketing on social media platforms compare to the more traditional approach?

 

Traditional marketing encompasses all sorts of marketing strategies and forms that occur before the internet exists. This can include newspaper ads, billboards, banners, TV commercials, radio commercials, and anything else that does not involve the use of an internet connection.

 

Social media marketing is a more modern approach that allows you to create advertising content that would be blasted across the social media platforms of your choosing. The format of your advertisement content could be in the form of a long video, short reels, or graphics and captioning. Social media marketing falls under the large umbrella of digital marketing.

 

Personalization

 

Now, both traditional and social media marketing can share similar purposes, whether it is to create brand awareness or more oriented towards sales conversion.

 

Social media marketing content and concept can be, in essence, more interactive than traditional marketing. There’s a greater degree of flexibility in curating the assets on social media. Most of the time, the best practice is to design the advertisement to be personalized for your target audience. 

 

Understanding and exploiting the algorithm of your chosen social media platform, your targeted ads would feel more personal to the viewers and ultimately will have a greater chance at either conversion or awareness – whichever one is your goal!

 

On the other hand, traditional marketing allows you to reach a broader demographic with less control over the audience targeting. 

 

Cost

 

Social media marketing costs significantly less than any form of traditional marketing in terms of effectiveness and targeting. You as a business owner can play with any budget to test the effectiveness of your strategy.

 

With the lowest Cost-Per-Thousand-Impressions (CPM), social media marketing allows you to build trust and accurate audience targeting at a relatively cheap cost.

 

For comparison, the average CPM for social media marketing has a range that spans from $3 to $8, while radio CPM ranges from $10 to $16. TV is one of the most expensive platforms to advertise with CPM rates that can go as high as $30.

 

For a more in-depth discussion about social media marketing, watch the following video

 

How Social Media is changing the face of Marketing | Teresa Heath-Wareing | TEDxTelford

 

Now that you have a more holistic understanding of how social media can impact your business, you get to decide how you would harness the power of social media.

 

If you decided to go with a social media marketing strategy for your business, we at Timedoor can help you with your digital marketing needs. Our team is full of eager and experienced professionals that are able to tailor your marketing strategy that would suit your needs best!

 

For more information about digital and online marketing services, please visit this link.

 

We can’t wait to serve and grow your brands to the best of their potential!