5 Reasons Why Businesses Should Use Social Media

Social media isn't just for friends and family. Done well, it's a powerful tool for business

Did you know that 79% of Australians were on social media in 2018? (2018 Sensis Yellow Social Media report)  If you aren’t using social media for your business, you are missing out on a brilliant opportunity to connect with your customers and to spread the word about your business, goods and services.

Here are 5 reasons why you should be using social media for your business.

1. Engage with your target audience

Social media is all about two-way conversation and is a great marketing strategy to use to interact with your customers and target audiences. The more you engage and participate on social media, the more you can contribute to active discussions. This type of conversation allows you to spread the word of your business and 2/3 (64%) customers are more likely to trust a brand if they interact with customers in a positive and friendly manner on social media (2018 Sensis Yellow Social Media report). Building engagement and a relationship with your audience mean that there is more chance of them converting and becoming paying customers in the future.

2. Build your brand awareness and loyalty

When you post quality content on social media, the accounts following you will see your post. If these people engage with your content through liking and sharing the post, the accounts that are following your followers will also see your post. It is like the snowball effect! Social media allows you to reach a vast audience with one quality post and this in turn brings attention and awareness to your brand. If you post regularly, engage in conversation and build engagement, this is a great way for your customers to discover and stay aware of your brand. Building that connection with customers on social media also has positive effects on customer loyalty and retention, which are important aspects to any business.

3. Increase traffic to your website

Although social media might not immediately deliver a purchase, it can help drive traffic to and interest in your website, which in turn affects and improves organic traffic and SEO rankings. When you share a post onto your social media profile linking to your profile, you are also creating new points of entry for people to click on your site.

4. Monitor conversations relating to your brand and competitors

Stalking someone or a brand on social media? We have all been there and done that! Social media is the perfect way to monitor what your competitors are doing, to stay in the loop on what is happening in your industry and to see what your customers are saying about your products or services. By conducting research and taking in the industry trends and insights from your customers, it allows you to utilise such insights and feedback to improve and optimise your products and services.

5. It's a Cost Effective way to do Targeted Advertising

Social media is free to sign up on and use, but it does take your time. Many social media platforms also have services and tools for paid advertising that are generally cheaper than traditional forms of television and print marketing. As social media platforms have a lot of information about their users (location, gender, age, likes and interests) getting your tailored message out to a specific targeted audience related to your product or service has never been easier. This type of targeted advertising allows you to reach people effectively at a relatively minimal cost.  It's worthwhile learning as much as you can about how to target to an audience. Platforms differ slightly but you'll be amazed (and slightly nauseated!) at how much information social has collected about users. It's worth studying how best to target to a small niche and work out from there, check your results then go harder and broader.