Developing a strong social media strategy for your business is a bit like buying a Swiss Army Knife. You may buy the knife for one specific feature, like a blade or a screwdriver, and be pleasantly surprised at all of the extra usage you get out of it. We’ve all found ourselves at a picnic, after all, without a cork screw, only to recall with satisfaction that our handy tool has just this device.
A social media strategy can unfold in the same useful way. You may proceed with social media marketing to build brand awareness, increase your leads and improve your customer acquisition and retention ratings. But here are some extra perks that you can derive from it to help grow your business:
Become a thought leader: Aside from increasing your bottom line, social media marketing is critical for bolstering you and your teammates’ reputations as thought leaders in your industry. Why is this important? By posting valuable and thought-provoking content across multiple social media channels, you will increase trust among your customers. It’s your opportunity to weigh in on important issues happening in your industry and, thus, differentiate your company from your competitors.
Here’s an example of how this works: Imagine a company that is just starting out in the cloud services industry. In this type of industry, companies are a dime a dozen. By using LinkedIn, marketing managers can dig into issues like impending security updates (e.g., the end of Windows Server 2003), trending strategies in cloud management, and tips and tricks for avoiding complications with service-level agreements. And when this happens, overall website impressions and the number of unique visitors can skyrocket.
Forge innovative new partnerships: One of the best parts about staying active on social websites like Twitter or LinkedIn—with its 350 million users spread out across 200 countries—is that customers will oftentimes find you. And this is the dream of every marketer.
Singer Rihanna recently demonstrated how easy it is to form new partnerships over social media when she reached out to a woman she admired on Instagram who had a large number of followers and asked her to be in her next music video. The video was a tremendous success and the story went viral as a result of Rihana’s seemingly off-the-cuff action. As this example demonstrates, social media has the ability to connect people who may be worlds apart but who could benefit greatly from forming a partnership.
It’s also worth noting that recent research from Social Media Examiner shows that more than half of marketers who have invested at least a year in social media marketing indicated it produced new partnerships.
Reduce marketing expenses: The same Social Media Examiner study shows that marketers who spent at least six hours per week on social media claim to have reduced marketing expenses. Further, 57 percent of businesses that have 10 or fewer workers believe that social media reduces marketing costs. Here’s why:
Social media is a free way to connect with your customers. While you can pay for certain select services, like LinkedIn Premium, for added features, you can generate plenty of business over social media without spending a dime. It makes a lot more sense to spread content for free than it does to pay thousands of dollars for air time or billboard space.
Further, websites like LinkedIn and Facebook come with free tools that you can use to track user engagement. So you can follow customers from the moment they read your posts to the time they land on your business’s website shopping cart.
Of course, it’s important to remember that your social strategy is only as strong as the content you are distributing. If your content is missing the certain spark needed to captivate your targets and keep them interested in your brand, you’ll have a tough time driving the sales and engagement that you seek.
Help is available if this is a weak spot in your strategy. A first-class custom content provider, such as Content Boost, can help you enhance your brand message over all of your channels. Instead of overtaxing your in-house team or failing to capture the interest of your readers, turn to this valuable source.
