How Does Social Media Help Small Businesses Grow

Social media is a powerful tool that can benefit many types of businesses.

With over 2 billion users worldwide, social media is here to stay. That’s why using social media to promote your business should be the essential part of your brand’s overall marketing strategy.

If you haven’t got started and is still confused about how small businesses use social media to help bring in more business, hopefull this article will change your mind.

In this post, you’ll find out some of the impressive benefits of using social media and see the impact social media can have on the growth of your business.

#1 Build relationships with potential customers

Social media seems to be everywhere these days. It affects every part of our lives and the way we conduct our business. But it’s more than just a way to keep up with trending topics or sharing what you had for lunch.

The most crucial aspect of social media for small business and one of its biggest benefits is building and maintaining relationships with your customers.

Interactions on social media platforms give you the opportunity to build strong relationships within your industry, earn trust, and ultimately deliver better results by getting to knowing your customer base.

These days there are many similar products that make it hard to stand out. Products and services on their own are no longer enough to generate sales. It’s trust that sells a product or a service. And social media is a perfect tool to build trust.

So give your prospects and customers the information they need, educate them, get to know them, and build relationships over time.

This way, when they’re ready to buy, they will come to you because they know and remember you.

#2 Help promote content and increase user engagement

Promoting your content on social media is a smart way to put your clever, well-researched material in front of thousands of eyeballs.

Over time, it proves your expertise and grows your audience.

Writing an amazing post is no longer enough. You have to promote it to make sure it gets seen. Social media is a perfect vehicle to spread your ideas and share your content. After you publish each post, share it on all social channels multiple times to ensure your content gets the attention it deserves. Install social media widget and encourage others to share your content. Monitor social for the mentions of your brand and thank others when they share your content.

#3 Provide effective customer service

A top priority for most small business is to provide stellar customer service for its customers. Social media gives businesses an opportunity to step up their customer service game.

How? By offering instant gratification to users.

It allows you to show how much you care about your customers, by giving them a great customer experience. For example, no inquiry should go unnoticed.

Also, you need to monitor and keep track of social media for customer feedback to see what others are saying when they mentioned your brand. Whether it’s negative or positive, try to address, reply and resoleve any issues that come up. No one wants to see their brand being dragged through the mud. Act quickly and use brand monitoring tools to keep on top.

It’s easy to see why is social media monitoring and engagement is so important for small businesses. According to Bain and Company, companies that use social media for customer service earn up to 40% more than businesses that do not.

#4 Increase brand awareness by leveraging influencer marketing

Do you know word of mouth makes a huge impact on user’s purchasing decision? When people are talking about you on social media, you’re building awareness and credibility of your brand.

The result? You’ll set yourself up for more sales.

One crucial factor in fueling word of mouth on social media is partnering with influencers. Influencers are people that already have a strong following on social media that can draw attention to your brand.

According to research, collaborating with an influencer gives you at least four times more lift when it comes to brand familiarity than a collaboration with a celebrity.

Before finding influencers, do your diligence and look for people with lots of followers who might be a good fit to represent your brand. These days anyone with 1000 followers on Instagram can call themselves an influencer. So before you consider working with someone, make sure they’re the right fit and can deliver on their promises.

#5 Boost search engine rankings

Social media, especially content shares, is valuable in SEO.

The content that receives the high number of shares will likely get a boost and can drastically improve its chances of making to the top of search engine results. This is crucial especially if you want to rise above your competitors.

Try to make your content engaging. Ask visitors to share your content. Add social sharing widgets on your site and promote your content to boost social media sharing.

#6 Improve conversion rates

With higher visibility on social media, you’ll gain more opportunities for conversions. Every comment, video, image, or blog post leads users to your site, increasing your traffic.

Build and grow your following by showing personality of your business. When you interact by sharing your content, posting, and commenting on statuses on social media, it personifies your brand. Remember that your followers love to do business with other people, and not just with a brand with zero personality.

By bein personable, it’s more likely people are going to remember you will buy products or services from your business in the future.

According to a report, 66% of marketers saw the benefits of utilizing social media in lead generation by using it at least 6 hours per week.

So if you work hard at using social media by sharing, making conversations, and liking, you’re are greatly improving your conversions simply by putting yourself out there and making all types of connections and building a loyal folowing.

#7 Keep on top of the latest marketing trends

Social media and online marketing is always changing. Platforms, updates, algorithm changes, and features change constantly.

You can use social media help you stay on top of the newest changes on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, or Youtube. What worked yesteday might not work today. Ignoring these changes will likely result in loss of revenues or can even lead to penalty resulting in drop in traffic from which it can be hard to recover.

If you want to succeed and outlast your competitors, you need to keep an eye on the latest news, trends, and updates.

#8 Cost-effective advertisement

As social networks change their algorithms to filter what users see on their feeds, the organic traffic you receive from your social media will likely decrease over time.

Luckily, you can still take advantage of the low-cost advertising social media offers. It provides you an excellent way to promote your content and bring in valuable traffic for a fraction of what it would cost you if you were using other channels.

Social media advertising is much less costly compared to traditional ads. It’s true that social media advertising is getting to be more expensive, but if you’re smart, for a few dollars a day you’re still able to increase your customer base and grow your business.

Summary

So there you have it. Social media marketing offers small businesses a wide range of benefits. Of course, it does take a lot of work, but if you’re diligent and consistent, you’ll soon be reaping the rewards and see significant changes in traffic and the leads you bring in.

About the Author – Kevin Urrutia is the founder of Voy Media, a Facebook Marketing Company in NYC. He helps businesses maximize the benefits of Facebook Advertising, leading to a dramatic improvement in sales while pushing down costs. Voy Media thoroughly studies each client and comes up with tailor-fit solutions to bring about the best results.