Does your business have an active presence on social media?

In 2021, it’s not enough just to have a social media business page. There are many advantages of using social media, however business owners need to understand how to use it strategically to achieve the best results.

Used well, social media will not only generate leads and increase sales by engaging with your target audience, but it will also highlight you as expert in your field, help your business to stand out amongst competitors and signpost visitors to your website. 

Here I’ll explore the four key benefits of social media marketing for your business and share tips to up level your content to make the time you spend on social media activity a good return on investment. 

1.  Nurture the relationship with your target audience

Growing an engaged audience takes time. Patience is needed to create genuine connection to turn your followers into fans…fans become clients and customers. It’s a well-known fact that consumers buy from people they know, like and trust so it’s incredibly important to invest time into nurturing your audience and showing the face behind the business.

To build relationships with your target audience do your market research, so you know who they are how they behave, which platforms they use and when they are using it. Then post regular relevant, engaging and informative posts in a variety of media such as graphics, live videos, polls and stories. Give each post a call to action that encourages your audience to respond and if you can, reply to comments promptly. 

2.  Demonstrate you an expert in your field

While it may be on form to list your professional qualifications and experience (especially on Linkedin), your audience will also want to know how you can help them solve a problem they are struggling with. You can do this by creating posts that demonstrate your skills, knowledge and expertise to your audience in terms they’ll understand and the transformation that is possible for them to achieve with your help/product/service. Here it’s fun to use info graphics, testimonials, before and after photos, how to videos and live masterclasses.

3.  Build brand awareness

Does social media make you feel like a little fish in a big pond? To make your brand memorable and set yourself apart from your competitors use consistent branding on your profile pages, in your groups and in your posts. Canva is an easy-to-use graphic design tool for creating your own branded templates, profile headers and many other graphics for marketing use.

Remember, you are your brand, so make sure that even your personal profiles, photos, posts and comments reflect this positively.

4.  Direct traffic to your website

Ideally, your content should include 20% promotional content, making your engaged audience so curious about your services/products they will click through to your website to find out more. Sharing links to your new blog posts on social media coupled with captivating invitations to direct the audience to your website will improve your SEO. Also, include your own link when writing guest blogs on 3^rd party websites and share these on social media too. 

Social media for business is more than just having a presence online. It’s about regularly and consistently engaging, informing and inspiring your audience. And not just any audience, they must be your target audience for your business to see an increase in leads and sales. A well-managed social media account can pave the way for a brand follower to become a client or customer. 

If you are intrigued to learn more about working with a social media manager who is committed to supporting you to up level your social media presence without investing more of your valuable time then get in touch with me at Genevieve Owen Business Support.