Whether you are new to the business world or have been in the game for awhile now, hopefully you realize by now how strong social media is. Not only are there many social media sites you can market your business on and help increase awareness with but there are many, many, many people on each of these social media sites.
Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google Plus, LinkedIn, and the list goes on. However, these are the more popular ones.
According to Constant Contact, 73 percent of small business owners are now using social media[1] sites to bring in more traffic and turn that traffic into customers. Are you in this 73 percent or are you still stuck in the dark ages? Whether you are already in this 73 percent or you have no clue about social media, here are five ways social media marketing can help grow your business.
1. Social Media Will Help You Increase Awareness About Your Business
Not only does it help to get the word out about what your business is all about, but it also provides you with a chance to communicate with your fans and followers. For example; do you have a Facebook fan page? Do you have a business Twitter account? If you don’t why haven’t you created these profiles yet? What are you waiting for? It only takes a few minutes to get a fan page on Facebook or a business profile on Twitter set-up and then you can start interacting with your fans and followers.
Once you are able to interact with them, they will notice how good your customer services tactics are, even on social media, and they will spread the word about your business to their friends and family. Once this happens, you are bringing in more fans, followers, and potential customers.
Remember one important thing though, although it only takes a few minutes per day to grab your fans and followers attention, spreading awareness about your business, you can’t just set the pages and profiles up and forget about them. It doesn’t work this way! You have to interact with them to show them you can answer their questions.
The good thing about Facebook fan pages is that they have automated messages you can use to let your customers know you will be with them as soon as possible. This buys you a few extra minutes to get logged on and answer their questions. But, try not to use it all the time. Try to answer them as soon as possible on your own.
Because if they get the same message every time they come to your page for customer service, they might not return.
2. Social media is Very, Very Popular
And because these sites are so popular these days, as long as you are interacting with your customers and potential customers, you are turning the traffic you are getting from social media into paying customers.
Sharing an article, image, or video, or all three at once, will help you make your business popular too. There are millions of people on these sites every day. You just need to target the right audience. Think about who would benefit from your business the most and target them.
Use hashtags (#yourkeyword or #yourkeyphrase) and whoever checks these hashtags out will find your business.
3. You Are Getting Free Traffic From Social Media Sites
Social media sites are free to use for anyone. This is one of the reasons they are so popular because no one has to pay to use them every day. This means free traffic for your business site.
Who can beat free, right? Of course, some social media sites do offer paid advertising to double your exposure but you don’t really need to use them, unless, of course, you want to pay an extra $5 to reach more people.
It’s only an extra $5 and you would have blown that on junk food anyway, right? So, sign up for the most popular social media sites for free first, try them out for free, and then, if you choose to, you can buy extra advertising to increase even more awareness of your brand and business.
4. By Using Social Media, You Are Targeting All Ages and Demographics
Every age, gender, and all demographics is on social media, every single day. There are so many people addicted to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google Plus, and LinkedIn that you will have no trouble reaching your target audience and maybe even an audience you didn’t know you had.
From pre-teens, to teens, to adults, and even senior citizens, how can you not gain a lot of free traffic from social media, right? And, one of the best parts of it is, you don’t have to be too creative to find your perfect audience.
Just use a few hashtags and you are well on your way to boosting your traffic.
5. Social Media Users Are ALWAYS Active, Night and Day
The best part about using social media to gain traffic to your business website is that these people on the most popular social media sites, mentioned above, are always active. Some are so addicted and active on the site that their friends and family tell them that they might just have a problem!
All kidding aside though, this just means more traffic for you since people of preteen age and older are on these sites. They are constantly liking, commenting, and reacting in different way to different things. One thing that will be awesome for you is when you start getting reactions to your posts.
Read More: 10 Basic Steps To Conquer Social Media Marketing Strategy
Reactions show that either they like your posts, love them, think they are funny, get mad about them, or think they are sad. It was a great idea when Facebook added the ability to react to posts in different ways. So, get them to react and then get them to comment, then get them to your website so they can see what you have to offer them! Doesn’t sound too hard now, does it?
These are just some of the ways and reasons why you can and should use social media to help grow your business. Try thinking outside the box when it comes to social media and you will see the traffic to your website grow, and grow, and grow!
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In Post Image Credit: Shutterstock.com
