How active is your small business’s social media marketing strategy? Social media networks aren’t limited to large companies; they support enterprises of all sizes. According to the financial services provider, 73 percent of small businesses in the United States allocate funds and resources to social media marketing. Using social media as a marketing channel will benefit your small business in many ways.

Brand humanization

You can humanize your small business brand using social media. If prospective customers don’t feel a personal connection to your small business, they probably won’t buy its products or otherwise interact with it. Humanization encourages prospective customers to take action by projecting a more personal and relatable brand image.

Brand humanization shows your small business’s employees and its culture and values so that prospective customers can relate to it more personally. You can humanize your brand using Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media network.

Increased website traffic

Since all social media networks allow users to post links, you can use them to drive traffic to your website. For example, you can publish links to content-rich pages on your website. Then, when viewing your social media content, users may click these links if they are relevant to their interests.

In addition to standard posts, most social media networks support using links in profiles. Users who want to learn more about your small business may view its social media profiles. If they come across a link to your official website, users may follow it.

Increased brand awareness

Social media marketing can increase awareness of your small business’s brand. No matter what your company sells, chances are its audience uses social media. Social media marketing lets you connect with prospective customers while exposing them to your brand.

Raising brand awareness on social media requires the promotion of your brand elements. Use imagery and words aligned with your brand when customizing your social media profiles. For example, if your small business has a logo, you should integrate it into its social media profiles. Along with a logo, other brand elements include a tagline, color scheme, and typography.

Support for customer reviews

You can use social media to cultivate customer reviews for your small business. Facebook is particularly effective because it offers a native customer review feature. Known as Recommendations, it allows customers to leave reviews with a one- to five-star rating. As long as your small business’s Facebook Page has Recommendations enabled, it will support customer reviews.

While other social media networks may lack a native customer review feature, they still attract customer comments praising your small business for its products or services. For instance, if a customer had a positive experience, they may tweet about the incident.

Greater search engine exposure

Investing in social media marketing will expand your small business’s visibility in organic search results. Even if Google is reluctant to award your website first-page rankings, it may give your business’s Facebook Page or Twitter profile high rankings.

Google regularly indexes business-operated social media profiles for relevant keywords. For example, suppose a prospective customer performs a Google search for your business name or other identifiable information. In that case, the Mountain View-based search engine may show them your social media profiles. Therefore, social media marketing can increase your small business’s search engine exposure.

Increased customer retention

Social media marketing can increase your customer retention rate. In a survey conducted by Small Business Trends, nearly half of the small business owners said social media marketing positively impacted their respective organization’s customer retention rate.

Check and respond to messages to retain more customers with social media. For example, a customer may message your business on social media if a customer has a problem. Responding to the customer’s letter with an answer or solution will reduce the risk of them leaving your business.

Demographic insights

The more information you know about your business audience, the better. If you don’t know who purchases a product, you won’t be able to craft a compelling sales pitch for it. Social media marketing can provide a wealth of demographic data about your business audience.

Facebook offers Page Insights and Audience Insights, which can reveal your audience’s demographics. Other social media networks provide similar analytical solutions that you can use to identify your audience further.

More sales

The most significant benefit of social media marketing is the additional sales it can drive for your small business. You can promote your business’s products or services directly on its social media profiles. If users believe an advertised product or service is valuable, they may buy it.

Of course, social media marketing can generate new leads for your business that, when nurtured, turn into sales. For example, a user may call or email your business after discovering it on social media. You can compel the user to buy the product or service with a little nurturing.

Evaluate the competition

Another way social media marketing can benefit your business is by allowing you to evaluate the competition. Business-operated social media profiles are public so that anyone can view them. So, to see what your business competitors are up to, visit their social media profiles.

By evaluating your competitors’ social media profiles, you’ll better understand what steps to take with your social media marketing strategy. For example, if you notice a competitor is generating a lot of engagement with video content, you may want to experiment with video content on your social media profiles.

Low or no monetary investment

You don’t have to tap into your small business’s rainy day fund to develop an effective social media marketing strategy. Instead, you can promote your business on social media at little or no cost.

Social media marketing has low startup costs compared to other forms of marketing. For example, creating profiles is typically free, and once completed, you can share content on them to attract followers. Additionally, you can purchase cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-impression (CPM) ads on social media, which generally cost less than flat-fee ads that run for a fixed period.

With so many benefits, social media marketing is well worth your small business’s resources. Even if you exclusively use free tactics, it will help your business flourish in many ways. For example, social media marketing can humanize your business’s brand, increase website traffic, raise awareness for its brand, and much more.

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Contact us today to see how we can help with our social media marketing services. Also, please read our Alaska Web Design blog to learn more about branding, website design, and digital marketing in Alaska!”

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