The number of active social media users worldwide hit 4.02 billion at the start of 2021. Imagine that — more than half of the world’s entire population is on social media!
And what does this mean for business owners?
It means that if you’re not yet working on your social media management and building a strong brand presence, you’re not only missing out on a lot of opportunities to grow your business, but also run the risk of being left behind by your competitors.
Tips on How to Use Social Media to Grow Your Business
Social media marketing, or SMM is a powerful way for businesses of all sizes to reach out to people and expand their customer base. Utilizing an SMM Reseller Panel can further enhance these efforts by providing businesses with the tools to manage and scale their social media campaigns more efficiently. By creating engaging content and sharing it on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest, you can get people to notice your products/services and (maybe) convert them into advocates of your brand.
Countless small businesses achieved and even surpassed their marketing goals with the help of social media. Before you take the plunge, however, make sure to learn the ropes and already have a social strategy in place. Going into this blindly might do you more harm than good.
These tips will help you start your social media marketing journey on the right foot:
Identify your audience.
Before you take further steps with your social media strategy, you must first understand who your audience is. Use social media analytics to find out who’s buying from you and interacting with you on your social media pages. Once you have a better idea of your customer base, you can work on reaching more people from the same demographics.
Build relationships.
One of the best things about social media is that it allows you to interact with your audiences on a more personal level and build a relationship with them. Get to know your customers and give them a glimpse of who you are as a company and what you stand for.
Simple things like posting interactive stories and polls or hosting live streams can turn audiences into loyal advocates of your brand and improve your customer retention rate.
Use social media to drive traffic to your website.
Advertising on huge social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn will help you generate new leads, drive traffic to your website, and increase your conversions. You can also start a retargeting campaign to give consumers who have already visited your website that extra nudge to make the purchase.
Placing social media ads comes at a price, but if you know the right kind of people to target and how to hook them, these ads will yield you major returns.
Create content that people want to see.
You have to make your content interesting, or else people will just keep scrolling past them. Whether it’s text posts, photos, or videos on your social media page, create something with an impact – something eye-catching that will stop audiences in their tracks and make you stand out from the competition. If you want to get noticed, you have to command attention.
Collaborate with influencers.
Influencers are all the rage these days. If you can get influencers, especially those who are trusted authorities in the niche, to publicly vouch for your brand or products, your sales can go through the roof almost instantly.
Partnering with the right social media influencers is one of the most profitable business decisions you’ll make. They don’t come cheap, but the ROI can be insane.
Organize contests and giveaways.
Do you need more fun and entertaining ideas to engage with your audience and gain more followers? Why not run a social media contest or giveaway? Everybody loves free stuff and activities like this can encourage them to participate in your promotional efforts.
With a contest or giveaway going on, potential customers are likely to increase their engagement with your brand or social media page in the hopes of winning something.
Track and analyze your results.
Followers may be your most important social media marketing resource, but analytics comes as a close second. Most social media platforms come with their own analytic tools for tracking key metrics such as engagement, followers, video views, profile visits, mentions, shares, tags and reposts.
Keeping track of the results will let you know which of your efforts worked and which ones didn’t. Once you determine what aspects need fine-tuning, you can tweak your social strategy little by little to improve your success over time.
About the Author
Gabby Klesser is the Outreach Manager for LA Website Design, a digital marketing agency that has assembled a team of expert web designers and digital marketing strategists. She often writes about web design, UX, social media, technology, marketing, and starting a non-profit.