If you aren’t using social media for your business, you’re making a huge mistake. In today’s business landscape, all companies need to have a social media marketing strategy to stay relevant and competitive. With millions of people logging onto social media platforms every day, the reach is astounding. It doesn’t matter if you are a small business or a large corporation – investing in social media can help all businesses in different ways.

The best part about using social media is that you can start right now. If you aren’t already using a variety of platforms to promote your business, there are incredibly low barriers to entry. In fact, creating business profiles on most social platforms will cost you nothing. If this isn’t enough to get you started, here are a few more ways that a social media presence can improve your business.

Building Brand Recognition

People can’t become your customers if they’ve never heard of your company. Social media allows you to access the millions of users online who may be unfamiliar with your brand. With the right marketing strategy, you can target social media segments that are likely to show interest in your services. And if you make posts that appeal to these users, you can generate new leads with minimal effort. For building brand recognition, here are a few quick tips:

• Develop a strategy before posting. You want to appeal to certain groups of users, so make sure your messaging is specific and targeted. Identify a market segment you want to influence and concentrate your efforts on appealing to them.
• Post often, but not too often. You need to post often enough to remind your audience that you exist, but you don’t want to crowd their newsfeeds. People will unfollow or block you if you post too often, so try to strike a good balance.
• Use stimulating images. People scroll through walls of text all of the time, but a catchy image will make them stop to look. Finding the right image for your posts can make the difference between being ignored and catching someone’s attention.

Establishing Expertise

Before deciding to do business with a company, many customers will check the business’s online presence. In addition to an information-rich website, businesses can benefit from having social media accounts (LinkedIn specifically). Maintaining several accounts that post industry-specific content regularly can create a good impression. Visitors are more likely to trust a business that demonstrates their expertise through intelligent posts than a business with no social media presence. Here are a few tips for establishing expertise:

• Post news updates whenever something major happens in your industry. This shows that your company stays up to date with important information.
• Write blog posts and regularly promote them on social media channels. If you can communicate your expertise through thorough and interesting blog articles, visitors will realize that you have a lot of helpful knowledge.
• Publish links to other reputable websites and add your own comments. Viewers will see that you not only follow other popular sources, but you have intelligent opinions about their posts as well.

Stimulating Engagement

Many social media channels allow businesses to engage with their customers. Popular platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and even Twitter can be used to easily communicate with your target audience. Simply posting a question to your followers can spark discussion and create activity on your pages or social accounts. The more activity there is, the more people will see your posts and the better your reputation will be. You can also use comments to engage current customers to further build your relationship. Some tips for stimulating engagement are:

• Post a question every now and then. This is one of the easiest ways to promote engagement. People can read your question, answer, and then you can comment back to start a dialogue.
• Be fun about it. Show some behind the scenes footage of your office space or a company outing. People love seeing exclusive content on social media, and these types of posts can create positive buzz.
• Host a live session. What better way to engage with your audience than through a live stream? Answer questions or reply to comments in real-time to quickly engage anyone watching. Make sure to test your internet speed, microphone, and video devices before doing this.

Want To Get Started?

If you want to get started using social media for your business, it’s as easy as signing up! Platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram make it incredibly easy to make business accounts. Once you have the right accounts, take a moment to brainstorm a marketing strategy before posting. If you need some help, the team at Ntegro can lend a hand! Did you know that Marketing Cloud actually has functionality that can help you with your social media? Get in touch with our team for a free consultation and we can show you how to use Social Studio to optimize your social media performance. 

Already have a social media following? Comment below and let’s chat!