THE IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA FOR SMALL BUSINESSES
Has your business hopped on the Social Media bandwagon yet? If not- we’re here to tell you why you should.
By now, the majority of all small businesses are using Social Media as a way to connect with their customers and get their name out there. There are so many different Social Media platforms… Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat, and the list goes on with more and more showing up in the App Store almost daily. It’s brought networking and customer engagement to a whole new level.
So, why is marketing through Social Media so important, you ask?
Your competition is using it.
Based on statistics gathered by Facebook Analytics, there are more than 50 million small businesses using Facebook Business Pages to connect with their customers. According to Forbes, 78% of sales people using social media to sell out-perform those who are not. In this same study, the respondents were very clear in stating that Social Media was a leading factor in their closed deals. LinkedIn has even stated that 90% of top sales reps use social selling tools to close deals, compared with 71% of all respondents.
Your customers are using it.
Globally, there are nearly 2.8 billion people who actively use social media. According to Ambassador, 71% of customers who have a positive service experience via Social Media are likely to recommend that company to others. Instagram has over 500 million monthly active users, almost all of whom are under the age of 35 (Hootsuite.) Looking to sell to an age group 35+? Maybe Instagram's not for you, but a key insight from Social Media Today claims that 22% of the world's population use Facebook, and 76% of those users have logged in everyday since 2016, with a wide age range of <18- 65+.
Social Media will boost your companies SEO.
SEO Stands for Search Engine Optimization. In other words, it is a way to increase your companies visibility and position in search results on organic (free) sites such as Google, Yahoo, etc. An SEO Strategy will ultimately increase traffic to your businesses website, with an end goal of increasing your sales and revenue. All that being said, the more active and engaged you are on social media, the more followers you will end up with. The more followers you have, the more likely you are to have links to your website shared, resulting in a growing SEO. The more you're putting yourself out there on Social Media, the more likely customers are to either google your name themselves, or pass your business along to a friend who will then also look you up. The more often you are looked up, the higher your rankings are on search engine websites so that when a more generalized search is made, you have more of a chance to appear on peoples feeds. It all comes full circle people!