It’s not just holiday brags and pictures of lunch. With roughly three billion users around the world, social media platforms present an incredible opportunity to grow brand awareness and promote your company.
Here are seven ways we think social media is brilliant for your business:
- Engaging directly with your audience. Social media lets you interact directly with your target audience for free. The key word there is ‘interact’. It’s important to engage in a dialogue, rather than just spam people with ads.
- Reaching new customers. If you’re sceptical about whether social media has any real effect on brand awareness, consider this mind-blowing stat: 60% of Instagram users have discovered new products/brands through the platform. Still unconvinced?
- Understanding your audience. At OCTOPUS, we find social media is a great way to learn more about our audience’s likes, dislikes, needs and common issues. This is especially helpful when it comes to planning content for our website.
- Figuring out what people think of your brand. With a little light analysis, social media can offer up unbeatable insights into whether people view your brand in a positive or negative light.
- Putting a human face to your business. Social media is the ideal tool for showing off your brand values and what makes your business special – for example, by introducing the people behind your service or showing your product in action.
- Driving web traffic. By sharing links to interesting blog posts and other online content, you can drive more people to your website (where they can sign up for the monthly newsletter, book a consultation, discover new products and services, and so on).
- Demonstrating outstanding service. Social media allows you to showcase your ability to solve problems and answer questions quickly and effectively. Harvard Business Review found that customers who received a quick response on social media would be willing to spend more with that company in the future.
Social media is clearly a powerful tool for businesses, but if it’s not managed properly, it can present more problems than solutions. That’s why we’ve put together a handy guide to the seven biggest social media mistakes, plus tips on how to avoid them. Get your free copy of the guide, or talk to OCTOPUS about outsourcing your social media management today.
