It’s 2019. Social media is now everywhere. Whether you’re an independent, small-town restaurant or a 200 storey towerblock of power, you need social media. There are a thousand and one ways that it benefit your business. So we’ve whittled it down to just five key benefits, keeping it simple.
Brand Awareness
There’s no point putting a sign in the window to promote yourself when everyone else is looking at their phone. You need to be at the centre of their world. By doing this, you can reach new audiences and create interesting and innovative ways of engaging with them.
Just make sure that what you’re putting out truly speaks to your customer. If you’re a greasy spoon, let people know that you’re celebrating international burger day, with 10% off all purchases. If you’re a fashion retailer with old season stock left over, do an Instagram giveaway, with live videos and confetti – make an experience out of it.
Learning About Your Target Audience
Social media isn’t just about pushing out content after content. It’s also a great way to research your target market. What are they looking at? What are they liking? What are they sharing with their friends? If they’re predominantly sharing videos and you’re only posting out photo’s, then get on their level and curate short videos to get your audience interested and engaged.
Researching may also help you to discover that you had a larger target market than you thought! Art and crafts not so long ago was labelled ‘old’ and ‘boring’, but social media is now supporting simpler ways of living, with increased popularity on ‘DIY trends’ and taking on new hobbies.
Customer Service
Most social media platforms now offer you a way to directly message your customers. So instead of your customers ringing up to find out what sizes you stock, or if you create personalised designs, they can simply send you a message and get all the information that they need. Facebook also offers an automated message system, whereby customers can choose from pre-set questions, such as ‘opening hours’ and ‘menu’, so you don’t even need to lift a finger!
Feedback
Analytics and insights offer you an ‘insight’ into whether or not a campaign or piece of content has performed well. If one post is liked by 2,000 people and another is liked by 4, then you will soon be able to work out what is best and not best to post. There’s no need to get your customers to fill out complicated feedback forms!
New Opportunities
There is a whole world of opportunities awaiting you on social media. Whether that be posting out jobs, partnering up with other businesses or creating virtual events. Everything is now possible.
Combining all of the above benefits will help you to become more successful and keep you at the forefront of your target markets mind.