Post by Matthew Aquilina Manché – Marketing Director at NERO WHYTE
Trying to keep up with digital technology is sometimes like trying to keep sight of a cheetah chasing a gazelle at midnight under an African moon – it moves fast, often unpredictable and it could leave you feeling lost and in the dark fairly easily.
It is especially unpredictable for business owners who do not have the time to keep up with ever-changing trends and new types of media coming into the market place. The truth is (whether we like it or not), it is crucial for everyone and anyone who functions within today’s economy to stay educated on the state of social media in particular – one must know where consumers are looking and where they are interacting. According to stats, the global number of daily active social media users is 3.2 billion, meaning that 42% of the population of the world are interacting on these platforms.
Social platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are all gathering places for the 42% of the population of the world who’s interests are diverse as, well, as diverse as the interests of close to half the worlds people! Any business person who knows these facts, would surely see the potential and want to ‘at least’ have a peek to see what benefit it can bring to their business.
So then, when it comes to your business, are you using social media to its full potential?
Do you believe that it could play a big part in increasing your company’s revenue?
Do you see the value of social media in your business?
You may already be a social media believer and don’t need convincing or you might still be a little unsure about the true value social media could present. Either way, we want to point out some of the most important reasons why your business could benefit greatly from the use of these game-changing platforms:
Brand Awareness
We find here that we have been presented with a great opportunity to stamp our brand identity with great reach and bring our services/products into the attention of the people who are actually looking for them.
The concept of having ‘followers’ who are looking at your every post is the perfect opportunity to create and shape brand awareness for your service/product in a real-time way, that once upon a time (not so long ago), was something marketers could only dream about. Through social media, you can now set your brand image and tone of voice in a matter of moments. Although, getting good reach and following requires time, patience and consistent quality content.
Customer Interaction and Community Nurturing
When it comes to interaction with current customers and prospects, there is no better way than the use of social media. Whether it be B2B (LinkedIn) or B2C (Instagram and Facebook), different social platforms offer different solutions and help you target different markets.
Whether it be sharing a blog post on LinkedIn, a product shot on Facebook or a video on an Instagram story – every time you share is a customer interaction opportunity. Through commenting and direct messaging, all the walls holding back communication between brand and consumer have now been dropped.
Lead Generation and Sales
Welcome to the funeral of cold calling (A life that not many would like to celebrate) – we now live in a world where social media has birthed new life in what we call social selling. In a nutshell, social selling has given us the opportunity to leverage our social networks towards finding the right prospects through developing relationships as part of the sales process.
Additionally, through actions like content sharing, social media presents multiple ways to generate leads. For example, an increasingly popular approach is through sharing gated content (i.e eBooks, white paper, content upgrades, email series, webinars and more). Simply put, gated content requires that a user enters personal information (i.e email address, company name/size, company revenue..etc) in order to obtain access to the resource.
Looking to take your first step into social media for your business?
Want to up your current social media presence?
Maybe you are looking for a dedicated team to take care of your social media activities?
We would love to get the opportunity to hear you out and understand if we can assist in any way – So whether it be a phone call, email or maybe even smoke signals, please do not hesitate to get in touch, we are all about connecting.
Photo (Left): Austin Distel