5 Reasons Your Business Better Be Using Social Media

I recently attended one of our digital marketing boot camp seminars and it was a great reminder that there are still a lot of companies that have barely started to use social media marketing. And many others that are just now looking to get into it. Sometimes, you’d think every company has a staff of 20 people dedicated to social media marketing. Like Santa’s elves, they work with a finely tuned process that practically runs itself. The reality is that most companies start off on the wrong foot and make rookie mistakes.

Providing a new way to connect with your customers makes social media the present and future of marketing. It not only provides an easy way to engage your customers, it’s less expensive than traditional marketing … provides better customer service … and can help you build loyalty with your customers.

Read on to see how social media marketing can impact your business.

1. Generate New Leads

Did you know that the average Facebook user today has 338 confirmed friends? And many users have 500 or more? That means Facebook gives you an enormous potential for lead generation. Let’s say you own a cupcake business and post on Facebook that you’ve just created the perfect Key lime cupcake and are giving away free samples. Every time one of your customers hits “Like”, you could reach each of his or her 338 friends. If only 10 of your customers “Like” what you’ve posted, your message will now reach up to 3,380 potential new customers.

2. Customer Feedback

For better or worse, social media has shown us that people LOVE to share their opinion online. There’s no doubt that many of your customers probably blog and tweet about your business already. If you own a restaurant, they may tweet that your tiramisu is out of this world, but your service could be better. Or, say you own an accounting and tax service, they may post on Facebook that they’re so happy you stayed late to help them with their return on the Sunday before tax day. Without a social media presence, you’re missing all that great feedback. But if you use social media well, you’ll be able to instantly gauge what your customers love about your business and what you may need to change.

Getting honest customer feedback used to be difficult and expensive. Companies had to offer prizes or discounts to entice customers to fill out a survey form. Social media marketing has now changed all that. Leaving a 5-star rating on Google or Yelp takes less than two minutes and more people are used to giving you a good or bad rating based on their experiences. Make sure you’re taking full advantage of its potential.

3. Customer Loyalty

Today’s consumer can often find a product or service that’s cheaper than yours.

They can log onto ScoutMob to find 50% off a handmade woman’s purse, or use Groupon to find a killer deal on Tao reflexology sessions. You can’t expect to hold onto customers if you’re relying on price or customer service alone.

Therefore, your customers need to feel that you, your company, or your brand is a part of their life. Social media allows you to stay in close contact with your customers. By sharing helpful information with them and making it easy for them to interact with you, they’ll feel an attachment to your brand that will keep them coming back.

4. Better Customer Service

You hate paying staff to man the phones at all hours to answer customer service calls, and your customers hate being put on hold. Social media allows you to provide better customer service at a lower cost. It also allows you to respond to problems much quicker than traditional phone or written service.

If you want to retain your customers, it’s essential that they feel loyal to you, as pointed out above. According to MarketingSherpa in Access Development’s 2017 Customer Loyalty Statistics, 82 percent of satisfied customers will “likely” or “very likely” keep shopping with a company and give it another chance if something goes wrong. At the same time, 74 percent of Millennials would switch to a different retailer if something goes wrong. Well … that’s not much pressure, is it?

Online, your customer service reps can deal with more than one client at the same time and multiple customers can view one answer. Many online customers are also happy to help one another. If you provide a way for them to interact with one another on your site, they’ll share tips and tricks among themselves, which provides savings to you and valuable insight into what’s important to them.

5. Lower Advertising Costs

If you’re over the age of 40, you probably remember a time when having an ad in the Yellow Pages phone book was a big thing. Today, the only big thing is the cost. For a typical one-year, half-page Yellow Page ad in a fairly large metropolitan print directory, the cost can be anywhere between $10,000 and $20,000. Sometimes even more with added fees. An ad campaign that includes television, radio, and billboards is many times more expensive. However, even if you’re working with a top developer, the cost of developing a social media campaign will be a fraction of traditional advertising. And your reach is virtually limitless.

Furthermore, once you get some content marketing up and running, you can practically automate it and spend just a few minutes a week keeping it updated and fresh.

The Future of Marketing

Companies that don’t have a social media presence will be at a huge disadvantage in the coming years. Seventy years ago, companies that invested in television advertising created brands that are still some of the strongest in the world. Brands like Coke, General Electric and even Tide detergent. Fifteen years ago, companies that created user-friendly Websites grew at phenomenal rates. If you harness social media marketing, your company and brand has an incredible advantage over your competition.