How Can Social Media Help a Small Business?

Social media is an effective way to build stronger relationships with your customers, while also making a positive impact on prospects. Take the time to share high-value information with your followers related to your business...this helps build trust and position you as an expert in your field.

Social media is necessary for any small business - it gets the word out to many people other than just your circle of friends. to more than three million businesses advertise on their platform, many of them small businesses. If you do decide to use Facebook, you can create Facebook ads and pages for your business, but it is unwise to use a Facebook profile for your business. If want to promote your business, you can create a Facebook page or group. You can also create different events for your business to promote your products.

However, marketing solutions are not one sizes fits all! It depends on your product / service and your target market.

Twitter has been a particularly difficult sell in the ROI department. Twitter itself blogged that many small and medium-sized businesses ask the social media site daily for proof that their efforts on Twitter can lead to real business results. As a result, Twitter and Market Probe International fielded a study of 500 adults who follow small and medium-sized businesses on Twitter. Here's what they discovered:

• 72 percent of followers are more likely to buy something from a business they follow.
• 86 percent of followers are more likely to visit a business if a friend recommends it.
• 85 percent of followers feel more connected with businesses after following them.
  

If you want to reach the 18 to 34-year-old age bracket, Instagram may be the platform for you. The first thing you need to do with an instagram account is: make it all about your brand. Next up, put a face to the name. People want to know who is the owner of the group and want to be able to connect with you by seeing who you really are. By making your account all about your brand, and putting a face on the brand, that can really help expand your social media reach. The third thing you can do is use #hashtags - these can help get your brand noticed and also expand your social media reach. Another thing you can do is re-post customer photos in regards to what they are using their products for - it is an inexpensive way to promote your products.

One thing is for certain. Companies not on social media are missing out on a large portion of traffic and business. Yellow Pages Digital has a few tips on how to decide which platforms are right for your target market and for your business. Last of all, make sure that your posts are engaging, and relevant to your customers. If you are having trouble deciding what's relevant and engaging, just put something out there, and do it on a regular basis. Businesses that stop sharing on social media experience a drop in organic traffic from the search engines. So even if you're not engaging at first, you'll be increasing your position on Google. Then play around with it until you figure out what your audience wants. You want them sharing your content with their friends so more people will find you.


Article kindly provided by spilltech.ie