While some social media platforms have come and gone, (MySpace, Google+, Vine, and more) the fact is, social media is not going away any time soon.
Businesses that want (and need) new customers need to embrace the current trends. The current trends are social media!
Right now, if you are a business-to-consumer company, you should be on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Google My Business. If you are a Business-to-business type of company, you should be on the same platforms as well as LinkedIn. It should be a priority to be where your customers are. And I can promise you, they are not looking through a phone book anymore.
Your future customers need you on social media so they can choose you over your competitors! It is as simple as that.
Here are some other great reasons why you should be on social media and working hard to keep it up to date:
Your happy customers use it to promote you
The more you are on social media interacting with your customers, the more visibility you will get. The more you keep your customers happy, the more they will be willing to use their own social media to promote you!
You can properly gauge what your customers think about you
If you are not on social media, you will be living in a bubble…and that bubble will only be with those around you. You cannot properly gauge your customer’s opinions about your product or service if you live in your own little bubble.
With social media, it is real-time. You do not need to wait to send out surveys or postcards to figure out what you are doing right or what you are doing wrong. You can use social media to make immediate changes to address customer concerns if they have them.
You can share customer success stories
Social media is the fastest way to share when you have made a lifelong customer. Not only do people love reading positive reviews of your business, but it is much more likely that they will use your services or buy your product when they see their friends happy that they did.
You can share a new product and/or service
Imagine being a restaurant and having a new menu item. You can share that picture of the beautiful dish and get an immediate response. The same can go for almost any other product or service. Even though we believe websites are key and extremely important in your overall marketing strategy, just simply posting the new item on your website may not be seen by several people for quite some time. Social media bridges that gap in a great way.
It is free!
Print, radio, and television ads cost a lot of money. Most businesses do not even touch those types of media because of the costs. Social media is free to sign-up and use, and if you were to choose to use any of them for paid advertising, the cost is very minimal, and the reach is far and wide. On many platforms, you can specify the demographics of who you are trying to reach as well.
While there is no cost to use the various social media platforms, admittedly the time to engage on social media the right way could be time-consuming. And yes, in business, time is money. There are companies, such as Silo Hill Web, that are experts in social media and can free you of that time commitment and let you run your business as you do best.
In conclusion, if you are not using social media it is time to start! It is as simple as that.