Why Your Business Needs to Use Social Media

Social media is a must for businesses. A few years ago, when a business wanted to reach new customers or advertise a product or service, they would run an ad in the newspaper, send out a mass print mailing, or advertise on television or radio. Since that time, business marketing has evolved. With the shift to social media, businesses can grow their audience in a much more effective manner.

Rather than sending a postcard that gets tossed in the trash without a glance, social media allows a business to target a specific audience to spread the word in a much wider reach. It allows you to engage with your audience, increases traffic to your website, improves brand loyalty, and if done right, increases your website’s SEO scores. In short, your business needs to be on social media. The big question is which platform is going to give your business the result you are looking for.

Identify Your Specific Social Media Audience

One of the most effective ways of using social media is to target your specific audience. To do this, you need to identify your buyer personas.  A buyer persona is a fictional, generalized representation of your ideal customer. Identifying these personas makes it easier to tailor content specific to these users.  Once you have these in place, pick the appropriate platform to engage those individuals.

An estimated 71% of internet users are on Facebook, so keeping your news feed regularly updated, boosting posts, and interacting with followers will help you to cast a wide net that will be seen by more users. If your target demographic is women aged 18-49, try your hand at Pinterest, which is currently the second-largest referrer of social media traffic to businesses. Instagram is mainly used by those aged 15-30 and is a very visual platform. Take advantage of their video components and use them to grow your brand. LinkedIn is great for business-to-business marketing, building connections, and creating opportunities and leads. Last on our list is Twitter, which is great for mass marketing and audience engagement. You are limited to 280 characters though, so make your point concise and direct.

Develop a Strategy

Once you have decided on the best platform (or multiple) for you, spend some time developing a strategy. Outline your goals- what is it that you are hoping to accomplish with your marketing plan? Increasing brand awareness? Customer engagement? Driving traffic to your website? Taking the time to outline your goals will help you stick to the plan instead of diving in headfirst with no direction. Curate content that is useful AND attractive to your customer base. Good content is a blend of information and audience entertainment. The key here is to know your audience. What better way to find out who is interested in your product

Engage with Your Visitors

So, now you have identified your target audience, picked your desired platform, and have started creating content that is burning up the internet- what now? Engage with those visitors! Social media is a form of networking, and networking takes participation on both sides, the visitor and the company. Talk to other businesses, share posts and tweets, like their comments.

Jumping on the social media bandwagon isn’t something your company wants to do, it’s something it needs to do. And if you need help, the social media experts at IDM are here for you. Simply reach out to us, and we can put together a social media package that will guarantee results.