Why Social Media Isn’t Just a Marketing Tool
When setting up a new business, many make the mistake of assuming social media is the same as signs in a shop window declaring ‘SALE’, ‘10% OFF’ or ‘BUY ONE GET ONE FREE’.
However, there’s a lot more to social media than first meets the eye.
This isn’t simply a space for you to shout about your business and everything it does, although that does play a small role. In fact often, the more subtle about your own business you can be, the more likely you will be to reach new potential customers and increase your sales.
The more you do shout about your own business, the more you’ll appear as greedy with no intention of adding value to the platform you’re hollering on. Instead, take a measured approach to your social media strategy in order to get the most from it.
Here’s just how you can use social media not just to market your product, but to share your brand’s mission.
Raise brand awareness
How you present your business on social media will impact how people view your brand. This will send a strong message, which is why you shouldn’t hastily create your Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts.
Before hitting Sign Up, write down your business’ mission statement and make a list of all the connotations you think would naturally come from this. This list of words will be the bones of your social media strategy, upon which all your other decisions are made.
What does your brand stand for? Are there causes that you want to fight for or messages you want to see heard? Share these on social to raise your brand awareness and in turn find customers who share the same values.
Share behind the scenes
Take this opportunity to show your customers a peek behind the curtain of your business. This transparency will encourage customers to view your company as fair, honest and reliable.
While you may think that pushing your sales and discounts on your social will get the message seen, people are far more likely to respond to a tactic that isn’t quite so ‘in your face’.
Instead, they’ll be more willing to interact with a company that’s laid back and realistic, after all not everyone will want to buy your services.
Show off your customer service skills
Social media is a space for you to engage with customers and your response to queries can be the most important aspect of how your brand is perceived.
That’s why you should be on top form when it comes to answering questions, and make sure you don’t say anything that you wouldn’t say to a customer’s face!
Both speed and how helpful a reply is are factors here, so make sure you’re quick of the mark to provide a useful answer.
Be on the ball
Social media is up to date with the latest events, changing every minute as the news is reported. That’s why you should make an effort to keep on top of what’s happening and chime in when it’s relevant.
You can respond to issues you feel strongly about and that represent your brand, but make sure you’re not just jumping on the bandwagon because everyone else is talking about something.
Monitor what’s working
The beauty of using social media to increase your brand awareness and engage with customers is that you’re able to see how much of that converts into leads and subsequently, sales.
While you won’t get sales from every like, follow or share, you should see a correlation in your increased popularity online and the number of people clicking through to your website.
Keep an eye on what posts are popular and what isn’t. This way you can help improve your social strategy and continue to push those conversions.
How does your social strategy look? What changes will you be implementing to increase your engagement and increase your brand awareness? Leave a comment below or come and join the conversation over on Twitter.
