Which Social Media
Platform Is Right
For Your Business?

Lets start by saying, Social Media is here to stay! With so many options out in the atmosphere, it can be confusing to think of which social media platform is the right fit for your business to reach your intended target audience. There is a common misconception from many businesses that they must have a presence on every single social media platform. Let’s be clear, this is wrong! Each social media platform has different strengths and weaknesses so choosing the right ones to invest your precious time in to is an important decision.

What is Social Media and why should your business use social media?

Social media has had a tremendous impact on our society since its first landed on planet earth way back in 1997. Back then social media was in its infantile stage and the world was unsure of where this new phenomenon would go. Love it or hate it, social media is here to stay. And whilst there are a considerable number of negative connotations associated with social media it can be a highly useful tool for your business to capitalize on. Business owners should ere on the side of caution by dismissing social media as a non-essential tool for their business. If history has taught us anything new online digital marketing tools are not to be ignored. There was a lot of skepticism from businesses about building websites when their boom began to happen in late 1990’s. Business owners could not see the purpose or requirement for their companies to have websites thinking it was enough for their business to be listed in the phone book alone. Now the thought of not having a website is almost inconceivable and soon the same will be thought of for social media.

Social media platforms are a free to use platform with paid advertising options. Big business, brands and small businesses alike are all able to benefit from the organic and paid growth that each of these platforms provide. They are an amazing way to build brand awareness, engage with your existing customers, reach new audiences and to generate leads.

Building brand awareness, what does this mean?
It’s amazing how many businesses we meet who do not understand the concept of brand awareness. A lot of the time when we meet a business owner they explain to us their frustrations about not having enough customers contact them.  They have worked hard to develop or set up a service or product which they believe to be to be a superior offering in the market, they have created a website or set up a store, but the general public don’t seem to be noticing them. They often point out to us an inferior product or services that competitors are offering and how their flow of customers seems incomprehensible when their offering is readily available. When we ask what you have done to promote brand awareness, to let people know “hey we exist and we offer this service or product”,  they often answer well I set up a business. Just having a business that offers a service or a product is not enough. You could have the best product or service in the world but if no one knows about it, then why would they stop using your competitors.

 

Social media is not the only way, but a great way to raise brand awareness. For the most part, social media is free to use. There are paid advertising options which can enhance your reach and potential. By posting relevant up to date content you can engage your desired audience and get your business in front of them. Combining this with a planned targeted advertising campaign you can begin to get your business in front of more of the right people. Getting your business in front of people keeps you name on their mind; this is an old subliminal trick from the 1960’s. “I think I have seen them from somewhere before”. When a consumer starts to associate your brand with something they have seen before they begin to have feelings of reliability and trust.

 

When the idea of To The Moon Marketing was first discussed, before we even had web page we went straight to Facebook to create a page where we could run paid adverts. Our first campaign was simple. We have no website, no phone number no place of business therefore we have no call to action or presence online for people to react to or to reach us at. Our first campaign goal was to get our logo running in an online campaign, so people become familiar with our presence. I think I have seen them somewhere before.

Connecting and engaging with your customers.
You’ve got the sale great no need to continue to engage with your customer, right? Wrong! It’s an amateur mistake to think that once you have made the sale there is no longer a need to connect or engage with your audience. Social media offers the chance to continue to keep these lines of communication between your business and your customer open. Reducing your churn rate by engaging with your customers is a great way to generate repeat business. Whilst old fashioned word of mouth is still a valuable resource, social media also affords what we like to call “The Digital Word of Mouth”. Using your social media platforms to engage with your customers who love your product or service is a great way for them to be able to digitally interact with your business, leaving positive reviews, commenting on posts and a result becoming a beacon or ambassador for your company. We encourage as many businesses as possible to check in via your social channels with a customer after they have received a product or a service, see if everything has met their requirements and if they would be happy to leave a review on your business. It is important to remember when a customer engages with your business via social platforms their comments are visible by their network of friends broadening your reach. And with each social media user having an average of 634 social ties it easy to see how your engagement with your customers can help get your business in front of a lot of people fast.

 

Boost Your SEO.

SEO, Search Engine Optimization what on earth does this all mean. If you’re anything like me when you hear this term you probably assume that this was some nerdy abbreviation invented by  someone who still lives at home with their parents and spends most of their time in the basement playing dungeons and dragons. Well, you probably not wrong. But, SEO is key asset to getting your paged ranked with Google to ensure that your customers can find you as easily as possible.

 

75% percent of people when making a search on Google will not go past the first page of search results delivered. If your page is not ranking on key search terms you are less likely to drive traffic towards your website and alert customers to your offerings.

 

Now SEO is a complicated beast and we will be doing another full blog soon on SEO soon.

 

Google ranks your page based on numerous factors, back links (ie links from other reliable websites) your bounce rate (how long people spend on your website – ie if they jump on and jump off quickly Google begins to assume your page is not informative or relevant enough to the search terms) domain age (how long your website has been running for) mobile friendly (how mobile friendly your site is) and how secure it is. These are only a few of the factors but some of the key points.

 

How does social media play its part in this. By creating engaging content with a link to a specific page on your website and just enough content to tempt the user to learn more your are creating what we like to call “an invitation to treat”. Waiting for a customer to go to Google and type in a search term means that you are increasing your risk of competition. But by proactively engaging with potential customers and saying “Hey we have this great product or service, click here to find out more” you are doing multiple things . First you are reducing your risk of competition by proactively getting in front of your customer before they are aware they need the product and commencing their own search. Two you are driving more traffic towards your website and this traffic is of people who are obviously interested in your product or service otherwise they would not of clicked your link, meaning that Google starts to think “Hey this website has a lower bounce rate, there is an increasing amount of traffic coming to this page and the consumer is spending a longer period of time on here therefore the information must be relevant”

 

As previously stated SEO is a complicated beast and we will delve in to this in a later blog, but these are just some of the small ways in which your social channels can help your SEO.

 

Generate new leads.

 

Generating leads, it’s what every business need to do. With a new generation of consumers whom have grown up with social media present throughout their lives they are more willing to engage in businesses and services via social media platforms. With some of the older generations there is still some hesitancy towards engaging in businesses through these platforms, although studies have shown that this hesitancy is dropping in percentage year on year.

 

Since social media has been part of our world since 1997 there is a whole new generation of people who have lived their entire lives with this as a normal part of their lives. They will engage with a business, check out if they identify with the company and their offerings and if the customer journey is easy enough take up their service or offerings.

 

Summary

In summing up we will basically repeat how we started the conversation, social media is here to stay. It’s part of our world now and avoiding it can be hazardous to the ongoing success of your business and allow new competitors the opportunity to reach and audience you are not engaging with.

Tune in to next months Blog where we will run through the Recognized 5 Social Media Platforms, their function and how each of them has different benefits for different businesses.