The influence of social media can be found just about everywhere in business these days. Companies of all sizes are trying to cash in on their social media accounts by driving engagement with customers and increasing sales. However, there are many ways that social media can help your business thrive in a competitive market.
The benefits of social media make it one of the leading platforms for promoting business growth through marketing, advertising, customer engagement, customer service, and brand development. Any company can capitalize on their social media accounts given the right foresight and implementing a plan that is both consistent and effective. With some planning and commitment to consistency in its implementation, here are some of the potential benefits of social media marketing for your business.
Data Collection and Testing
For businesses, one of the positives of social media is that you can collect the data that you need about customers in real time. Knowing what is trending within the industry is one of the most important ways to make sure that your business stays relevant. Rather than having to invest a lot of money in trying to find ways to collect data on specific groups, you can use social media to do much of that work for you.
For example, tagging content and creating groups often builds a collective of similar people that would be within the same target audience. If you can identify what people choose specific tags or are part of specific groups like, you can design more effective services and marketing campaigns.
Many social media platforms have a way of tracking what is trending. By using these established systems, you can see what is popular within your industry and what may be popular in the future. Use this information to design products, services, and advertising campaigns to make sure that you are addressing trends as they grow and become socially relevant. This will help build your audience as well as increase sales across a wide target audience.
Differentiation and Brand Awareness
One of the main ways that companies use social media is to grow their brand awareness in specific target audiences. Social media platforms are designed to aggregate people into social groups, which companies use to find the right audience for their services and products. By increasing brand awareness in these groups, the company may generate more sales since it is more well-known among people who may need its products or services.
Some companies thrive entirely by using social media to make potential customers aware of their brand. Many celebrities try to do this, which can be successful given enough time and focused effort. However, the key to turning brand awareness into potential sales is differentiation. The company needs to show how it is different from other companies through its branding and marketing strategies. By doing so, it makes it easier for customers to decide between multiple options. If you differentiate yourself in a good way, customers will choose you over the other options.
Customer Service and Engagement
Perhaps one of the biggest benefits from social media is the ability to interact directly with customers. This gives you the chance to increase customer engagement since there are no barriers between your company’s customer service and marketing teams and your customers.
Social media interactions are a two-way system since customers may try to reach out to you directly. This usually happens when there is a problem that needs to be resolved, and your customers do not feel like anyone with the company was instead of using other channels. It is increasingly common for customers with complaints to reach the company through social media.
When customers reach out to you, it is your chance to show them and other viewers the quality of your customer service. Customers avoid companies that appear to have bad customer service. You can create a positive reputation for your customer service team by engaging customers when there is a problem and showing that you are trying to find a way to fix it. If you are planning on using your social media for customer service applications, remember that you must always be consistent and helpful in your operations. Otherwise, you may develop a negative reputation online.
Explore Social Media with the Right Help
There are many ways that you can use social media to help your company. Because social media is so popular, you do not have to try it alone. There are companies that can help you develop content and create a social media management plan so that you can get the most out of each of your accounts.
At KitelyTech, we work with companies on their social media accounts and management plans. Give us a call at (800) 274 2908 so that we can discuss how KitelyTech can help you use social media to your benefit.
