There was a time where social media was just considered something that “the kids” were using, and just a passing phase. But now with over 3 billion internet users with over 2 billion of them having active social media accounts, the sceptics were proved wrong.

It’s not just for socialising anymore. Social media remains great for leisure, but has adapted and become an important tool for businesses to take advantage of. Social networks are now a substantial part of every marketing strategy, and the benefits of using social media are so effective that anyone not using this tool is missing out of a major marketing opportunity.

If you’re wondering how social media can benefit your business, look no further.

1. Grow awareness of your business

Having and using a social media strategy will increase your business awareness as you’ll be engaging with a broad audience of people. It’s another way for your customers to find and connect with you, and you’re more likely to increase customer retention and brand loyalty.

2. Get more website traffic

Without marketing your business on social media, your inbound traffic is limited to your usual customers. Having an effective presence on social media allows for more people to transfer into potential leads, where they could end up on your website and result in making a purchase. If your website is well made, your sales will increase with social media growth.

3. Create higher converting leads

Social media grows sales and customer retention through regular interaction. Research institute MHI Global created a study where world-class companies rated social media as the most effective way to identify new business opportunities. In the State of Social Selling, nearly 75% of companies that engaged in selling on social media reported an increase in sales within 12 months.

4. Gain valuable insights and traits of your audience

Social media allows businesses to collect tonnes of data about their individual users. Every day there are over 4.5 billion Likes on Facebook, 500 million Tweets, and 95 million photos and videos uploaded to Instagram. Behind these impressive numbers is a huge amount of information about your customers—who they are, what they like, and how they feel about your brand.

Social media platforms allow you to gather relevant customer data and use that information to make better business decisions.

5. Your competitors are using it

Even if you aren’t on social media, most of your customers expect you to be. Over 67% of consumers now go to social media for customer service. This could be the decision maker for your customer between choosing you and another competitor.

You can also have a nose at your competition’s social media pages, seeing the type of content they post and how they engage with their followers. It’s a great way to gauge your industry and see how you stand up to your competition.

6. Improved search engine rankings

Search engine optimisation is very important for achieving higher page ranking and getting traffic on your website. Social Media Examiner states that more than 58% of marketers who have been using social media for over a year still see improved search engine rankings.

7. Greater customer satisfaction

Social media is a networking and communication platform. Creating a voice for your company through this is important in humanising your company. Customers appreciate being able to personally communicate with you, and being active on social media shows that you are attentive to their needs.

8. Building brand authority

Customer satisfaction and brand loyalty both play a part in making your business more credible, but it all comes down to communication. When people see your company posting on social media, it makes you appear more authoritative. Satisfied customers are often keen to spread the word about a great product or service and usually turn to social media – and having customers mention your business on social media will be some advertising for you, by showing new visitors your brand authority.

Get started!

There really aren’t any reasons not to implement social media into your marketing strategy. Your competition is most likely already on social media, so don’t let them take your potential customers. The sooner you begin, the sooner you’ll see growth in your business.

I have several pricing packages to suit businesses of many sizes. I focus on really tailoring our social media posts to be completely unique to each of my clients, allowing businesses to gain more likes, follows and engagement, and ultimately, more sales!