Key Benefits

Using social media as a marketing tool has many core benefits; some of which are quite obvious, but others you may not have considered.

Social media accounts, when used properly, will:

1. Make your business stand out from the competition
2. Help you to be found online
3. Provide client satisfaction
4. Shorten sales cycles/increase sales
5. Supports marketing activities
6. Encourages social media specific marketing promotions
7. Allow you to learn about your clients’ needs

We’ll look at each of these separately below.

1. Make your business stand out from the competition

Businesses with well administered and popular social media accounts show that your business is confident enough to engage with clients and prospects in a less formal atmosphere than a website contact form or a phone call. Social media accounts can make your business appear approachable, young and friendly – even if you have a more mature brand.

2. Help you to be found online

Google loves businesses with social media accounts. So much so that the search engine may even place a social media account higher on a page of search results than an actual website. This gives your prospects an extra chance to get in touch with you.

3. Provide client satisfaction

Because you are communicating with clients where they like to be and in the manner they choose, client satisfaction with your business naturally increases, sometimes even before the prospect has become a client.

4. Shorten sales cycles/increase sales

Social media is social which means conversation flows both ways (if it is working properly). Answering clients’ and prospects’ questions via social media first allows potential clients to get straight to the ordering process when they do head to your website or store front for the first time.

5. Supports marketing activities

If you are running a marketing event that spans multiple streams ie website, email, direct mail etc, ensuring that your social media posts tie in with the activities are likely to give them even more traction.

6. Encourages social media specific marketing promotions

Social media fans/followers like to feel special, and running specific promotions or events for the platform you are using, can encourage feelings of know, like and trust.

7. Allows you to learn about your clients’ needs

More than any other platform, people on social media represent themselves in their most relaxed, informal manner. From a business owner’s perspective, this really allows you to learn about their needs in a most direct way. From simply posing a question in a post or running a quick poll, or even posting something slightly controversial, you will receive feedback from your followers/friends that is very useful. In the next activity we’ll look at the Golden Rules for creating effective social media accounts.