25 Undeniable Benefits of Social Media for a Canadian Business
As a Canadian business owner, you must understand by now the risks you’re assuming if you’re not using social media in your business marketing mix. There is the potential for loss in revenue, damage to your reputation, looking obsolete, and more. There’s a lot to worry about if you’re not on social if you are not tapping the advantages of social media marketing!
To add some upside to the conversation, in this article we are going to share 25 undeniable benefits of social media for businesses in Canada and across the US. Powerful stuff that you can master and implement immediately! How social media benefits business has become even more exciting in the past year thanks to the global pandemic and resulting growth. In this post, we list 25 of the strongest benefits that cannot be denied.
These advantages of social media for companies, and especially small businesses, are compelling, actionable, and cost-effective. You will be able to clearly see what these features and social media trends can do for you and your business.
1. Tell YOUR Story & Enrich your Company Culture
Everyone has a story: every person, every group, and every business – even your business. And as emotional people, we’re wired to react to those stories – we make decisions based on the emotions those stories invoke. You don’t have to have a viral story like the one below, though. Normal, everyday stories revolving around your brand will still be impactful – so share them with abandon in your marketing campaign!
2. Uncover Accurate Audience Data to Supercharge Your Marketing Efforts
How much do you know about your customers? Probably not too much, right? Customer research is usually expensive, but not on social. There, you have free access to the tools you need to drill deep and connect with your customers, cutting out fat until you’re left with a clear image of a buyer persona that will buy whatever you’re selling.
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3. Build Awareness and Credibility through Industry Influencers
83% of consumers trust peer recommendations over advertising as reported by industry researchers, Search Engine Watch. That goes for B2B as well as B2C. Find a respected community member who is also a customer. Grab a coffee together and explore if they will be willing to promote your business.
This is an opportunity to find out why they like working with your company and your team. Perhaps there is a mutual opportunity you can both get behind? Get creative, and be willing to think outside the box. If you can gain this influencer’s support, then companies that come under this favourable influence will be willing to use your product or service if this trusted and influential individual recommends it.
Partnering with the right social media agency to promote your brand on social media can be a winning ticket and significantly boost your bottom line.
4. Replace Old (Expensive) Marketing Channels With New (Less Expensive) Ones
What if we told you that all the customers you usually find during trade show appearances are members of a certain Facebook group? If you’re on social media, you have a free line to all of them. You can participate, share your content, and when the time is right, offer your products and services.
Believe it or not, social media marketing is less expensive than traditional marketing. Find that hard to believe? Check out our comparison of digital marketing vs traditional marketing.
5. Boost Trust and Drive Sales With Online Testimonials
Online testimonials that are genuine are the real deal – they provide social proof, appeal to emotions, and have elements of storytelling. 84% of people trust them as much as they trust personal recommendations – which is why you need to share them with the world! There are so many advantages of social media for small business, with many of them very simple to implement.
6. Social Media Signals Will Help You Get Found Organically
Google doesn’t (officially) take likes and tweets into consideration when ranking a specific website. Still, Google’s own Matt Cutts (former head of webspam team) explains how good social media campaigns drive traffic and impact awareness – which helps with click-through rates – and that definitely IS something that Google, and other search engines, takes into consideration.
Besides algorithms, there is a correlation between popular articles on social media and those ranked highly on search engines, even though Google claims it’s not a ranking factor. If an article has many likes, shares, and comments, it proves that the content is high quality and buyers want to learn about that topic.
When other people find your content valuable, they may link to your content from their own website. And those backlinks are valuable for SEO.
7. Grow Your Company’s Brand Equity
Convincing someone to become a customer hinges on, among other things, how much value they place on your brand. One of the benefits of social media for business is that you can use Facebook and Twitter to constantly provide quality information free of charge and earn that trust gradually and genuinely.
8. Drive More Visitors To Your Trade Show Booth
If you’re still relying on trade shows, you must have noticed that attendance is in decline these last few years. A lot of businesses now communicate via social when and where they will make an appearance, nudge potential customers to visit and have a chat with them in person.
9. Connect Your Field Events To the Online World
Do you do any Experiential (face-to-face) marketing? This includes sampling, sponsorship events, customer events, product launches, fundraisers. Build a social aspect into every one of these events your company holds.
10. Give Your Reps a Powerful Sales Weapon & Increase Your Revenue
Traditional sales methods are becoming obsolete. Sales reps are finding it harder to generate the same amount of business. As a result, your direct sales costs are eating at your profit margin. Regardless of what products or services you sell, social media can help you sell more of it.
With social, there are a host of new strategies that work for lead generation. You can build a sales funnel for your brand, where buyers go through a process from the initial contact until they become customers. Your sales rep will be more effective because they’re only speaking to people who have been educated about your brand.
You can also equip your sales reps with new skills called social selling. It’s a solid strategy to help them generate more leads and nurture relationships with the leads. This is so effective because you warm up the leads systematically and predictably. And buyers will contact you when they’re ready to do business.
11. Tap Into the ‘Social’ Market & Find New Opportunities
A social marketplace gets you in front of clients that don’t visit trade shows, don’t listen to the radio, and are not subscribed to your email lists. That means that, without social, reaching them is almost impossible. However, if you go to the social networks they congregate in (Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn), you will – possibly for the first time – have a chance to get noticed. Here are more social media marketing tips for business.
12. Strengthen Your Competitive Advantage by Forging New Connections
Not everything in business is about leads, and there’s a lot to be said about connections with suppliers, partners, and the employment market. Among the many benefits of social for business is the ability to connect with others in your industry through various groups. With a bit of luck, you can find a new, more valuable supplier, a new strategic relationship, strengthen your links to important communities, or source an industry expert who’s willing to work for you.
13. Become An Industry Thought Leader On New Online Platforms
People love to do business with brands that have a solid reputation. Regardless of what industry you’re in, social media gives you an excellent opportunity to build one easily. By consistently providing valuable insights, you’ll establish your brand as a thought leader. Prospective customers will look for you when they need information in your area of expertise.
LinkedIn conducted a research in partnership with Edelman on thought leadership. Half of the marketers surveyed believe thought leadership helps to build trust. But when buyers were asked the same question, 80% of them said thought leadership builds trust.
This research shows how many marketers overlook the importance of thought leadership. It’s an excellent opportunity for you to take advantage of and cement your thought leader status in your industry.
For example, take Neil Patel, a personal brand in digital marketing. He has an omnipresent in several social media platforms – 1 million followers on Facebook, 168,000 followers on Instagram, 673,000 subscribers on YouTube, and 400,000 followers on LinkedIn.
While there are other digital marketers who are just as good as he is, his social media persona allows him to stand head and shoulders above them. As a result, he gets the benefits of social media for his business.
14. Humanize Your Brand
People are generally averse to doing business with huge corporations. Instead, they prefer to do business with other people.
By sharing your stories and convictions, you share the human side of your brand. Buyers can relate to them, and it helps you stand out from your competition. To connect with prospects and customers, use social media to share the human side of your brand.
Here are some questions to think about:
- What are your brand values?
- How is your business looking out for the interests of your customers?
- How are you taking care of your employees?
When customers comment on your posts, it’s also an opportunity to create a ‘human’ connection. Give them a personalized response instead of an automated message. This will show that you genuinely care for your customers.
Social media is a place to create real human connections. One of the benefits of social media marketing for businesses is that it allows you to build a ‘human’ persona around your brand. By doing it right, you will boost both your engagement and sales.
15. Excel In Customer Service
Setting up a customer service department can be a drain of resources. Most small businesses just don’t do it, and the calls come in to the owner and other employees. Skip all that hassle and hire a VA to handle customer support over your social media channels – it’s faster and cheaper!
Example: Sometimes, you can even go above and beyond – Peter wished, Morton’s granted.
16. Find Content Ideas To Boost Your Engagement and SEO Efforts
Maintaining your blog regularly can be a grind, especially when it comes to finding topics. Thankfully, you can use social media to generate numerous ideas. The best part is that you know your customers will be interested in the topic.
One way is to read the comments on your posts. See what questions people have. You can also look at comments on your competitors’ posts. These questions are all great ideas for content you can create for your business.
You can also use social media to ‘listen in’ on your competitors’ social media profiles. Take a look at what they’re posting and see what their audience is reacting to. Then create a similar that is better and with your brand’s values.
If you’re still short of ideas, you can make a post asking your followers what they want. By giving people what they’re asking for, it ensures people will want to read and share the content you create.
17. Go Viral and Get a Ton of Leads
When you do the above just right, you can create a piece of viral content that will be picked up and republished by hundreds of social media accounts, and even some major publishers. This can translate into a ton of leads, increased traffic to your website, and a significant boost in brand awareness.
Example: This simple coffee-brewing guide from Chemex got shared thousands of times.
18. Manage Your Reputation
Whether you have social media or not, people are already talking about your brand on social media networks. You may not like it but it’s the reality.
What other people say about you is much more powerful than what you say about yourself. To get the most benefits of social media for business, use social listening tools to help you detect anytime your brand is mentioned. Your team can stay ahead and proactively respond to comments and rants in real-time.
If someone is singing your praises, show your appreciation to the customer. But if someone has a negative experience, you can deal with it quickly before it becomes a major issue. But keep in mind that entering an argument on social media is the last thing that you want. Instead, handle it politely and professionally by sharing your side of the story.
19. Communicate Fast In a Crisis
Your blunder probably won’t be as big as Pepsi’s, but this is still an example you can learn from.
For smaller brands, you may not experience a crisis on a large scale. But word of mouth on social media travels fast. A small number of shares can have a devastating effect in a smaller industry or community.
If you’re late shipping products to a number of customers, reach out to them over social – it’s faster and cheaper.
When it comes to building a long-lasting relationship with buyers, silence is never an option. It’s essential to have a plan, so you’re ready when a situation happens. Your buyers will appreciate your transparency.
20. Create Laser-Focused Ads
Let’s face it. People aren’t on social media to buy things. They are there to catch up with friends and look at funny photos and videos. The beauty of social media is that platforms know how to make these ads seamlessly fit with the other posts to give users a pleasant experience.
Most social media platforms allow you to really hone in your ads. You can target demographics, groups, interests, and even people who are following your competitors. With social media, every dollar spent on ads counts.
Savvy marketers know how to make use of this to promote your business in an inexpensive way. You can craft specific messages tailored to the specific needs of that customer segment. And you only pay for the exact audience you want to reach.
Social media ads are also a great way to follow up with website visitors with retargeting ads. You can place a piece of code on your website that will track people who have visited your website.
When they browse on social media, you can continue the conversation with them by showing a relevant ad. With laser-focused targeting, you can choose to show the ad only if they visited certain pages on your website.
Running retargeting ads is an excellent social media strategy. Buyers rarely buy on their first visit. But since they have been on your website, you know that they are interested in what you offer.
21. Boost Your Conversion Rates with Social Media
Social can give a much-needed boost to your sales team. A study from HubSpot found that social media leads have a 13% higher conversion rate. Ignoring all else, this should be one social media business benefit that clinches it for you.
22. Encourage Employee Advocacy
Your employees probably do what they can when it comes to promoting your business. Give them another weapon for their arsenal – encourage social media employee advocacy and make it so fun that they want to participate!
23. Solicit User-Generated Content
Ask your current customer to share their stories about your brand. You can then easily convert those into long-form posts, such as case studies and interviews.
24. Keep Tabs On Your Competitors
Whatever your industry, it’s imperative that you know what your competition is doing so you can adjust when possible. Maybe they are ramping up their content production, in which case, you need to do the same. What if they are a social media sale? You need to be aware so you can see if there’s something you can do to counteract that.
25. Increase Brand Loyalty With Giveaways and Contests
Give your followers a treat every now and then by organizing contests and giveaways through your social media posts. They make you look extremely generous, and you phrase them just right, they can also be a source of hundreds of shares and likes. Additionally, they will keep your followers coming back in the hope of grabbing extra freebies.
Example: Muji Pen got thousands of shares with their contest. What’s better, their community engaged so hard they go almost as many entries!
The Undeniable Benefits of Social Media for Business
Do All of This – and More – at a Fraction of the Cost
Traditional advertising entry points are typically out of reach for most small businesses. This isn’t true for advertising over social – for example, just $3 will get you in front of 1,000 people you want to reach on Facebook. Factor in the cost-cutting when it comes to engagement, loyalty, brand-building, and CS and the saving just pile up.
Now that you understand the many advantages of social media for small business, are you excited to up your game with a powerful Social Media Marketing Strategy?
Want more information of the benefits that starting social media can bring to your business? Get more valuable content by signing up for Becoming Digirati!
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