In a previous article, we talked about the different ways online marketing can help your small business. By offering a personalized approach and connecting with users – and potential customers – directly, you are building a stronger bond with the market. This bond, in turn, will benefit your small business; potential customers will instantly think of your brand the next time they need the products you’re selling.
In this article, we are going to focus more on the importance of social media. It is really so much more than just sharing promotional offers and responding to questions. How can social media help your small business? Let’s find out, shall we?
Stronger online presence
We’re so used to finding the information we need online. Now that Google and other top search engines are adding social media posts to their indexes, having a strong social media presence is simply a must. By developing lively and up to date profiles on multiple social media pages, you too can take advantage of the stronger online presence.
It is also not uncommon for users to search for things directly on social media platforms. Pinterest is a good example of a social media platform used by millions of users as a source of inspiration. By placing great visuals about your products on this platform, you’re tapping into a huge user base that will otherwise be inaccessible.
Last but not least, there is one added benefit your small business will enjoy from having stronger online presence: credibility. When potential customers see your social media pages and how you interact with your followers, they will get a nice boost in confidence and will be more likely to make a purchase. This is a benefit you certainly don’t want to miss.
Stronger relationships
In today’s competitive market, having a good relationship with your audience is a must. You can’t rely solely on promotional offers and ads; the emotional bonds you build with your audience will also play an important role in influencing their decision making process. Social media is the perfect platform for building such relationships.
Professionals have been using this approach and achieving great success on social media. If you review the way industry experts such as Tai Lopez interact on social media, you will quickly notice how there is a portion of their followers who are quick to engage whenever the experts post something on their profile. Your small business can also have the same kind of emotional, personalized relationship with the audience.
Stronger narratives
Do you know the best way to keep customers (and an audience in general) engaged? By getting them involved in the different processes of your business. This can be done through narratives. Sure, you can post stories on the Blog section of your online store, but social media works so much better for this purpose.
Let’s say you are releasing a new product in the near future. It is a good idea to take the audience behind the scenes and give them glimpses into how the product is made. You can share stories about the design process, how you take the customers’ input into consideration and how the idea is transformed into a tangible product that customers can buy.
Use strong visuals and take advantage of the different storytelling tools available on social media. On Twitter, for instance, you can post short videos about each specific process of the development stage. You can also share stories about the people behind the product development. As you share more parts of the story, you’ll get more users engaged.
At that point, you will have loyal followers eagerly waiting for the next part of the story. Imagine the build-up you can generate; when the product is actually available for purchase, you don’t have to spend a lot of energy to promote it. Storytelling, combined with the previous elements we talked about, is why social media is very important for your small business.
1 comment
Hey thomas, thanks for sharing this post here. Social media is now a part of business promotion, branding and marketing, not only for small business but for all size of business.
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