There’s no escaping it. If you’re looking to promote your personal brand or business, there is no better place to do it than on social media. However, if you’re one of those who still insists that you’re doing just fine without it, let me show you why you should reconsider and how social media can help you do better.
Cost Effective
The old days of needing to be a major corporate conglomerate with deep pockets to advertise are over. The advent of the internet and, subsequently, social media has put the ability to promote a brand or small business literally at everyone’s fingertips.
If you have an idea, business, or talent that you want to promote, social media can do it easily, effectively, and very economically. Creating and signing up is free on most social media platforms, which makes using those platforms a no-brainer for all, and while taking out social media ads on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have minimal costs, organic promotion of your content is still free.
Although organic promotion requires more dedication and time to get results, it is very doable and effective with motivation and persistence. I always suggest that small businesses, personal brands, and individuals new to social media start out by building as much organic reach as possible with their content before opening their wallets for ads and paid reach.
Brand Awareness
What better place to make people aware of who you are and what you do then a free social media platform? According to Statista, the average American spends an average of 2 hours a day on social media. In other countries that average is over 4 hours a day.
This shows the power that sits at your fingertips. Promoting your small business or personal brand on social media is one of the smartest and inexpensive ways to advance awareness of who you are, what you do, and how you can help your clients or customers.
The more people see your content and interactions on social media platforms, the more familiar they become with you and your products or services. The more familiar they are the more likely they are to have business dealings with you.
Better Engagement and Relationships
Social media is one of the best ways to engage and interact directly with your ideal clients or customers. Consistently putting out quality content that is engaging builds your audience and your expertise in the field.
Also, asking your audience questions about what they need and want, what challenges they need solutions to, and how you can serve them better shows that you care about them and want to help. This builds trust and community around your brand.
Social media also helps to make you aware of and puts you in touch with experts in your field that you can learn from and possibly partner with to make your brand stronger and more recognized.
Builds Positive Reputation
When your current or future clients or customers consistently see you or your brand engaging and interacting with them, it builds a sense that they are a part of your online family.
In addition to the sense of community that you build here, knowing that you are there to answer questions and resolve issues quickly helps to build a positive reputation for you and your brand.
This in turn makes it easy for your audience to recommend your products and services to everyone they know. This, my friend, is called organic growth and it’s one of the best things for you and your business.
Increased Website Traffic
Social media also is one of the best ways to get more traffic to your website. Quality content like blogs, vlogs, podcasts, Live videos, and webinars are great ways to bring your followers on social media to your website.
This increased traffic to your website increases the chances of some of those people turning into customers of your products and services.
Better SEO Rankings
It used to be that better SEO rankings were primarily determined by keeping your website content fresh and consistent but things in the SEO world are constantly changing.
Today not only is keeping your website up to date and creating new content part of the SEO equation, so is your social media presence. The powers that be in the SEO kingdom, now look at your social media activity as well.
Increased Understanding of your Audience
Interacting with your social media following allows you to get vital information from your audience just by asking. Creating quizzes, surveys, and challenges for your followers helps to extract information from them freely that used to be difficult to get otherwise.
Engaging with your audience and asking them what their biggest struggles are, what they want from your company, what they feel you can do better, what they feel you do great, and so much more will create a pool of data that will help you constantly stay ahead of your competition. All you have to do is ask.
Improved Customer Service
A 2018 survey found that 47% of U.S. respondents stated that they have a more favorable view of companies that respond to questions or complaints on social media.
Keeping yourself aware of what is happening on your social media profiles can allow you to stave off problems and challenges with your brand’s image quickly and effectively.
Another recent survey found that most people would rather go to a company’s social media site to get resolutions to problems with products or services than calling or emailing them.
Get Ahead of Your Competition
Your competition may already be on social media. Refusing to have a social media presence only gives your competition customers that could easily be yours. Why would you voluntarily do that?
And if your competition isn’t on social media, you being there can gain your brand customers that might otherwise know about you. Being present on social media gets your brand lots of eyeballs and the more they see you, the more likely they are to buy from you.
Reach New Clients
Social media is a funny thing. It allows you to reach people that you wouldn’t otherwise have access to. When you post content on your social media pages, people tend to digest it and if it is in alignment with their wants and needs, they will comment, like, and share with everyone they know. Doing this allows your brand to reach people who didn’t even know they needed your products or services and leads them right to you.
I could make this list of reasons to promote on social media go on forever but I think I’ve made my point. If you and your brand do not have a social media presence, today is the day to start. It only takes a few minutes and it’s free. Now no more excuses! Get to it and watch your customer list grow daily.
