Everybody is on at least one social media site these days, right? Maybe not everyone, but at least 3 billion people, which is pretty close. You are probably on social media yourself. But how about your business? Does that need to have a social media page as well? If you want to be seen by your target audience, it does.
Which site to focus on will depend primarily on who you audience is, but one fact remains clear: people talk to one another through social media. If you want to be a part of that conversation, you need to be there as well.
Why is it so important for your business to be there too? Read on.
It’s How You Build Awareness
If everyone is on social media right now, you won’t be noticed unless you are there too. Imagine you are at a party. Most often, you are thinking about the people who are there more than the people who are not there. Sure, you might remember someone a friend told you about earlier in the day, but she won’t be in the forefront of your mind like the people who are in your vision at that moment.
Social media is that party. You are likely to forget the name of a business someone tells you about word-of-mouth, but you’re more likely to remember the business someone shares with you on your Facebook page. And then, a visit is only a click away.
It’s How You Target Customers
One of the best features of the business end of social media sites is the ability target your audience. Because of the expansive growth of the social media world, it is impossible for all your posts to connect to all your followers. So, the networks need to develop algorithms to determine who will get to see which posts. They ask for your help by asking you to indicate who you would like to see your ads.
The first thing you will need to do is decide which sites your target audience visit the most. (Here is a basic idea, if you don’t already know. Basically, the younger audiences are found on Instagram and SnapChat, while the older generations are still using Facebook.) From there, you can narrow the audience for your ads to reflect the demographic you would most like to reach.
It’s How You Hear the Rumors
People want to be heard. Especially when they have a poor experience and are angry, customers want people to know about what happened. If it was negative, and it happened in your place of business, you are going to want to be the first to find out about it and turn it around.
It can even come out positive for you in the long run. Catch the hashtag calling to boycott your business when a clerk didn’t smile at the customer. Address it right away – right there on the person’s comment – and suddenly you become the business that cares enough to act right away. You may or may not win back the person who was offended, but others will see that you make an effort. And there’s a case of any publicity being good publicity.
It’s How You Encourage Engagement
Have you ever been bothered by forgetting the name of the person you wanted to talk to or the site you wanted to visit? It happens to everyone, which is not good for business. However, the more often you are in front of the eyes of your audience, the more likely they will remember you. Beyond that, when you reach your audience in such a way that they need to respond to you, you have reached a part of their brain that is closer to their long-term memory, and they will remember you even better.
It’s How You Offer Support
As mentioned above, social media is the first place people tend to turn when they want to have a problem fixed. If you do not have a page on social media, frustrated customers are likely to just stay there and complain rather than search out a new way to get their problem fixed.
You must make sure, however, that if you have a support page, that you check it frequently. It bodes worse for you to leave problems ignored than to not have a presence at all.
Social media can no longer be cast aside as frivolous. If you aren’t there, you are not just missing customers, but you are missing what potential customers could be saying. Registering a business page on all social media sites is free, so you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
