Social media has helped level the playing field when it comes to growing your brand. Gone are the days when only companies with big budgets have the monopoly when it comes to advertising. Sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have a lot of potential. However the key is to grow your following in order to gain traffic.
Why Is Social Media Important for Business?
Pretty much everyone uses social media these days. At the time of writing, Instagram has 700 million active monthly users and 400 million daily active users. Similarly Facebook has more than 1.94 billion active monthly users and 1.28 billion active users every day. Smart phones have made social media sites more accessible and the trend of sharing daily activities and experiences has helped increase its popularity. In the past it would be difficult to reach such a large number of people without an extensive advertising campaign. However, by creating a following you can not only reach a large audience but an audience that is targeted and active. This is a great way to grow a website, increase traffic and build your brand’s popularity.
Social media is used by established companies, popstars, actors, make-up artists, hair dressers and even head hunters in search of new talent. However, staying relevant is about more than posting regularly.
It Keeps You Relevant
The communication age is in full swing and it is more important than ever to remind yourself to your customers and show prospective customers that you are relevant. Social media helps you to reach them effortlessly. They can find out about your latest product or service and what you are up to simply by logging into their account. They are unlikely to visit your website every day but they probably will check their Instagram, Facebook or Twitter account to see what is new with the people they follow. If you have news, you can use a meme or beautiful photo to share it via your social media account. Making interesting posts regularly will keep you in the minds of your followers and help you to reach a wider audience. Instagram growth takes patience but it also requires knowledge and relevant engagement. When building your following, to achieve optimum results, it is important to connect with users who are interested in your niche and are active. People who are interested in your niche are more likely to share, like and interact with your posts. Furthermore they will help you stay relevant.
In order to keep your audience engaged you need to be discerning about what you post, when you post and how you post. Your posts need to be relevant to your niche, interesting and give users chance to react. Posting all day every day can feel spammy and annoy your followers. If you must post several times a day, leave an hour or several hours between each post. Make sure all your posts contain hashtags as users will find you by searching specific hashtags and make an effort to engage with other users by liking and commenting on their posts. This is a great way to build relationships with prospective customers and help people to remember you. Social media is an incredible tool and, if it is used right, it can help you to market your business.
Community manager at Visual Contenting. Jacqueline loves to talk about social media trends, new technology and how they help businesses accelerate their marketing efforts.
