Many companies and small businesses need social media because it's a way to reach your target market with a new platform. You can share the amazing things your business does, all while boosting brand awareness.
Today, there is almost no reason not to have a social media account; if you don't, you should at least visit the social media platforms and make an account with your business name before someone else does!
"One of the best ways to grow rapidly using social media is by applying a social media automation campaign to your business. This allows Ai to engage with your target market consistantly, boositng your brand awareness and following on social media." - William Mingione, Founder of Slaterock Automation
Why Do Companies Need a Social Media Presence?
There are many great reasons to start building a social media presence online, and we see the benefits each and every day at Slaterock Automation.
Some of our clients are taking things to the next level by being super active social media users. They tend to post every week, multiple times a week, to prove to the social media platforms that they are worthy of being shown to others in the algorithm.
The benefits of having social media include:
Boosting Your Brand Awareness
Bringing life to your business - behind the scenes
Staying in front of your potential customers
Diverting traffic to your website
Driving more leads
Converting more sales
These are some of the best reasons for your company to have a social media presence, but the benefits don't stop there.
Driving more traffic to your website by staying in front of potential customers has the potential to spiral as users then re-share the content you are posting on your website.
What Platforms should my Company Be On?
Great question; with so many different platforms today, it may be hard to choose which platform your company should live on. Check out the chart below for more information about the specific platforms and how they break down.
Each platform has its own strengths and weaknesses, and that's why we all use multiple platforms! Today many b2b sales take place on LinkedIn, and many b2c sales take place on Instagram.
Because there are so many options, it may make it hard to implement a social media strategy when trying to post to different platforms.
One of the best ways to manage your social media is through an account like Hootsuite. This platform allows you to create and schedule your posts all in one place.
Another great option is to hire a social media or digital marketing manager. As the market grows rapidly, there are many social media managers available for hire, and you can get started in a matter of days.
Do You Need Social Media For Business?
When asking our team, Yes. If you haven't created a social media account for your business or company, you're late to the game. Most companies have already done so, even if they aren't active.
As mentioned above, social media is the best way to share your company's story, the people that work there, and the drive that pushes them to do what they do each day.
Today most business owners can agree that they need a social media presence, but they don't know where to start. Creating a social media strategy is the best way to lay out the framework needed to grow online. Without a strategy and a dedicated team or team member to complete the task, it's going to be hard to stay on top of things.
Why Should My Company Use Social Media?
If there is one goal on social media, it's to build brand awareness and an audience. The bigger your audience, the more traffic you can drive through your sales funnel, and as we know, the more traffic in your sales funnel, the more sales your business generates.
What is unique about having a large, and dedicated following on social media, is that your followers are deeply invested in your company and what it provides.
Study's have shown that traffic coming through a sales funnel from a social media following is almost twice as effective and ready to buy as other organic traffic. The question remains, why?
Social media gives your direct access to your user's hands and minds; by actively showing them the work you are doing, you are giving your following constant reminders that your company is alive and well.
Each time they see your post, it's as if they are looking at an advertisement. This is something markets of the past could only dream of.
Just look at how one of Slaterock's Clients has grown a following of over 50,000 people and is now selling shirts to help compensate her for her time and efforts as a content creator.
What Companies Need Social Media Marketing?
Many companies can benefit from social media marketing, and in fact, it's the main practice for any business that's using social media.
Social media marketing is more than just posting on your account to build a following.
Social Media Marketing
The best way to explain social media marketing is the practice of using social media as a marketing advantage our channel to get in front and stay in front of your potential customers.
Even if a particular follower never intends to buy, they may share your post with someone who does, giving your company even more reach than ever before.
Social Media Marketing includes things like demand generation and building an audience to eventually lead them down a sales funnel when the prospect is ready.
That's the benefit of using social media and remaining active. By staying on top of things and consistently posting your company's profile, you will stay in the minds of those viewing the post as long as you continue.
How Do Companies Use Social Media To Promote Products and Services?
The best way to promote products and services on social media is to simply show them in your posts. Feature them all over the place but in subtle, not sales-y ways.
No one wants to open their social media account and see YETI posting ads on their company's page. Instead, they want to see beautiful pictures of the world and hear the stories of the amazing people using YETI products.
Subtle Posts that Include Your Products
If you haven't checked it out already, just look at how YETI positions its products on its Instagram account. For years they have stood out as one of the best companies using social media marketing subtly and discretely that their followers don't mind seeing every day.
We recommend taking the same method and applying it to your company.
Determine all the use cases for your product(s) and look for different ways to photograph it being used in action, or maybe not in action! There are so many unique options for these kinds of shoots and styles, and it can give you an amazing route to growing your social media presence. YETI has 1.7 million followers (a cooler company with 1.7 million followers)
Special Offers and Giveaways
Another great way to promote your products and services is by utilizing special offers and giveaways to your audience.
This is a great tactic to generate more business, but it is also a great way to attract more followers. One of the most common giveaways is only available by sharing the post on that person's personal account, which can be seen by hundreds if not thousands of others.
This is a previous giveaway we ran here at Slaterock Automation.
Short Form Videos
Today's most significant trend for social media platforms is going short. As TikTok rolled out, millions have flocked to the platform to scroll through hours of short, minute or less, videos. Why are they so popular?
The answer isn't simple, but a few pointers include appeasing our curious minds that have little to no attention span. One second you can be looking at puppies. Another, you can view the alps from a plane.
Researchers have found that although we may not notice it, this entices us to keep scrolling to find more.
How to Use Short Form to Promote Your Products and Services
In a similar fashion to subtly showing your products and services through photos, Slaterock recommends showing your products and services using short-form video.
The idea is to capture your company's products/services used effectively by others. When someone scrolling sees this, they may be interested right away.
What should my Company Avoid On Social Media?
There are many things to avoid when running a social media account or campaign. The first and most important is engaging with mean or hateful comments. We all know these people that have nothing nice to say.
One of the worst things you can do is interact with them online. This leads both you and that person down the wrong path that benefits no one.
Engaging With Haters
After reviewing many instances of haters commenting and causing an issue with a company's social media account. Slaterock has found that in no circumstance does it make sense for the company to engage in this kind of activity.
Yeah, Don't do this...
It benefits no one and can only hurt the business and brand identity.
Pushing to Many Sales
Social media users do not want to see the companies they follow posting about selling their products. In that case, many people will immediately unfollow the account because it is just not what they want to see.
Generally, they see enough from the platform promoting the content as is.
Posting Too Much & Too Little
Posting too often can also cause followers to unfollow you because they are being bombarded with stuff from your business. Even if it's great content, many of us don't want to open our social media accounts to see the same thing over and over again.
Post too little, and it will be hard to grow because many social media platforms are looking for consistency.
The sweet spot is generally posting three to five times a week, depending on the type of content and the platform you are utilizing.
How to Build Social Media For Business
Building a social media account, contrary to popular belief, is not easy. Many business owners think that running a social media account is as simple as taking pictures and posting them online, but it's way more than that.
Although you can get away with running that way for a while, you most likely won't see much growth.
The first thing you need to focus on is developing a social media marketing strategy. Here are some good questions to ask yourself when creating a social media marketing strategy.
What is my target market
What platforms are they using
How can I best position my products/services
What kind of content am I going to use
How can I differentiate my content from others
How am I going to engage my audience
Generally, Slaterock recommends choosing one platform to start on and test these tactics. Immediately taking on many platforms will become too stressful and time-consuming, especially if you are not ready to hire a social media marketing professional.
Be Sure to Separate Your Business and Personal Account
This doesn't mean you don't post about your business on your personal account or don't post yourself on your business page, but the best practice is to separate the accounts for future growth.
You never know where your business will take you; having a separate account allows you to transfer those accounts over if needed.
Not only that but growing to separate accounts means double the impressions, more people seeing your content.
Why your Company Needs a Social Media Channel
There are so many great opportunities that can arise from growing a social media channel online. In fact, some of our clients have grown their entire business from social media.
You never know who will see your account at the right time and purchase.
Even if your social media does not generate more sales right away, you will be growing your brand awareness over time, which is nearly priceless. Today, large companies spend millions each year just to get their logo in front of users.
Gaining a real follower is way more powerful than pushing advertisements on users because they are coming to you instead of you going to them.
If your company doesn't have the time to set aside to create a proper social media campaign with a dedicated strategy, it may be worth it to hire someone who can. Outsourcing your social media allows you to continue focusing on your business while still receiving the benefits of starting a social media campaign.
500x500.png)