Social media is not the end-all, be-all of your business. It’s not the magic bullet that will allow you to take a struggling business to the height of success simply by claiming your Twitter account. But what social media can do is make you a better company by allowing you to listen, react and build faster and more efficiently than ever before. Below you’ll find 18 quick reasons that your SMB may want to get involved in social media. These are the benefits you can achieve faster in social media than most other mediums.
Is this a complete list? Not by a long shot. But perhaps it will demonstrate the power of these channels and why social media is far more than simply “playing on your computer.”
What can your business achieve through social media?
1. Visibility: Engaging in social media and blogging on a steady basis helps me achieve constant visibility with my audience. By participating in conversations, sharing daily food for thought, and making myself and my brand part of their day, I stay top of mind when someone is looking for a social media agency or an SEO consulting company. Don’t discount the power of that – of creating a visible brand.
2. Brand yourself as a resource: All that being visible and sharing content? It’s a waste of time! Why bother doing it? Well, because by doing it you establish yourself as a resource. You become the “go-to” person for that topic and the voice that people trust in your industry. That’s how you brand yourself as an expert in your niche and make your company the one that others seek out and turn to. We trust those we know and those we see others trusting.
3. Easily get speaking gigs: Who do conference organizers, reporters or your local chamber of commerce seek out when looking for speakers or sources? The people in the industry who are both trusted and visible. Thanks to social media, your SMB can quickly become both.
4. Build a community: By making yourself available, reaching out to customers and sharing information, you strengthen your community. You form new connections, allow community members to meet one another, and create a deeper dialogue by increasing the number of voices.
5. Decrease time to conversion: Do you know what happens when someone from social media lands on your site to make a purchase? They do it faster. They need less convincing, less hand-holding and less actual talking to you. They feel that way because they already know you. They read your blog, follow you on Twitter, get your deals via Facebook. You’re not a stranger. You’re their friend — someone they trust and feel comfortable doing business with.
6. Highlight your product: Social media offers an additional avenue to show off and talk about your product in a friendly and informal way. You get to highlight what you offer and what makes you awesome in normal conversation without coming across “salesy” or too promotional. You also have the opportunity to answer questions, show features and offer “how-to’s” to help people get to know you a little better.
7. Find new projects & clients: Every week my company, Outspoken Media, receives new client referrals and leads as a result of our social media presence. People contact us for services or to partner on something because they like what we’re doing on Twitter or because they read one of our blog posts and it resonated with them. When you make yourself part of the conversation, you make your brand part of the story…and people notice.
8. Hang with other influencers: They say we are the company we keep, right? Well, social media lets you be friends with the people your customers most look up to, helping to increase your own authoritativeness by association. You look smarter when you talk to smart people.
9. Tell your company’s story: What has social media shown us? That people like to conduct business with companies they know. We like being introduced to the voices behind the logo because it helps us to feel a part of the company and invested in their success. By telling your company’s story and sharing that with users, you create a personal feeling and make people invested in your success.
10. Be a mentor: You’re not the only one using social media to network and meet people. So are others. And sometimes, you’re the person they’re trying to meet and the person they’re learning from.
11. Improve your writing skills: I’m not joking. Want to be a better writer? Enter the world of social media. You’ll be forced to be inform, entertain and provide a call to action in just a hundred or so characters. It will be the best writing class you’ve ever had.
12. Develop better ideas: Armed with blogs, forums and social discussions you’ll be able to try and get feedback on ideas before you spend any time developing them. You’ll see what works, what people hate and what they want more of, so you can produce more of what interests them and less of what puts them to sleep.
13. Network faster: Through Twitter, I can have a conversation with Chris Brogan, Anita Campbell, Erika Napoletano and Jonathan Fields all before lunch. You can’t buy that type of access. Luckily, through social media, you don’t have to.
14. Find partners: An offshoot of that “networking faster” thing is being able to find future partners, mentors or just really cool people to share resources with. Through social media and the world of blogging, I was able to meet someone I eventually started a business with and countless others I’ve collaborated with on other projects. I’ve also met mentors and friends who have shaped my career and my business.
15. Get answers faster: Need help figuring out the best tool to help you manage your finances as a small business owner? Curious how to set up a custom Facebook landing page? Need advice for how to hire better employees? When you get involved in social media, you build up a network of people who can help you answer these questions and point you to resources faster than you can find them yourself. Social media lets you do more, faster.
16. Create a resource depositary: Every time someone tweets an article that I find extraordinarily useful, I save it. It goes into a document and gets filed there for future use. The next time I’m looking for a tutorial, some inspiration or a guide, I pull it out and give it another look. Or I share it with someone who I think could benefit from it. This resource depositary, again, lets me work faster and better.
17. Develop your company culture: A funny thing happens when your brand has to be social and talk to customers in real time. You’re forced to really pin down who you are and what you want your brand to be. Are you corporate? Are you super friendly? Are you funny? Are you helpful? Are you all about customer service? What makes you you? Who are you? You don’t know until you take the time to figure it out.
18. Better hires: Using social media can help your company hire smarter and faster by not only introducing you to more qualified candidates but also helping you to establish your referral network, Where you once used to spend your time digging through a pile of resumes, social media helps you cut through the clutter and find the most talented gems.
Those are just a handful of ways that social media can help your business. Are there other ways to achieve some of these goals? Absolutely. But I think social media helps us all to tackle them both more effectively and faster.
How do you use social media?
Golf Flag Photo via Shutterstock
Couldn’t agree with #13 more. Social media allows you to go beyond your local area and network with people everywhere. However, I haven’t yet figured out how to capitalize on #3. Getting that first gig is a major hurdle (so far).
tom (watkins products Associate)
number one really hits the target especially with say twitter where someone with a huge following retweets to his/her followers your name/brand is instantly and at no cost seen
George
14. Finding Partners
I really think that this is one of the most understated things now adays. You see alot about “community” being said, but not very much about investing the time to establish relationships that could develop to the level of mentor or business associate over months and years.
This is one of the hardest things to market, but in the long run can end up being one of the most signifcant.
Thanks for this excellent post.
I especially agree with #5 on this list. When used properly, social networks can absolutely help to guide people further down the sales funnel… even if the majority of your tweets/posts are not “sales-y” in nature.
Alessandra
I LOVE the idea of a resource depository. Saving articles that you think can be useful in the future is a great way of stay inspired, and to become a value to your followers and fans. I recently wrote a blog post on small biz and big biz and how they both are using social media in their marketing plans. Check it out here: http://www.mysmn.com/big-biz-little-biz-a-return-to-the-mom-and-pop-shop/
Very good. Item #5 Decrease time to Conversion is the kind of benefit that gets senior management attention. And it’s really a culmination of many of the other points made. But social media can work against a company that has not taken steps to understand it, work it into their existing mix, and monitor it. I wonder what BizSugar means by the first comment. It is not the magic bullet and will not help a company that is struggling already. First business plan, then marketing plan, then social media. Period.
Great list! I also like to use social media as a way of gathering information from certain groups. Think of it as online focus groups, but free!
Anuj
This is a great overview on how to establish a great presence using social media. I think many people make the mistake of trying to stuff their product down someones throat and forget that people are advertised to ALL DAY, and are sick of it. A solid “guerrilla marketing” tactic like using social media effectively will go a long way in building return clients, and becoming a dominant source of information for your niche.
GREAT POST AGAIN!…
Social Media marketing is a must have for all businesses today. You should decide on one to two channels by analyzing where you best audience are and focus on those channels and try to engage them. Try to make this habit and spend 30-60min everyday doing this religiously and the results will be rewarding.
Kristi Marc
Hi Lisa,
I really enjoyed this article. I actually recommended that my readers check it out, so I posted your link on my blog. You can see the referral here: mysocialmediaadvice.com/?p=365
Thanks for such great content!
Kristi Marc
This is a great overview on how to establish a great presence using social media. I think many people make the mistake of trying to stuff their product down someones throat and forget that people are advertised to ALL DAY, and are sick of it.
Aira Bongco
We are in an age when using social media is no longer optional. It is essential lest you want to miss out with your target market.