Charles Heitz
You’ve got a few minutes spare at the end of the day and you’re just winding down and thinking about going to bed. What do you do? Check status updates on Facebook? See what’s trending on Twitter? Flick through Google+ to see what your friends had for their dinner? Whatever your platform of choice, there’s no denying that social media is ingrained into our daily routines. It’s surprising, then, that many small businesses have yet to harness the power of social media as a marketing tool.
We’ve become an ‘always on’ society, practically glued to our smartphones or tablets to ensure that we keep in touch with the world (or maintain a healthy level of jealousy at how awesome all our friends lives are compared to ours). There are thousands of potential customers on Twitter, Facebook and Google+ right now; that’s a huge market that you’re simply ignoring and neglecting. Unacceptable!
Utilizing social media in the right way can do wonders for your business. Twitter, for example, lets you see what people are talking about and allows you to jump in with your own message straight away. Hashtags allow you to immerse your brand into a bustling community, and expose your business to hundreds of potential new clients.
Many businesses use Facebook as a customer service platform; customers see it as a faster and easier way to get in touch than accessing your website, finding your contact details and sending an email. The benefit? When you provide second to none customer service on Facebook, hundreds of other people see it, too. That’s hundreds of people impressed by your brand. You’re building trust not just with one customer, but hundreds of them, through one short Facebook comment. Awesome, right?
Let’s talk about Google+. Although this platform isn’t as mainstream as Twitter and Facebook, it does have benefits, a key one being its Communities feature. Creating and managing a Community on Google+ is reasonably simple for brands; once you’ve grown your list of community members, you can start to find what kind of interests they have, the kind of content they’re sharing and the things they like to talk about. The insights you learn here can help you to engage effectively with customers and deliver your brand’s messages in a way that resonates with them.
The best part about using social media to promote your brand? It’s free. Sure, you can pay for advertisements on these sites, but the most sincere way to engage with people via social is to set up a profile, and just get involved. So next time you’re perusing your personal social media accounts, log out, and log back in as your brand. Trust us: it will totally be worth it.
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