At Local Digital, we love our statistics. Here’s one for you: in 2022, there are 4.60 billion active social media users worldwide.
Shocked? Here’s another: 92.1% of Internet users connect via mobile.
You know what else is predominantly accessed on mobile? Social media platforms.
It’s safe to say that social media is unparalleled when it comes to its reach for building customer relationships and enhancing lead generation.
Today, we’ve pooled together our top advantages of social media marketing, and why it can work for your business.
Strap in, and let’s get started!
You reach large audiences
There are billions of people using social media worldwide. It goes without saying that social media has incredibly large reach, and can allow you to reach leads that you wouldn’t otherwise.
Here are some rough statistics around adults that use social media sites, either online or on mobile:
- YouTube: 73%
- Instagram: 35%
- Facebook: 68%
- LinkedIn: 25%
The ability to reach large audiences open doors for you, helping your business find more leads that are interested in your product or service.
You can directly connect with your audience
Another huge benefit of social media is that it is one of the few marketing strategies which allow you to directly connect with your audience.
By customers choosing to follow your social media profiles, you know that they are interested in your business and what you have to share.
This can help you in so many ways, most notably:
- You can get to know them better: by delivering more valuable content to them.
- You provide better customer service: allowing you to resolve issues easier.
- You gain valuable insight about your customers: which can help you adapt your strategy for your followers.
- You can witness how your audience perceives your business: knowing what your audience thinks can help you capitalize on what people like about your business.
This direct connection with your audience is an amazing way to improve your overall marketing campaign. It will provide you with insight from your followers, allowing you to adapt your social media strategy accordingly.
You can create organic content
Not only can you post organic content, but it’s completely free!
Allowing you to connect with valuable leads down this route comes at no additional cost to your business, which can be nothing but good.
You can post as frequently as you like to engage with your audience, enriching your profile with photo and video content as you please. It’s an awesome way to put your brand out into the world, and offer potential customers the opportunity to engage.
You can access paid advertising services
Going beyond organic posting gives you the option to run paid advertisements. Each social platform offers their own version of this, and the social media capabilities will vary depending on the platform.
Overall, running Facebook Ads, Instagram ads or other forms of paid advertisements offer the opportunity to connect with interested leads that are yet to find your business.
Social media platforms allow you to tailor ads to appear in the feeds of people who are searching for your products and services.
You can build your brand
Another advantage of social media marketing is being able to build your brand. By connecting with interested leads, you expose them to your brand, and in turn, build brand recognition.
People tend to buy from brands they know well, so the more brand recognition you build, the more likely that people are to buy from your business.
Through social media, you can also utilize the share function. By sharing, retweeting and pinning content on these platforms, customers can share this content with friends and family, expanding your brand even more.
You drive traffic to your site
Another perk of social media is being able to drive traffic to your business’s website.
Most social media platforms allow you to post content and link back to your website. By doing this, audiences will be enticed to click the link when on your profile, therefore directing them to your site to learn more about your business.
Potential leads can check out your website, and even use your site to book appointments, pay bills, or complete any other business-relevant activities.
More traffic on your site can also help you with other marketing efforts, because you’ll be driving relevant traffic to your page. Everyone wins!
You can evaluate your performance
A further advantage when it comes to social media marketing is the ability to assess your performance. It’s important to know how a marketing campaign is performing, and analytical insights provided by social media platforms can do this for you.
You can determine who is seeing your posts, commenting, liking, sharing, and more. If you’re running an advertising campaign, you can see further metrics like clicks, conversions, and impressions.
By being able to evaluate your social media strategy’s performance to this extent, you can optimize your strategy and improve it to drive the best results for your business.
Social media networks are free!
Similarly to posting social media content, it is also free to join these networks. None of the largest platforms (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc) have any costs associated with joining, so your only necessary investment is time.
It is also worth mentioning that there are paid advertising options that you can use on most social media platforms. These aren’t mandatory, but can be a great tool for growing your following and reaching more users.
Special targeting on these platforms can also be used to your advantage, focusing on as niche an audience as you like in order to generate more leads.
Your content can go viral
Memes, short snappy videos, TikToks and more - these are all examples of content that tend to go viral on social media platforms. People love to share with their networks - from photos, to videos, and everything in between.
However wide your reach, your followers can share content with their followers, who can then share with their followers, and the cycle continues. This gives you a much larger reach without any of the largest costs that come with a traditional marketing campaign. What’s not to love?
You can uncover valuable insights
Finally, the information you can gain from social media marketing is unparalleled. It can help you make smarter business decisions, discover what people are saying about your brand, and uncover conversations about your offerings.
What do people like about your business? What don’t they? How can you improve your offerings to better meet what the people want?
Understanding the answers to these questions can be done with the help of social media - therefore making your business stand out and reach more people.
You did it!
You’re officially a social media marketing whiz!
In our eyes, at least.
As said, in a saturated market, using social media marketing to your advantage is essential. With your competition likely on social media too, what’s stopping you?
Using analytical tools, expanding your reach and taking advantage of advertising capabilities on these platforms are all useful tips to help you make the most out of social media.
Our personal favourite tip? Throw in a few cute cat pics. What is the Internet without cat pics, after all?
As always - if you’re looking for that extra edge, get a free proposal with Local Digital, and we’ll handle the hard social media yards for you.
