If I had a dollar for every time I heard the phrase “Hannah, get off your phone!” I would be a trillionaire. I cannot count how many times my mom has told me to stop looking at social media and start living in the real world. But what is the real world? Today I’ll focus on how to use social media for business success, because in the real world social media is at the center of everything.
“The omnipresent power” & how it has taken over our lives
Zuckerberg, Spiegel, Dorsey, Systrom – these are all names which have altered the trajectory of our lives. Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram, among many others, are what rule the world today and separate surviving businesses from extinct ones. Social media has taken over our world because it’s such an easy way to get a summary of a business and what they do. Social media, or as I like to call it, the omnipresent power, decides whether businesses will sink or swim, all because of three simple reasons:
- Accessibility
- Connectivity
- Convenience
Anyone, with a phone/tablet/computer and a stable internet connection can sign up to social media and see what’s going on in the world. They can also connect with their friends and family all over the world. Social media provides people a way to feel close to their loved ones at any point in time; and it’s such an easy way to communicate with people who are quite literally on the other side of the globe. Look at me and my mom: we send each other Instagram reels and feel connected to one another, although we are thousands of miles apart.
5 reasons why social media is a game changer
Social media is here to stay. In fact, during a recent Red Shoe Movement Signature Event in New York City, the topic of how to leverage social media to further a company’s goals was touched upon. The experts discussed how important it is to use social media for business success and briefly touched upon why it can be a game changer. Let’s look at the 5 reasons I came up with as to how social media can overturn a business.
1It brings you closer to the people you really want to connect with – your customers. Before customers buy from you, they will look at your social media presence and will make up their mind whether they want to buy from you or not.
2Your competitors are there. You have an easy way to benchmark yourself against other businesses in the industry. This not only decreases the amount of market research necessary, but it also makes the job 10 times easier because you have everything that you need with one click.
3It’s one of the easiest ways to get noticed by new customers. When posting giveaways, competitions, or anything else along those lines, new customers easily catch wind of it. Posts are shared and reposted and reshared which reaches a wider range of people.
4It’s a constant reminder of your company and the products/services you offer. Depending on your usage of social media, they will always have your company in the back of their minds. Keeping the memory of it fresh and warm.
5It builds a community. It makes your customers feel connected to your company and each other. When one person starts buying, then other people will too. The word will spread. Purely because everyone wants to be part of a social media trend, and no one wants to feel left out.
The risk of disregarding the importance of social media for business success
It doesn’t matter how many studies are done on the importance of social, nowadays, there are still some businesses that seem to think that social media is just a fad. However, the following statistics might change your mind and force you to double check whether you are using social media for business success.
- Around 55% of consumers learn about new brands online.
If you don’t have a strong social media presence, a lot of people won’t know that your company exists. You might be saying to yourself at this point, “but there are so many other ways that I can reach my customers”. And this is where I would say, yes, but no. The fact is that nowadays Gen Z and Millenials don’t check emails, don’t check Facebook, don’t read flyers or brochures and let’s not even talk about letters that come in the mail. Gen Z and Millenials will Google you online and if they don’t find anything about you, most of the time they will not trust the brand.
- Around 68% of consumers say that social media helps them interact with the company.
This is where digital customer service comes in: responding to comments, responding to direct messages, liking stories and tagging customers, are just a few ways you can establish trust with your consumers. Let’s take an example: imagine you walk into a store because you’d like to return a faulty product, but you cannot find a store clerk. Five, 10, 15 minutes pass and still no one approaches you and you also cannot find anyone. You get increasingly frustrated and at some point you walk out of the store and decide you will never go back in. The equivalent to that nowadays, is when a customer leaves a review online, and it is left unanswered; especially when they are angered with the product/service provided.
- Around 43% of customers have increased their social media use to discover new products online.
A big percentage of your customer pool probably discovered you through the Internet, and are now loyal because of it. If you don’t promote your products/services online then you won’t be as noticed as you could be.
Using social media for business success means using it the right way
As a Gen Zer, I grew up with social media; it’s my normal, and I would like to help you feel the same (but please take it with a grain of salt).
1Consistency is key – post multiple times a week and keep the content similar but not the same. You want to inform your customers of what’s to come, but you also want them hungering for more.
2Involve your customers – use social media features to your advantage: upload polls and surveys, let your customers ask questions and make sure they have a way to contact you. Bottom line, make sure that there is no wall between you and your consumer.
3Have fun – I see so many businesses online that take themselves too seriously and just post informative content with a lot of statistics. Don’t get me wrong, that’s also very important to do to establish credibility with your customers. But at the same time you want to show your customers that you are just like them, that you can have fun like them, that you think like them, and most importantly, that you understand
I know social media seems daunting. Believe me, even though I was born during the age of technology, I’m always surprised at the different things companies come up with to increase their social media presence. Hopefully this has convinced you that social media isn’t just a toy for young people, but it’s the key to success to build a thriving business.
