Social Media Growth For Your Business

Social media, the free tool to grow your business, a fundamental tool for digital marketers. Building a strong brand identity to drive all aspects of a growing business from its sales, marketing, customer service and e-commerce. It is a way to connect with your customers and increase brand awareness. 

According to Pew Research and the 2020 Sprout Social Index 89% of consumers say they will buy from brands they follow on social media and 75% say they’ll increase their spending with brands they follow. This suggests social media provides immense potential for businesses because consumers habitually log on to it daily and are exposed to companies. It also presents huge challenges for businesses, however, because it's an ever-changing space that is extremely noisy and crowded. In order to grow your social media attention these are the things you need to do in order to boost your social ranking.‍

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Before you engage with any social media platforms:
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Firstly, identify your target audience. What media does your target turn to for information? Determine what social media platforms are popular in relation to your chosen consumer base.

Think about the following factors:

1. Assess your target audience

          a. Age 

           b. Location

           c. Gender

           d. Income level

           e. Education level

           f. Marital or family status

           g. Occupation

           h. Ethnic background

2. Are there enough people who fit my criteria?

3. Can I reach them with my message with your chosen social media platform? 

4. Are they easily accessible?

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Analyse which social media platforms are best for your business, different networks have different purposes such as Facebook being the largest platform with 2 billion plus active users and LinkedIn is great for networking with industry professionals. Deciding which is best so you can generate post ideas relevant to each network, take advantage of setting up catchy titles, keywords and tags for your social sites. 

Look at the landscape of your competitors, your audience and comments examine which post ideas you’ve generated resonates with your followers. Strategically determine a goal and plan your posts to hit a target audience, the topics they are interested in, the type of content you need to curate and to schedule posts. 

Consider partnering with influencers and PR professionals that appeal to your target audience, collaborating with big social media identities is a great way to develop and increase your brand's awareness. Additionally posting frequently will help develop your brand’s visibility and online presence. Although it's important to be an active social presence, it takes a lot of time and dedication to create heaps of content so utilise tools to help schedule and automate posts such as Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Buffer and ContentStudio.

After engaging with your chosen social media platform:

Having a presence that is consistent, and also a pleasure to see will help to build audience trust. Customers appreciate knowing that when they post comments on your pages, they will receive a personalized response rather than an automated message. Being able to acknowledge each comment shows that you are attentive to your visitors' needs and aim to provide the best experience. 

Consumer satisfaction and brand loyalty are linked to developing your business to be more authoritative, but it all comes down to communication. When consumers see your company posting on social media, especially replying to customers and posting original content, it makes you appear more credible. 

Once you obtain a few satisfied customers who are vocal about their positive purchase experience, you can let the advertising be done for you by actual customers who enjoyed your product or service. Even though the practice of social selling is becoming increasingly popular among salespeople and marketers, the actual process of using social networks to drive growth is much different from what most people are used to. Rather than using social as an active promotional platform, it's best to use it as a tool for engagement and communication. 

Your social media goals will determine the metrics that matter to you such as post reach, potential reach, social share of voice etc. Hootsuite goes into various details as to studying specific metrics relevant to you. It’s important to measure these to ensure you're on the right track with your strategy. 

Overtime, you will see your social media presence excel and your business will also notice improvement in sales, engagement and to evolve your innovation skills in order to crush your competitors.