A thriving social media presence has become a prerequisite for running a business in the current
... times. With more than 3.5 billion monthly active u...A thriving social media presence has become a prerequisite for running a business in the current times. With more than 3.5 billion monthly active users on its networking platforms, social media has become an effective digital marketing tool that boasts of a massive reach. Smartphones and high-speed data connections have further amplified the use of its popular sites, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn etc.
From videos, music and vlogs to images, text messages and blogs, all type of content is being shared across geographical and demographical boundaries through these platforms. The enormity of the medium has made it an indispensable part of promotions and marketing. Since the world is glued to their screens for the most part of the day, it is the best way to contact your customers and keep them engaged.
Whether you are an established entrepreneur or looking for a thriving businesses for sale in Canada, you need to devise a robust social media marketing strategy to stay in touch with your audience. Here is a rundown on why it has become a vital part of the marketing efforts of small businesses.
Improve Visibility and Attract Targeted Traffic
The population of social media users in Canada is expected to reach 27.1 million by 2023, which ensures high exposure for your brand if you are present on these sites. Besides increasing awareness about your brand, social media helps to boost website traffic by bringing interested customers to the company website. It is easier to grab the attention of buyers by posting a link of the new blog or a landing page on the social sites.
When these posts get liked and shared by your followers, they start appearing in the feeds of their friends and thus expand your reach. Also, it ensures that you get only qualified leads since the people who are genuinely interested in your products will click on the links and land on your website for more information. Moreover, a brilliant and creative campaign can make you go viral, which can catapult your brand to ‘trending’ status online in no time.
Enhance Your Credibility and Maintain Reputation
Some of the prominent social media sites such as Facebook have features to get your business rated by consumers. The ratings and reviews play a significant role in establishing the reputation of the brand and finding new customers. Also, social media gives the business owners a platform to respond to negative reviews promptly and pacify disgruntled consumers with immediate solutions to promote excellent customer service.
You can utilise the social networks to boost public relations by making important announcements on the profile pages, and you can nip negative stories in the bud by presenting facts and calming down the agitated audience professionally. It helps in times of crisis management when you have to salvage the image of the brand by taking prompt action online. Your search engine optimisation also gets a boost as search engines like Google and Bing put emphasis on high social media engagement while ranking sites.
Communicate Freely With Your Audience
The traditional media channels provide only one-sided communication while social media allows a two-way engagement which adds a personalised touch. It extends the opportunity to reply to comments and start a thread of discussions on various aspects of the products being offered.
The diversified features of the platforms allow you to connect with your audience in a variety of ways, such as Facebook Live wherein you can answer their questions through live streaming. You can respond to their complaints quickly and gain their confidence and goodwill. Most small business owners, while offering tips for success, recommend utilising social media for marketing because of its cost-effectiveness and widespread popularity.
Supports Market Research through Analytics
Social media channels also offer reporting and analytics that helps you to understand your target audience in a better way as you get to know their demographic information. You can pull up data related to the usage of social sites so you can stop wasting your time in irrelevant pursuits and concentrate on the channels that are used by your audience.
You will be able to gauge which content is gaining maximum traction and leverage it to engage your audience. These social metrics help you to improve your marketing strategy by determining what is working and what is being rejected by the users.
Monitor Your Competitors
When you have a social media plan and are reviewing the top social sites, you will automatically gain insight into the strategy of your competitors and how they are faring. You can take advantage of their weaknesses and get inspired by their strengths.
For instance, if a competitor’s customers are annoyed and complaining, you can offer them your product while highlighting your superior service and quality. It can help in converting people into loyal customers and improving sales.
Utilise Influencers and Thought Leaders
Leveraging influencers has emerged as an excellent way to persuade customers to take action. When thought leaders and industry experts start talking about your brand on social media platforms, their wide number of followers take notice of your products and services. It aids in increasing your sales and lends your brand authority.
It is similar to generating word of mouth publicity and gaining a wider audience. The content promoted by influencers does not come across as marketing and helps in enhancing brand loyalty and credibility. The trending hashtags started by them can make your content go viral.
Social Media Advertising
Although it is free to post comments and share blogs on social media, entrepreneurs can take advantage of social media ads which are cheaper than traditional advertising. Also, the best part about social ads is that your ad budget is not getting wasted as the ads are highly targeted. Their effectiveness can be gauged from the fact that the federal government spent $7.8 million on social media ads in 2018.
It allows you to choose the platform, demographics, geographical location, time of showing the ad and more to communicate your message to your audience. Retargeting is an additional feature which allows entrepreneurs to show relevant ads to potential customers. For instance, if a buyer has browsed your products online, but has not made the purchase, you can show them ads of the same products to persuade them to take action.
Conclusion
Marketing without social media presence is only half the job done. In today’s digitally connected world, you need to be present online to make an impact. Thus if you are looking for business opportunities in Canada, then you must make sure that you utilise social media in the best possible way to capitalise on its reach, affordability and influencing power.
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