Entrepreneurship 101: The Value in Social Media Marketing

Entrepreneurship 101: The Value in Social Media Marketing

Have you noticed all the ads that pop up as you scroll through your social media these days? That’s because social media marketing is now big business.

Gone are the days of ads appearing solely on traditional media channels such as TV or radio. Now, social media marketing rules—and has opened up a valuable channel for reaching potential clients and customers.

To put it in perspective, let’s consider Facebook. According to Hubspot, there are 1.13 billion daily active users on Facebook. Now imagine if your social media marketing goal was to reach just 0.5% of that market—that’s 5.65 million people a day that would see your ad! And that’s just on Facebook alone.

But, how can you use social media interactions to inform your business decisions? And what type of social media marketing will help you reach your target audience and boost website traffic?

Check out my tips for leveraging social media marketing to your advantage!

Social Media Gives You Insight into Your Customers 

Every like, re-tweet, comment, and share on your social media accounts generates a wealth of real-time information about your customers—and your competitors.

Who your customers are, what they like, what they think about a particular product, and what they’re looking for in future products are just some of the data you can generate from social media interactions. Monitoring your competitors’ social media strategy also allows you to stay updated on what they’re doing and adjust accordingly.

Ultimately, the more you engage with your customers through social media, the more data you’ll generate to help guide your business decisions.

Social Media Lets You Target Your Customers

Time is money. The faster you share information with your target audience, the better.

Social media marketing allows you to run targeted ads that generate customer interest quickly.

You can filter your ad campaign by audience location, interests, age, gender, and other factors, ensuring that you get the most out of your advertising efforts. Instead of wasting time and money on widespread, broadly applicable advertising, you’ll be able to selectively target your customers and market directly to them.

Social media posts and ads will direct people right to your website, driving traffic and encouraging business. Plus, the more shares you receive on social media, the higher you’ll rank on all-important Google searches.

4 Tips to Make the Most of Your Social Media Marketing

1. Set Your Social Media Goals

Before starting your social media marketing efforts, identify what you’d like to accomplish with your campaign. Knowing what you want to achieve will help you choose the best social media platform for your needs and help you adjust accordingly if you aren’t getting the results you’d like.

Keep in mind that your social media marketing goals should be in line with your overall business objectives. This will ensure that your activity on social media is driving your business forward—not hindering it.

2. Create the Appropriate Social Media Accounts

Based on your goals, choose the best social media platform for your needs. Different platforms reach different target audiences, so make sure to do your research, identify the best platform for your customers, and focus your attention there.

If you already have existing social media accounts, put in the effort to constantly improve and update your pages to enhance customer experience. Don’t let the content on your account get stale or your audience may lose interest. And be sure to cross-promote across all your social media accounts in order to reach more potential customers!

3. Listen to Your Target Audience 

As I mentioned before, social media helps you get familiar with your target audience—who they are and what they want.

Engaging with your audience will often involve listening to what they have to say instead of forcing them to listen to your message. The more you listen to your customers through social media interactions, the better-equipped you’ll be to provide them with exactly what they need.

4. Specialize, Don’t Generalize

The world of social media is cluttered and busy, so don’t just contribute to the noise.

A focused social media strategy has a better chance of success than one that tries to appeal to everyone. Focus your efforts on building a strong brand identity that appeals to your target audience rather than having an average brand that appeals to the masses.

Social Media Marketing: It’s Here to Stay

When done right, social media marketing can help propel your business to success. The truth is, in today’s world, if you don’t have a social media presence, then you’re doing yourself and your business a serious disservice.

Effective social media marketing is not trivial—your content must be constantly updated and always engaging—but your efforts are likely to be rewarded with increased website traffic and business.

Social media marketing is here to stay, so use it to your advantage!