Social Media Marketing: Your Key to Business Success
Today, we have an exciting topic to explore— How Social Media Marketing is Your Key to Business Success. If you're ready to boost your brand's visibility and take your business to new heights, you're in the right place! Before we dive in, let me share some eye-opening statistics on social media usage and how it's transforming the business landscape.
Did you know that over 4.9 billion people are active on social media every day? That's almost half of the world's population! And guess what? Social media is no longer just a place to connect with friends—it's now a goldmine for businesses too. In today's competitive market, digital marketing, especially on social media, is absolutely essential for your business's success. So, let's explore why you should be leveraging the power of social media to grow your business!
1) Reach and Audience
The reach of social media in 2024 is mind-blowing! You have access to a local or global audience right at your fingertips. Just Imagine becoming the number 1 local business customers think of in your city. And if you run an online business, imagine connecting with potential customers from all around the world—all through a single platform.
Social media allows you to target specific demographics and interests, ensuring that your message reaches the right people at the right time. It's like having a personalized marketing strategy for every potential customer!
SUCCESS STORY: RYAN SERHANT
Just look at this success story— Ryan Serhant, one of my favorite examples of an entrepreneur who is serious about using social media for his real estate business. For those who don't know Ryan, he is a New York real estate broker and social media personality but this wasn't always the case. Ryan started off in real estate in 2008 and only made $9,000 his first year. Although Instagram didn’t come out until 2010, Ryan was actively on the lookout for opportunities to build his name in the real estate game. By 2010 he auditioned for Bravo's television series Million Dollar Listing New York and got the part. Fast forward to today, Ryan is basically on every major platform and is riding the wave of building his personal brand in front of the camera.
Now you're probably thinking, “im not a tv star” and you don't have to be. Ryan’s online success in building an audience stems from seeking opportunities to showcase his skills and personality. In 2010 IG wasn’t a thing, but television was, so it's the principle that matters here. As a high level entrepreneur, Ryan focused on getting on traditional media, and as social media slowly came out, it was merely another avenue for him to grow his reach.
The results? Over 2 Million followers on instagram alone. Over 700,000 on Tiktok and 630,000 on Facebook. Just think for a second, all the opportunities social media has opened up for him. And If your business is not based on a personal brand, the potential social media has for your business is no different. Take Gymshark, Moment, and Redbull for example. These businesses are great examples of non personal brands that have focused on getting their product in front of millions of people through social media.
2) Brand Building and Recognition
Building a strong brand identity is crucial in 2024, and social media platforms offer unique opportunities to do just that. To build a brand first and foremost you need to be extremely clear on just that: your brand.
Without diving too deep into what a brand is in this blog post, let's think of it as the collective customer experience your business provides from the moment a prospect hears about you until long after there's a transaction. Your brand is represented by many elements such as your logo, colors, style, tone of voice, the type of content and value your offer, as well as the systems in place to guide your customer through the journey of doing business with you.
Consistent branding and compelling storytelling create a lasting impression on your audience, making them remember you long after they've scrolled past. And this is why social media is amazing when it comes to brand building and recognition. With social media you have an online platform where you can control your audience's experience.
For example, check out Ty Corsie, Joe Rogan Experience, Vessi, Ten Tree. They've mastered the art of establishing their brand and connecting with their audience through creative and engaging social media content. If you have a scroll through or even follow them for a period of time, you will instinctively recognize their content because of their consistent branding efforts.
3) Building community engagement
Marketing is not just about broadcasting your message, but also engaging with your audience! Social media allows you to connect with your followers, build a loyal community, and foster meaningful relationships. Unlike traditional marketing where the dynamic is more so one way communication, social media opens up a feedback channel in the form of community engagement. If you post something valuable you can see it reflected in more shares and saves. If it's trendy enough, it may even go viral. And if you share something controversial, you can expect more discussions in the comments. All this is part of community building and you can use it to your business's advantage.
Furthermore, Responding to feedback, addressing concerns, and showing genuine interest in your customers can turn them into brand advocates and loyal supporters. The number one reason why customers choose you over a competitor can boil down to whether they believe in your brand and what it stands for. Therefore building a community around your brand on social media can be one of the biggest assets for your business.
Let's look at these businesses that have nailed community engagement. Safetywing, Canon, Sony, Sam Kolder, LuluLemon: Their followers feel like part of a family, and that kind of loyalty is absolutely priceless!
4) COST-EFFECTIVENESS
Here's something that will make you smile—social media marketing is incredibly cost-effective compared to traditional advertising methods. Just think of a few brands that still heavily rely on traditional marketing. For example, the fast food chain A&W. To this day I still see television advertisements, billboards, posters, and flyers in the newspaper. And all these physical marketing tools have tremendous costs to them. You have planning, production, distribution and the never ending evolution of promotions that require constant new and fresh ads. Now, I'm not saying there's no value to these forms of marketing. There sure is. But then again we are talking about a company with a .5Bn market cap.
On the other hand, you could run your own social media yourself, which nowadays won't cost you much more than your time. Though time is our most precious resource. And as a business owner, your time means money. So let’s instead consider hiring a social media marketing agency. A result driven SMMA can cost you around 30k a year, which is around the same as a 30 second tv ad, but with very distinct results.
A well-planned social media marketing agency can yield a high return on investment (ROI), in the forms of Increasing your reach and audience, building brand recognition, creating an engaging community, and stretching your marketing budget like never before. This is especially the case for local businesses like barbershops and beauty salons, realtors, car dealerships, and construction companies. These are a few types of businesses that can achieve outstanding results on social media without breaking the bank!
5) Analyzing and Optimizing Performance
Social media platforms provide valuable analytics and insights to measure the success of your campaigns. We’ve established that unlike traditional marketing, social media marketing opens your business up to two way communication. Your audience has the ability to engage with your content in the form of likes, shares, saves, and comments. Social media allows you to track key metrics and make data-driven decisions to help you optimize your marketing strategies for even better results. These analytics are especially important when strategizing what type of content to share and how to go about sharing it.
Here are some pro tips to help you make the most out of your social media analytics! Without obsessing over numbers, keep an eye on how your audience engages with your content. It can tell you what content is work and what isn't. What content got more engagement? Was it a video? A photo? A carousel slide? Was it an entertainment post or a value packed post? Was the content you shared conducive to driving more sales this month? Or did it completely flop?
Paying attention to how your audience engages with your content will help you create better content as part of a strategy that drives leads for your business in 2024. And let's not forget social media ads! Using these analytics and information about your audience, you can launch a powerful low cost and high roi advertising campaign. We’ll save ads for another blog, but I still wanted to mention them as they are part of the reason why social Media Marketing is your Key to Business Success.
In conclusion
And that's a wrap! In this post we've covered why social media marketing is your key to business success in 2024. I hope this blog post provided you some perspective on how you can leverage social media to grow your business. Remember, its 2024, and social media is not just a trend—it can transform your business and with that, your life... So, if your business is not currently on social media, why not take the leap? or if you’re already using it, I hope this blog post will help you enhance your existing efforts. Maybe it's time to change a few things, or even hire expert help. Your business will thank you later!
Thank you so much for joining us today! If you found this blog helpful, don't forget to give it a thumbs up and share it with your fellow business owners. We'd love to hear your thoughts, so don’t forget to connect with us on instagram for more tips on utilizing social media for your business. All the links are in the description box below. Until next time!