How Social Media Can Accelerate the Growth of Your Business?

Social media has become a vital part of our daily lives, and its influence is set to only increase in the future. So why is this important to you, or even your business? Well, it’s simple. Social media offers us interconnected networks where it is possible to be connected with most of the world’s population in the palm of your hand. And if you want to sell anything from products to services that’s something you might want to leverage. Yes… and it is free to use if you need a good enough reason to get started?

What is Social Media?

If you are unsure what social media is, let’s break it down. 

Social media is a web-based platform designed to allow people and organizations, to share information and media, seamlessly via an interconnected network. This network allows people to find, connect, engage, share and communicate on a common platform. Where the internet allows you to find separate websites, social media brings all the people on a platform together. And this is where the true power of social media lies. In the interconnected nature of its platform.

That means if you are in the US you can effortlessly connect with people in Europe, Africa, or Asia by searching for content, people, or businesses. You can instantly interact, comment, or message a social media user. This creates huge opportunities to communicate with people from around the world.

How Brands are Using Social Media?

Social media enables businesses to share information about their products or services. And many brands have created community based initiatives to encourage interaction and sharing to gain greater exposure.

Dove is a brand that has used social media as a platform to create exposure through various social campaigns.

In 2004 they launched the “Real Beauty” campaign. Dove has used it to challenge people to not only see beauty as an aesthetic quality. 

Dove launched its latest campaign in 2020 to highlight a message to look deeper than aesthetic beauty! Their campaign “Courage is Beautiful”. It was launched to honour healthcare workers that had sacrificed their time, and energy to serve others during the global pandemic.

Another way brands use social media is to encourage users to post images of themselves using the products they buy. This can further promote their products. Often these brands offer prizes or some form of recognition for their customers, which further grows brand loyalty.

At times brands have gone viral over posts they shared due to the controversial or humorous nature of the post. When this happens a brand may achieve massive overnight exposure through simple marketing campaigns.

Encouraging customers and prospects to interact with their content, brands can create greater exposure leading to greater sales and revenue!

Why is Social Media a Powerful Marketing Tool?

If you doubt the importance of social media in our lives and business just look at the numbers. Statistica states the following about the growth of social media usage in the next three years:

“The power of social networking is such that the number of worldwide users is expected to reach some 3.43 billion monthly active social media users by 2023, around a third of Earth’s entire population”

Many people consider social media for young people and question whether it is even a good strategy to use to grow their business. This couldn’t be further from the truth as both the younger and older generation are using social media to consume content, and engage with others.

Since the time of the pandemic many more people streamed to social media to not only keep updated with current affairs but also began engaging and sharing due to the lockdown restrictions which prevented us from interacting face to face.

According to Statistica not only is the number of users on social media platforms growing across the world but the amount of engagement from users as well. This has prompted brands to leverage opportunities to grow their businesses by using content marketing and advertising to take full advantage of this massive phenomenon.

“Despite the ubiquity of social networks, market potential is still increasing, as not only user figures but also user engagement continues to grow. On average, global internet users spend some 144 minutes per day surfing social networks. This prompts worldwide brands and their marketers to use that time and screen space to promote various products and services via social media marketing or social advertising.”

More organizations are investing in social media campaigns due to the massive reach and almost universal usage of the platform. 

Social Media Benefits for your Business

To put the above into perspective from your business, here are some ways that social media can drastically benefit your business and complement any existing marketing efforts.

• Opening a social media account is free.
• It is simple to use.
• You can use it on your computer, tablet or phone.
• You can brand your profile.
• You can post written content immediately.
• People can engage and give you feedback.
• You can share multimedia based content including audio and video.
• You can potentially reach a vast audience.
• It shows prospective customers what you are doing.
• Create a sense of transparency.
• Can help you promote events.
• Can help you promote your products and services.
• Can help you build a community around your business.

How to use Social Media to Market your Business?

There are many ways to use social media to grow your audience and gain exposure for your brand, here are a few points to get started:

1. Post original content about your business or industry.
2. Respond to customers or prospects’ comments.
3. Share news and content that is relevant to your business or industry.
4. Interact with others posts and grow your reach through engagement on other’s posts.
5. Contact potential customers directly.

So if you are thinking of marketing your business, seriously consider how you could use social media to grow your reach online. Start simple and grow, one post is the first step, and will start you on your journey!

Article Credits: Statistica Article about Social Media Growth.