Hopefully most of our readers have already jumped on the social media bandwagon, but for those who haven’t: consider this your last warning. People are now spending a majority of their internet time on social media sites. In fact, it seems as though social media is even more interesting than sex, since it has recently beat porn in the battle for #1 activity on the web. According to a recent study done by Business Insider, a person spends an average of 37 minutes a day on social media [1].
Even if your company is not on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc., there is a good chance that your competitors are. If this is the case, it is likely that they have a competitive advantage on you, and you need to quickly reassess your marketing strategy. However, if you do have a strong social media presence, and your competitors are the ones lagging, congrats! You are ahead of the pack, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement.
What’s so great about social media, you ask? Well, first consider traditional marketing methods. Most often, traditional marketing is one-way communication… meaning you (the marketer) are talking at them (the prospects). However, with social media, you are able to break through the clutter and have a conversation. Individuals who follow you on social media are more likely to interact with your company and perceive you as more relatable (i.e., more than just another cold company). After learning more about your company’s ‘personality’ through its profiles and posts, consumers begin to see you as an entity with authority, credibility, shared interest, and values.
You can learn a lot more about consumers through their profiles, too. When using hypertargeting tactics, you can access information about prosects through social media platforms such as Facebook. And speaking of Facebook, did you know that it has 1.2 BILLION active monthly users? Even better, 25% of these people don’t bother to limit their privacy settings [2]. This means that you can access all their information (age, interests, etc,) and tailor your messages to them to a much higher degree. By incorporating social media, companies also receive countless other benefits. Increased exposure and traffic, development of loyal fans, qualified leads, improved sales, and reduced marketing expenses are just a few of the potential advantages.
This is usually when naysayers rationalize all the excuses for not having adopted a social media plan. Perhaps you think you don’t have the time or you still can’t see the value. While these are normal concerns, these challenges can be overcome if social media is strategically planned. Simply identify your business goals, set objectives, gain a better insight to your ideal customer, research your competition, choose your channels, develop a content strategy, and assign roles. If that sounds like a lot of work, remember- it will pay off. By investing time into the planning of your social media marketing plan in the beginning, you are able to simply execute that plan in the future, saving you time down the road. Having a plan also keeps you focused and helps you maintain a consistent voice. According to Hubspot, 84% of marketers agree that just over 1 hour a day spent investing in your social media marketing resulted in increased traffic, and 66% of marketers were able to generate leads with this small time investment [3].
We know you’re already wasting your downtime scrolling through your newsfeed while you think no one is watching. It’s time you actually put those social media skills to use.