4 Ways Social Media Can Help Your Business Generate Leads
When we think of social media, we usually think of teens glued to their phones, posting selfies and status updates. Or new moms posting photos of their babies day after day. Or singles posting photos of their dogs.
But Facebook, Instagram, and your other favorite social media platforms are so much more than just a place to post pictures of your favorite pooch.
According to researchers, the average person scrolls through 300 feet of social media content per day, and 72 percent of adults use social media. That means a huge chunk of your potential customers are liking photos and sharing videos at any point in time.
Yet many small businesses still don't have a strong social media presence, especially here in the Texas Panhandle. And there’s several reasons for that. For one thing, some business owners don’t have time to dedicate to posting. Or they fail to see the need for it at all.
This could be a huge mistake.
In a study by Business 2 Community, one-third of Millennials said social media is a preferred channel for communicating with businesses like yours. 40 percent of Twitter users carried out a purchase after seeing it on Twitter. According to Retail Touchpoints Network, 76 percent of consumers buy products seen in social media posts.
Social media may be the best place to follow the lives of people you haven’t spoken to in decades, but it’s also the best place to collect potential leads and increase brand awareness.
But is social media really worth the time and effort? You’ve got a lot of work to do, and posting quality content demands even more. Well, after a little digging, we’ve discovered 4 ways social media helps your business grow. (Even here in the Texas Panhandle!)
1. Social media can lead traffic to your website
Most people use social media to share funny cat videos. But it also functions as a way to funnel prospective customers to your website.
How does it do this?
For starters, it improves your website’s SEO , which increases its click-through rate.
When you share links from your website to Facebook or Twitter, this increases your CTR in two ways:
- customers see link and click link, thus directly increasing the rate, and
- by sharing the outbounding link on Facebook, and getting more clicks, you build domain authority, which increases your ranking.
Basically, posting links to social media is great for SEO and lead generation. As long as your links are for quality, inbound content, and not just promotion.
2. Social Media helps you create buyer personas
Social media analytics may sound complicated, but they're a simple way to keep track of your customer's online presence. You can learn what time your followers are active on social media, what type of content they engage with the most, their basic demographics, and even their interests.
I know. Sounds way creepy.
But, for businesses, this privacy-invading tech really comes in handy for creating buyer personas.
Buyer personas are crucial to creating valuable content your customers will actually be interested in, which will generate more leads, which then can be converted into buying customers.
In short terms: Social media stalker programs → more precise targeting → more effective content → more money.
3. Social Media helps you stand out from the crowd
Say you don’t have a social media page. You’d be in good company. A full 44.9 percent of small businesses don’t have any social media presence.
And even businesses who do have social networking accounts aren’t always active on them. Only 20 percent of Fortune 500’s 100 largest companies engage with their customers on Facebook. Only 20 percent of all small businesses have run a Facebook ad or promoted a post.
But imagine this: Your competitor, Sleezy Guy, uses social media every day. He’s putting out high-quality stuff that gets high engagement and higher reach. In turn, he’s putting himself out there.
Now imagine this: Your ideal customer is scrolling through Facebook, like they do every day. They see an awesome video posted by Sleezy Guy. They like Sleezy’s page, or they keep scrolling. Either way, a week later, when they need some of your services, who will they think of? You, the brand they haven’t heard of? Or Sleezy Guy, who makes awesome videos and seems like he really knows his stuff?
The opposite is true, too. If you’re the one posting on social media regularly, you’re gaining more brand awareness and lead impressions than your competitors.
4. Social Media fosters lasting relationships and loyal customers
Perhaps the biggest benefit to social media is the way it connects you, as a company, with your audience. You can interact with customers on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and the rest in ways you never could in person.
You can share their posts about your business on your page. You can respond to their comments and keep them involved in the conversation. You can address their questions or concerns immediately without forcing them to pick up the phone.
This shows, in a very public way, that you do care about your customers. They’re not just numbers to you. They’re people, and you get that.
Fostering these connections on social media is an easy way to get and keep a customer. If you come across as approachable folks, and not a big, emotionless corporation, you can bring them to your doorsteps. From there, you can create strong business relationships that survive past the initial purchase. You can build relationships that last.
66 percent of business marketers have generated leads from social media. Will you?
Maintaining social media pages is the key to increasing your SEO and lead generation, but you'll need more than a Twitter account to reach customers. Make sure that someone with social media management experience runs your account, or hire a marketing agency with the skills to get the job done for you. A strong, professional voice and creative images will help you gain a positive online presence, so you can start reaping the sweet benefits social media has to offer.
There are many tools that can help with your social media management. You can learn a lot about social media tools here.
So go ahead and maximize your social skills. Your customers, and your business, will thank you.
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