Why Do Businesses Establish a Presence on Social Media Platforms?

The Fear of Missing Out or as GenZ calls it “The FOMO wave” has hit all small and large businesses alike when it comes to hopping onto Social Media. As the digital landscape around us evolves, we see more and more businesses upping their social media game and for all the right reasons! 

What brought about this change? Does it really help businesses? How can I bring my business to social platforms? Where can I find top-notch but affordable SMO services? Stay hooked and you shall find out!

What Made Businesses Go Social?

Whenever you’re doom scrolling your day away, do you notice how a considerable amount of the content you consume is published by your favorite brands and even local businesses? 

This is particularly interesting because not too long ago, social media was considered a waste of time. So, unless you were a creative venture seeking a younger audience, your chances of being on Instagram were pretty less.

So, What Changed?

The World! Dear friend…The World!

The entire world as a whole experienced a digital revolution. And when we saw influencers making money from these platforms, we realized their potential to make money or become famous without being in the movies. Businesses also realized this and started tapping into its potential. 

A big boost was undoubtedly witnessed when Meta acquired Instagram and Whatsapp and scaled the potential opportunities for brands with paid advertising.

While the above mentioned are perfectly valid and logical reasons that businesses considered while deciding to leverage the global social network, a fundamental factor that made the decision a no-brainer for most was the fact that it is FREE!

So even if as a brand owner you didn’t see immediate merits of joining these networks, you’d think “What’s the harm in trying” 

Seems like it worked out well, doesn’t it!

Going Online vs Going Social: Is It Different?

Every Social media expert worth his salt emphasizes on the importance of building your online presence to become more visible to your target audience and in turn scaling revenue for your business. Upon hearing which, many businesses have the same response:

But we already have a Website, isn’t that enough?

NO!

While your website is a carefully created window of your business for people to peep into, Social Media serves as a platform that brings those people closer to your brand on a personal level. Not to mention such platforms empower you to communicate with your audience in real time for quick results and exchange of ideas.

The Social Media Merit List: Key Benefits for Businesses.

Social networking allows businesses to grow their brand, audience, visibility and ultimately revenue. Let’s delve deeper into the benefits of social media for small business and large businesses alike.

Brand Awareness: 

Think of social media as a stage, where you can get up and be instantly visible to more people. Since more people can see you, it becomes more likely that they will know you and your brand. By distributing your content strategically, you can drive engagement and showcase your products, services, and distinctive brand identity to your audience.

Global Audience at your disposal:

With social media, you get an unparalleled opportunity to connect with a diverse global audience, and that too in real-time. The traditional physical constraints won’t be a barrier for you to transcend geographical boundaries, reach potential customers worldwide and tap into new markets.

An Eye on the Competition:

On social media, you can put on your Sherlock hat and keep an eye on your competition. You can observe industry trends, customer feedback, and competitor activities here and further gain valuable insights to inform your own strategies. Therefore making it a valuable asset to enrich your competitive intelligence and adapt to market changes.

Search Engine Visibility is a Plus:

The efforts you pour into your social media will also reap rewards for you on the search page! All social profiles and content are indexed by search engines which boosts your online presence by appearing in search results when relevant keywords are entered.

Makes your brand more Human:

On social media, your audience sees your business as more than a corporation. They get to know the people behind that. With personalized responses, behind-the-scenes content, and user-generated testimonials, you can express your brand’s personality and values.

Community Building:

Building a community on social media is like creating a hangout spot for your business where you get to chat with your customers, host cool Q&A sessions, and showcase their contributions. By doing this, your brand gains visibility through word-of-mouth and receives valuable feedback that helps you get better and brainstorm new ideas.

By now, you should be able to defeat anyone doubting the capabilities of social media for businesses in a debate. Let’s give you some gloating privileges by understanding the multitudes of benefits entrepreneurs stand to gain with this global network.

Why Is Social Media A Must-Use Tool For Entrepreneurs?

We’re always saying that an entrepreneur reaches new customers through social media, apart from that, it allows him to engage with a wider audience and network with other like minded leaders across the globe. 

For such business owners, social networks serve a dual purpose of being a professional as well as personal outlet, enabling them to be far more candid, honest, and witty than they would be when posting as their business. This makes for more engaging content resulting in increased engagement and reach, which in turn gives them a bigger platform to talk about their business. 

So, whether it is to build a personal brand, reflect thought leadership, become a known voice in your industry, promoting your business, or simply engage with others with mutual interest, if you are an entrepreneur you should definitely be on social media.

Most Lucrative Social Media Platforms For Businesses

Each social network offers unique features and benefits tailored to different types of businesses and marketing objectives. We'll take a deep dive into all these platforms, understand how they operate and particularly how we can find the most lucrative social media platforms for your business

Facebook: 

After the World Wide Web itself and Google, we think it would be safe to say that Facebook is the internet commodity accessed by the most number of users across the globe used by about a quarter of the world population!

Facebook’s Benefits for Businesses.

• Large User Base and Diverse Demographics: With over 2.8 BILLION monthly users, it is indeed one of the largest social networks in the world, allowing businesses to showcase their brand and enter into their customers’ phones placed in far-wide corners of the world. This makes it easier for them to define and cater to precise demographics suitable for them.
• Advanced Advertising Tools and Analytics: Even though Meta Ads were rolled out quite later than search engine ads, the targeting options, robust analytics, and a variety of ad formats provided by Facebook are far superior and much more user friendly.
• Community Building Through Groups and Pages: Humans socialize to belong, it is a tale as old as time. This shared human tendency to form communities can be capitalized through the extensive networking options of groups and pages powered by Facebook.

Instagram:

You can think of Instagram as Facebook’s cooler cousin sharing a lot of the same characteristics like wide audience and Ad support. It is just developed (or in this case brought up ) differently to prioritize optical aesthetics and trend-chasing. If your product is visual, the best social media platform would likely be Instagram.

Instagram’s Benefits for Businesses

• Brand Storytelling & Visual Appeal: Instagram can be a top social platform for generating first-time customers because it enables brands to create lasting impressions with strong visual imagery and helps introduce themselves to new users while being supported by its algorithm.
• Easy Discovery with Explore Features: Instagram’s Explore page is the social hub of discovery where users are recommended content based on their interests, so with relevant hashtags, effective geo-tagging, your brand is likely to show up on your target audience’s page even if they don’t follow you!
• Ecommerce Integration & Influencer Marketing: Particularly for businesses, Instagram stores and shoppable ads are highly beneficial as they allow users to purchase easily from the platform itself. Further leveraging viral marketing and influencer collaboration can impact your business positively and rapidly.

LinkedIn: 

Be honest, this was the first name that popped in your mind when we said social media for businesses, right? Deservingly so, LinkedIn is another big player in the social media universe. 

How is linkedIn different than most social networking sites? 

The Key distinction that sets it apart from other platforms is its special focus on professional networking and business content. Its entrepreneurial emphasis makes for a great platform for B2B marketing & Revenue generation.

LinkedIn’s Benefits for Businesses

• Focused Professional Networking: Contrary to other entertainment focused platforms, LinkedIn is the only leading network in the world that is dedicated to professional networking and career development. This business-oriented site connects professionals, job seekers, employers, and industry experts.
• Company Pages & Other Features: LinkedIn allows users to create exclusive company pages allowing them to showcase their brand. Even the profile structures for individuals contain their job experiences, accomplishments and can be supplemented with CVs, Portfolios, certifications etc. to facilitate professional relationships.
• B2B Marketing & Lead Generation: LinkedIn offers various tools to encourage businesses to deal directly with decision makers. Its algorithm is tailored to promote B2B marketing and Sales efforts. Professionals can additionally use this to post content reflecting their thought leadership.

How do I Start My Business’ Social Media Journey?

Now that you’re well versed with the numerous ways social media can enrich your business practices and reap several benefits for your brand, let’s get you started! With these 5 simple and effective steps, you’ll learn how to leverage social media to open up avenues for brand awareness, customer engagement, and growth.

1. Set Clear Goals

First and foremost, define what you want to achieve. Establish Setting clear, measurable goals that will ultimately help you formulate your strategy and track progress. Your goals could be:

• Increasing Brand Awareness
• Engaging with Customers
• Driving Traffic
• Generating Leads and Sales

2. Understand Your Tribe

For ideal social media results, your business should be creating content that resonates and drives engagement. For that you need to know who you’re creating for. Define your target audience considering their:

• Demographics ( Age, gender, location, income, education, etc.)
• Interests and Behaviors
• Needs and Goals

3. Pick Your Platforms

Understanding different platforms and their merits is important so you can decide where to invest your efforts for maximum results. Even if you are on all platforms, your strategies would be different as you may have different goals from each platform. Here’s a quick cheat sheet for various platforms and their key uses:

• Facebook: Community building & diverse demographics.
• Instagram: Visual storytelling and engaging younger audiences.
• Twitter: Real-time updates & customer service.
• LinkedIn: B2B marketing & professional networking.
• Pinterest: Visual discovery & driving website traffic.
• TikTok: Short-form video content & reaching Gen Z.

4. Plan Killer Content

Now that we have laid the groundwork, let’s start cooking. Once you’ve outlined the above mentioned details, it's time for you to actually start doing what you’re here to do- Post! You need to put out well-planned content presented in the right way, for the right people to engage with. 

For the optimal content strategy, use a mix of  images, videos, articles, infographics, and customer-shared content to post. Make sure your content tells a story and is presented in an engaging manner. You can use polls, questions, and contests to do so. And most importantly, whatever you decide, plan it ahead of time and structure it into a calendar to streamline your processes.

How to manage content for multiple platforms?

When you’re trying to manage everything at once, things are bound to go south sooner or later. And so, the key to sustaining your enthusiasm and effort for the longer run is to prioritize and delegate as much as you can. If you’re business is active on multiple social media platforms, here are a few tips to manage all platforms effectively:

• Refer to your content repository and see which content can be shared across all platforms
• For the best results, choose a content and tweak it a little to cater to each platform
• Don’t waste good content by limiting it to one platform

How to post on multiple platforms at once?

There are several free and paid tools available on the internet that help you post on multiple platforms at once. This reduces your manual effort and enhances your productivity by giving scheduling options for pre-planned executions. Some famous posting & scheduling tools are:

• Hootsuite 
• Buffer
• Later
• Sprout Social 
• Publer
• SocialBee
• Loomly

You can check out these tools which are either free or have a nominal subscription fee. Social media management tools are definitely a profitable investment even if you end up spending some money on them. The returns you’ll get in terms of saved time, effort and enhanced productivity will definitely be worth it!

5. Track and Tweak

Last, but certainly not least, closely monitor your posts, measure how they do, try to identify areas to improve, and keep repeating all of this for optimal social media success. Leverage analytics tools to track metrics (engagement, clicks, conversions), pay attention to key performance indicators (KPIs) relevant to your goals and always adapt your strategy according to your audience's feedback.  

What Next?

After reading this blog, what’s next for your business is to take the impact of social media on businesses seriously! As we’ve mentioned a few billion times already, but we do so again because it is that important - Social media can be a very powerful tool to help your business increase brand awareness, customer engagement and revenue. DO NOT SLEEP ON IT!

If you are unaware of its usage or don’t have the time to do it for yourself, or need an expert Agency who can optimize and scale social media for your business, look no further! Here at Edifying Voyages, we’re your partners for offshore digital marketing services that are top-notch and affordable!