10 Reasons Why Social Media Makes Sense for Small Business

Social Media for Small Business

Are you one of the 176 million users that liked, tagged and went live on your personal Facebook page today? Or, one of the 450 million people to share an update with your connections on LinkedIn? Have you been using social media to stay in touch with friends and family but haven’t yet made social media part of your business marketing plan?

Maybe you’re unsure of how all the tweeting and checking in can really help your brand.

Maybe you think it’s too costly?

Too time-consuming?

Too hard to do?

If you’ve been putting social media on the back burner, take a look at these 10 reasons that will motivate you to move it to the front:

1.     More than 75% of small businesses used social media in 2016 which is up from the year before.

2.     Social media channels make it easier to connect with your customers, find out what their needs are and join their conversations. These interactions help build brand recognition.

3.     About 71% of consumers who have had a positive social media service interactions with a brand are likely to recommend it to others.

4.     Social media can help generate traffic to your website just by posting and sharing content.

5.     Social media can also increase your search engine ranking. The more shares your content receives, the higher your ranking.

6.     Social media marketing is free if you do it yourself.  That makes it less expensive than traditional marketing methods.

7.     You can use your social media metrics to improve and expand your customer reach.

8.     After the initial planning stages, implementing social media on a few channels only takes a few hours a week. Really.

9.     Social media can also help with recruitment and attract skilled employees.

10.  And you don’t have to be on every platform to make it work (thank goodness). It’s better to start small and be consistent than to spread your message and your resources too thin.

There’s no question that people spend a lot of time on social networks today, and it’s changing the marketing landscape for all businesses. Social marketing is no longer a small piece of a successful sales strategy but more of a larger key component.

More and more research indicates that if you want to build brand awareness, reach your target audience, and increase your bottom line you have to go where your customers are, be transparent, engaging and of course social.