Christine Deakers

Whether you work at a giant enterprise, a small to mid-size business, or you’re a company of one, social media can be influential in reaching your business objectives. Social media is a new landscape for a business to traverse in order to meet new communities and customers. Here are 4 points you might not have considered for increasing the social media presence of your business and how this can accelerate some of your business’s goals.

3.6.TW

Hand drawn social icons found on Etsy

Tip #1 - Establish branding beyond print and a billboard

It almost seems backwards and archaic to solely rely on those modes of advertisement. Logos and brand awareness are far more visible online than in print or other marketing forms. If you’re not on social channels, you’re not at the “party,” leaving you susceptible to lost opportunities in free marketing, public relations, advocacy and lead-generation for new customers. Developing a well-branded Facebook page, Twitter channel, or LinkedIn group is a free tool that allows your company to live beyond the confines of its web domain. By successfully branding your social pages, your company collateral and its “story” can be leveraged into newsfeeds and online conversations to increse your social media presence.

Tip #2 - Your company will have better SEO

Once a company creates a page or channel on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, it is able to capitalize on that influential channel’s powerful SEO, “search engine optimization.” If your company hasn’t invested in the integrated marketing techniques to build better SEO, then having active social channels will help your business “stand on the shoulders of giants.” Google any company, and 9 times out of 10 you will find that the top search hits will be the company’s URL, Facebook & LinkedIn pages, and Twitter account, followed by any earned media. 

Tip #3 - Connect with untapped markets and new customers

One of the most important results of promoting your business through building social pages will be the increase in new followers and interested parties in your company, product or services. Before going online, your company was only known by the people in your vicinity or through word of mouth. Now, that “voice” is amplified across new communities and locations via social media, which your company might not have ever been able to access by itself.  Through online conversation hashtags, shareable content, promoted and regular posts, your company has the opportunity to pique new customer interests through native social exploration as another way of increasing your social media presence.

 

Tip #4 - Build trustworthy relationships and loyal brand evangelists online

A “like” means a lot today. It means that an individual is willing to associate their personal image and online profile with your company products or ethics. While your social media presence might not yield dollars initially, your thoughtful posts, online content, and the relationship built between your audience and the community manager of the social channels can convert “customers” to “evangelists.” The difference between the two groups is that a customer passively buys and uses your product/service, whereas an “evangelist” helps turn his or her friends into customers as well. Thoughtful social media strategies and targeted campaigns can help build a larger customer base by initiating shareable content that’s memorable and creating dedicated customers that want to share your brand’s story or mission.

Remember, increasing your social media presence can be simple and straightforward, but it requires commitment to truly engage and relate back to your community, as well as draw some sort of “call to action.” Some of the most successful campaigns are quirky and humor-based to get people’s attention.

Here are a few articles that demonstrate the importance of dedicated online community management to promote an original company/brand, via humor or unique campaigns:

Want to learn more about why social media is important for your business? Follow more of my writing and tweets at @cdeakers.

 

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