Why social media is important to small businesses

The rise of social media has completely changed the way in which Businesses communicate with potential customers.  When social media was first introduced it was seen merely as a way for people to communicate with each other in a personal manner. But over time its potential as a tool for businesses to use became evident. Social media allows businesses to send out a message that can be potentially seen by millions of people. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, LinkedIn and YouTube have become very powerful marketing tools for companies to use to attract attention to their business, gain new customers, interact with existing customers and promote their products and services.

Social media and its rise as a tool for small businesses in today’s environment is a must, to not only grow and expand but also to survive in an ever more connected world.

What can social media provide for small businesses?

Marketing
One of the key advantages that social media can provide for small businesses is that it has enabled them to engage in large marketing campaigns at a relatively cheap cost where previously small businesses where always hindered in their marketing campaigns by their lack of budget.

Branding
Social media is an excellent tool to help build brand identity and brand image, more and more people are connecting with companies based of their social media accounts. How a company presents itself on social media can give people the sense of the company and what it stands for. Social media allows for increased business visibility as the company is accessible to anyone on the social media platform.

Attracting New Customers
One of the hardest thing’s for any small business to do is to acquire new customer’s, social media is a great tool to do this and there are many methods for businesses to choose from. Due to the many users of social media a well-run social media campaign can potentially attract large numbers of customers for a fraction of the cost of doing a TV advertisement campaign.

Customer feedback and word of mouth
Using customer feedback gained from social media is a great way for small businesses to promote themselves. A positive post about your company on Facebook can have a greater impact than a paid advertisement. As people find actual experiences more trustworthy and a better indication of the actual quality of a product or service than ads so a company with more likes and positive reviews from actual people will get more business and grow its brand recognition.

Building and maintaining Customer Relationships
Social media allows companies to directly engage with their customers and provide customer support. Which is very useful for building and maintaining a relationship with their customers. If people, see that the company is very friendly and helpful then they could be more willing to use it than a competitor who does not interact with customers.

Improved Customer Service
It is not only positive feedback that is of importance to small businesses but negative feedback also, this can be in the form of reviews as well as comments on social media posts. This information is important as it allows businesses to see where it is going wrong and areas it needs to improve upon. By engaging with the customer through apologising for bad service quality, what they will do to make it up to them, and saying what steps are being taken to ensure this won’t happen again companies can show that they care about their customers.

Growing online presence
By using social media, businesses can grow much quicker and increase their brand visibility faster than when they had to rely on traditional media. As the more people that watch their videos or share their posts the more potential eyes there are on the company which can lead to more potential customers going to your website and buying your product/service. This also has the added benefit of increasing the SEO (Search engine optimisation) of the company as search engines such as google calculate rankings using social media presence.

So, has you can see, Social media is important for small businesses as it can help attract new customers, launch marketing campaigns at a limited price, build up relationships with customers, increase brand awareness and company size. This fits into the main goal of small businesses which is to increase in size and profitability.

Here at intermesh we can help you with your social media campaign so why not get in touch with us to see what we can do for you.