You’d be surprised that, after all of the case studies and evidence, there are still naysayers out there in the small business world that believe social media is just a waste of time. Don’t get me wrong… it can be a waste of time. If you’re spending your time watching and posting cat videos, you’re probably not going to get too much business.
I’m sure when the first businesses got telephones, the leaders were concerned that employees would just be chatting with their friends all day, too. But now no one questions the importance of being able to connect to a business over the phone – both outbound or inbound. Social media is no different… it’s a communication medium and dependent upon the strategy your company is using to deploy it.
If you join groups, share topics of value, connect and follow influencers, help people with problems, promote great content of your own, curate and share great content from others, you can grow a fantastic network that can provide years of revenue.
The problem however lies not in having a social media presence but as to how these businesses place social media to good use. From a small business perspective, social media marketing is more than just merely gaining likes, fans, repins and retweets, but rather getting the following top benefits, and more, that will make a great impact on the business. Jomer Gregorio, CJG Digital Marketing.
8 Ways that Social Media Marketing is Benefitting Small Business
Increased website traffic.
Generates leads at minimal costs.
Boosts content marketing.
Increases brand awareness.
Legitimizes your brand.
Increases sales.
Gives you great audience insight.
Improves brand loyalty.
It’s interesting that CJG utilized the term brand throughout the infographic. While there’s a lot of data to suppor the overall benefits of social media on a brand, I would argue that the impact on your people is much larger. Social media isn’t a product or a service speaking at you from a small business, it’s the people of the small business!
People provide an opportunity for trust and engagement that your brand doesn’t. People can get to know you, trust you, ask you questions, and eventually purchase from you. Your brand benefits from all of this, of course… but because of your people. At it’s core, it’s social media, not just a one-way medium.
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