You are probably aware that social media is a cool tool for achieving business goals pretty cheaply. You might have heard of those times and times again or is this your first time? You are not too late. But you might be wondering: in what specific ways can I use social media to promote business products and services? Well, that is what you’ll learn in this article now. The fact is that with social media, you can achieve almost any business goal you can think of. Here are ten practical ways to use social media for business promotion. The list is in no order.
Business Awareness
Social media is a powerful tool for building an increasing business/product awareness. Your social media property, such as Facebook Page and the Twitter handle makes your business highly discoverable. When people search for you on any search engine like Google or a social media channel you’re present, they’ll be able to find you.
With social media, it’s easy to share updates with the people that matter to your business.  When you post an update, say a compelling article, anyone who becomes interested in it follows the link to your website.
People who are interested in your updates may also share it with their networks. This way, you are able to reach members of their networks whom you’ll have probably not been opportune to meet.
Constant contact with your brand name on social media also enhances your brand awareness.
Not only can you reach more people through social media, but you can also reach the specific people who are most likely to become your customers. And that is the huge part.
Cut Marketing Spend
The flexibility that social media offers to market and sales in business helps businessperson cut costs and enhance return on investment. Social media is a cost-effective solution to use when considering practical ways to cut on your business spending and improve profit.
The reason is simple. Social media provides two-way directional communication between brands and their consumers. Therefore, with it, you spend less on researching your consumers. You also cut your cost of lead generation and eventual sales.
The promotion that social media provides through word of mouth is also a great plus to your marketing and returns.
Trust Building
The dynamics in modern-day marketing sales are fast changing. Consumers hate being sold. You, therefore, need to position yourself and your business as a trustable and trusted advisor to your (potential) customers.
This is necessary to keep customers coming back and attracting new ones.
That is an area social media can also come in and help. It is an avenue to prove to prospects and customers that you are committed to their values.
Be aware that it takes commitment to your social media community to build trust in you. But when you prove that you’re a voice they can trust, you’ll have a better chance to convert followers into long-term paying customers.
Lead Generation
Modern-day consumers are more socially connected, knowledgeable and active. Recent studies show that today’s business buyers do not contact suppliers directly until 57% of the purchase process is complete (source: Hootsuite.com).
The good side of this is that they show early signs of readiness to buy certain products or services on social media. This they do through their posts, comments on posts, constant search on their chosen social networks, etc.
What the above means to a businessperson and marketer is, with these early signs, you can capture your prospects early into the sales funnel.
Social selling generates 40% more qualified leads and opportunities than cold calling (Source: Customer Think).
Lead Nurturing
Not every buying signal will result in an actual buying almost instantly. Sometimes your leads are in their early stage of the sales life cycle.
With social media, you can nurture your leads till they are ready to buy. If someone is an early-stage signal of their purchasing cycle, you can influence their thinking. Not through unwarranted sales pitches but by seeking to influence how they are conceptualizing their needs.
You can help them through awareness-building content. You can also give links to third-party resources that can help them.
This keeps you on top of mind and positions your solution against your competitors.
Promoting Brand Image
The perception of a consumer towards a particular brand is in direct relation to the image of the brand in its market. Having a strong brand image directly impacts consumer buying behavior.
A positive brand image can make your buyers’ decision process easier, thereby promoting a lot of repeat purchases as well as primary purchases. This underscores the importance of brand image promotion as a way to use social media for business promotion.
Speaking in a way that your audience connects with is very important in brand building on social media. It affords you the opportunity to bring your brand voice to the community of social media users who get it noticed.
Brand Watch
Social media is a good tool for measuring business success. It provides a great insight into how good or bad your brand is performing.
Is your social media followers growing? Are you getting positive feedback?
A ‘bad’ comment about you on social media is feedback about how people perceive your brand.
From the foregoing, not integrating social media into your marketing strategy is a bad business practice and one of the very many ways you are killing your business without knowing it.
Insight
Social media empowers you to gain more insight into your ideal persona. Your future customers are talking about their business needs, asking questions about issues your product has the solution. They are also revealing intelligence about their own companies and reaching out to their buddies for advice.
Trending stories and hashtags are important signs to identify your consumers’ pain points.
Keeping an eye on your social media users’ interactions not only gives you valuable insight into what your customers need. It also gives you insight into your competitors.
Increased Sales
A report by Customer Think says social selling generates 40% more qualified leads and opportunities than cold calling. While it’s not a place to make sales pitches, social media is invaluable for making the first contact with prospects. Social selling is not chit-chat. It’s leveraging relationships and insights to create a better buying experience. Ralf VonSosen, LinkedIn
But those leads are what transformed into your customers when nurtured along in the sales funnel. Your interactions with your leads on social media lay a good precedent for a personalized email or a phone call. And then, the eventual closing of the deals.
So, when used to its best, social media portends great opportunities for increasing sales.
Consumer Retention and Loyalty.
Keeping your existing customers glued to you is an important part of your business marketing effort. It brings repeat business. It enhances word of mouth promotion of your business. That is, when a consumer is satisfied with your product or service, he/she recommends it to the others.
70% of companies say it’s cheaper to retain a customer than acquire one. So why won’t you want to keep your existing treasure customer? Therefore, you can leverage social media to achieve consumer retention and brand loyalty in your business.
Establish a personal relationship with each individual customer through a constant update on your social media channels. Not only that, your content must be relevant to their unique needs and their stage in the sales cycle.
For example, if a customer has bought an electronic appliance from your store. You may do well educating them on better ways to maintain such products through an article series delivered on your social media.
Article Written by AKINDURO ROTIMI
