Can anyone imagine life without social media everywhere today?
Social media’s power and influence undeniably transformed modern life. It has exceeded its primary purpose to connect people and share information in a virtual environment. It has since evolved into a more serious platform for promoting brands and all kinds of businesses disrupting traditional media.
Here are some of the recent statistics showcasing social media’s unstoppable rise and impact:
- In a published report by Statista, 4.26 billion people were using social media globally in 2021, and is estimated to increase to almost 6 billion in 2027. In 2023, the number of social media worldwide has already reached 4.86 billion.
- In 2022, Internet users worldwide spent 147 minutes per day, with the Philippines leading the most time spent on social media at an average of 3 hours and 53 minutes per day.
- Many marketers consider Facebook as the most important social media platform for B2B and B2C.
- According to Hubspot, SEO ranks third after short-form video and influencer marketing.
- Hootsuite reported that social video advertising will reach $72.28 billion in 2024.
How can your business benefit from social media?
There’s no doubt that social media will be beneficial to a lot of businesses based on the important statistics presented. Now and then, new businesses are created and not everyone is instantly familiar with how social media works for businesses. If you’re one of them, here’s how social media marketing can boost your brand:
- Grow an audience at a low entry cost:
There are a lot of opportunities to market your business cost-effectively through social media. Your brand can grow an audience organically just by consistently creating relatable and interesting content and posting them online. Of course, you need to be knowledgeable about the process and tools, like SEO, to increase traffic to your profile and website without having to spend a dollar. On the other hand, you can allocate a small budget for advertisement if you want to increase your brand’s reach to quicken its digital growth. - Tell your story and humanise your brand:
Social media enabled people to share and own their stories. Businesses can also leverage this strategy to humanise their brand and connect with customers on a personal level. - Build your brand as a thought leader:
Along with humanising your brand, you can establish your business as a thought leader. Social media can help brands to understand their target audience and competitors. Through data analysis, You can evaluate your strengths and expertise. Create relevant content on how your business can contribute to solving problems and become an authority in your industry by demonstrating your expertise. - Showcase your brand in different formats:
With a variety of social media platforms available, brands have the creative freedom to use different formats appropriate to how they want to present their brands online. You can create video content for your brand story across all digital platforms, or opt for high-quality images. - Get relevant data for competitive analysis:
Learn more about your industry and competitors to gain insight into their strategies and how they differ from yours. Maximise all the social media tools available and analyse the data so you can gain a competitive advantage.
What’s the best social media platform for your business?
According to Shopify, the top 10 popular social media platforms today are:
- Facebook (2.96 billion)
- Youtube (2.51 billion)
- WhatsApp (2 billion)
- Instagram (2 billion)
- WeChat (1.31 billion)
- TikTok (1.05 billion)
- Facebook Messenger (931 million)
- Douyin (715 million)
- Telegram (700 million)
- Snapchat (635 million)
While some businesses have the manpower and resources to be present on all social media platforms, how can brands, especially SMEs, choose the best platform to build their audience? As mentioned earlier, Facebook is still preferred by many marketers since it’s still factually the number one social media platform in the world. So, it wouldn’t hurt to have a Facebook page in your social media arsenal.
According to Forbes, it’s essential to consider the nature of your business. Are you a B2B or B2C business? Further, take time to learn about your client demographics and competitors. The Digital Marketing Institute, in addition, also wants business owners to prioritise what’s important for them— is it to expand the brand’s reach? Generate more leads? Or to increase brand awareness?
Sprout Social reported the types of content that marketers consider the most valuable for their social goals:
| Video | 54% |
| Images | 53% |
| Text-based posts | 30% |
| Stories | 26% |
| Live Video | 25% |
Here’s a quick look at what each social media platform can bring to your business:
- Facebook
With over 2.96 billion active users, Facebook can help your business connect with your audience, build brand awareness and drive website traffic. - YouTube
As the second most popular social media platform in the world, it’s no doubt that Youtube is the best platform for video content. It’s ideal for businesses that want to educate their audience, showcase their products, and build brand awareness. - Instagram
As a visual platform, businesses can focus on visual content such as images or videos. It is also an excellent platform to target a younger demographic. - LinkedIn
As a professional networking platform, LinkedIn is ideal for B2B. It connects businesses with other professionals and helps showcase their expertise and build a reputation.
Best practices for social media marketing to grow your business?
Many small businesses can testify to how social media has successfully helped their brand reach customers regardless of the budget. If you’re new to advertising your product or service on social media, here are a few best practices to guide you:
- Set realistic goals
Developing strategies for your business provides a clear direction on how you can achieve your business goals. Now that you’ve learned what social media can bring to your business, use the data and tools that will give you a competitive edge. - Define your audience
Without a well-defined target audience, you might create content with inconsistent messaging that can lead to low engagement, low click-through rates, poor conversion rates and wasted resources. In addition, it’ll be difficult to measure the success of your social media marketing efforts. Defining your audience will help you create ads that are more likely to appeal to and resonate with them.
- Create engaging content
The primary purpose of social media is to provide a platform that will connect people, share information and facilitate communication using various forms of content. In today’s business landscape, the key to attracting the audience and driving conversions for your brand is to create engaging and relevant content. Without high-quality and engaging content, your social media efforts go to waste. - Engage with your audience
It’s not enough that you post content on social media and wait for likes and high engagement. High engagement rates happen when you also take the time to respond to comments and messages, ask fun and relevant questions related to your brand, and incentivise by running contests and giveaways. - Monitor, track and measure your progress
Monitoring and tracking engagement can help you understand what content connects with your audience and how to improve your engagement rates over time. By measuring your progress on social media, you can make data-driven decisions about your marketing strategy. - Use paid advertising
While it’s true that you can grow your reach and audience without spending on social media, you must maintain a level of consistency in creating and delivering content. Remember that the frequency of your posts will depend on your industry, audience, and social media platform. But you can also take advantage of paid advertising because it can help your brand reach a larger audience than organic posting alone. It also ensures that the advertising budget is spent on your intended target audience who are most likely to be interested in your product or service and will increase the chances of conversion.
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