Social media has become the primary method of both disseminating information as well as building community around your brand.
A great website is one building block, but if no one knows it’s there, it won’t be of much help. Yes, good website SEO can improve your standing in Google searches, but at the end of the day, websites are passive modes of communication, sitting there all day and night waiting for visitors to arrive who might never come. Used well, social media helps drive people there.
Email marketing can drive traffic to your site, but it is limited in its reach to those people whose email addresses you’ve collected. The average open rate on an unsolicited email is 25 percent, while the click rate — meaning that the user clicked on something in your email, like a link to your site — is way down around three percent. In addition, you probably don’t want to annoy your customers by emailing them too often, as they could just unsubscribe or mark you as spam.
Social media, on the other hand, offers a wealth of opportunities to share your messages with people who are interested, or would be interested, in your organization. Unlike email, you can feel free to post anytime you like. If your social media content is good enough, it will likely be shared, often with people who have never been touched by your organization before. Also, there’s always the TINY chance that your post could go viral.
Social media is also a great way to build community around your brand. Some people who view your posts might have questions for you, which they’ll post in comments or send you as a direct message. Provided you are monitoring your social accounts and responding quickly, this can really be an effective method to connect people to your brand, and do it where they increasingly live — their Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn feeds.
Social media allows your brand to react to breaking news in your industry or in the world at large. It provides a method for pumping your great content out into the world, as opposed to it sitting passively on your website, waiting for viewers.
Be forewarned, though: Unless you’re a well-known organization, it will take time and effort to build a social audience. It won’t happen overnight. You need to be consistent and committed to creating shareable content and posting it. Don’t get discouraged if you’re not seeing the results you’d like right away. The most important thing is to establish a robust presence.
All told, social media should be your main point of contact with your market at large. The fact is, people EXPECT your brand to have a social presence. If you don’t have a presence — even if you are a B2B player — you’re missing out on an extremely powerful marketing tool.
Have questions about social media, and the strategy behind it? Let us know! We’d love to talk to you about it.