Does your business need some TLC? Not only used for the purpose of watching cute cats on YouTube, Social Media is here to solve some of your business challenges. We have provided 8 key topics that will help you overcome your struggles using social media, so let’s dive right in.
COMMUNICATION AND OUTREACH
Social media is a highly effective public communications tool.
It proposes a successful two-way communication and timeless broadcast channel.
Consumers have the power to communicate with each other and the brand in order to engage and reach out to the public and their consumers on a more personal basis.
Often businesses, governments and other organisations use Twitter and Facebook to engage with a trusted industry peers or a certain group that are interested in their communications.
COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT
Social media platforms are built around communities and it is vital to maintain a community around, or supported by, your organization.
Designing, structuring and nurturing a community doesn’t just allow businesses to engage with conversations but also lead and guide those conversations. This creates a bubble for consumers to engage directly with the business and vice a versa in order to seek their feedback.
Building and sustaining a community is a long-term project and you need to determine which platform is best.
SUPPORT AND CUSTOMER SERVICE
Consumers expect businesses to respond to queries on the social platform as one would through a call centre. These queries need to be answered quickly as a business does not want unresolved issues left out in public.
Twitter publishes the best and worst brands for customer service on their platform.
REPUTATION MANAGEMENT
Social media is a very effective tool for crisis communication and businesses need to monitor and manage their online reputation.
All references of a brand or individual are only a search away and social media is the space where one can respond, create a stir or openly air their own scenarios – good or bad.
Monitoring what is being posted about your brand is helpful to spot a possible crisis long before it becomes one. It allows you to mediate the crisis by being hands-on and ameliorating the crises before it blows up. If it does take hold social media enables you to get your side or the story out. Fast.
SALES AND LEAD GENERATION
Incorporating a social layer to a commercial transaction can generate an improved experience for online consumers. Based on behavior these can be either social or inferred connections.
An Inferred connection example would be “People who bought this also bought that” and a social connection example is “inviting friends” to like the page.
Social media platforms can also generate leads or sales as direct shopping channels are now being used within the platforms such as Instagram Shop, Facebook Shop and Pinterest.
ADVERTISING AND AWARENESS
Social media has a rich demographic and psychographic target audience.
Ads are targeted based on individual profile information and most social media platforms offer advertising options that are usable by both small advertisers and big spenders depending on what works best for your audience.
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
Social media plays an important role in SEO as it can be optimized so that a brand ‘owns’ the results page for searches for their brand.
By finding the perfect keywords through research, it will also help with your online reputation.
INSIGHTS AND RESEARCH
Social media can be a very powerful insight and research tool, but the information needs to be judged in its appropriate perspective. To get your audience to understand your market, brand or product – social media can provide both demographic and preference based sources of data.
Facebook Ads can give you information about the size and preferences of your market.
Doing a twitter search of branded keywords gives you insight in what people are saying about your brand. Users on Instagram are always sharing stories about their lives, often with a brand mention or hashtag.
Social media is qualitative and quantitative information and can also be seen as secondary research that can help with survey research questions and true customer insights.
Not sure how to set up a social media account? Pop us an email, and let us help you overcome your social challenges.