As a startup, gaining exposure to new audiences through marketing is likely one of your main priorities. Implementing a strategic marketing plan is one of the most important parts of building your startup business. In 2022, posting on social media with your business social media page is an arguably necessary aspect of any business’s marketing plan.
Many statistics reflect this. Like the fact that 90% of marketers report that social media marketing has increased exposure for their business. Additionally that 21% of consumers prefer to purchase from brands they can find on social media. Ask any marketing or business expert. They’re likely to tell you that your startup certainly does need a social media page. In fact, you could benefit from having more than one.
How Does Social Media Help Businesses?
In 2021, it was reported that 82% of the United States population actively used social media. That means that most or all of the customers you want to reach are using social media. So you should be too! While many people use social media for entertainment purposes, most people also use it as a news source and a place to get information. This includes information about businesses like yours. Here’s how businesses can benefit from having a social media presence:
Establishes Brand Awareness
As a startup, developing and promoting your brand is an important first step that will help you carve a space for business in the minds of consumers. Once you’ve developed a branding that aligns with your business’ unique values and target audience, you’ll want to put it out into the world for potential customers to discover.
The branded content you post and the voice you use on social media will help establish your brand to viewers. This allows potential customers who view your social media profiles to get to know your business better and learn what unique value you offer.
Facilitates Business-Customer Communication
Establishing a positive customer relationship is ideal for any business, especially startups. When your startup has an easy-to-find social media page, customers should be able to get all of the information they need about your business. This includes your hours, location, contact information, and services.
Moreover, users can directly communicate with your business through direct messaging on almost all social media platforms. Whether you answer these messages as the business owner or if you have a marketing representative whose job it is to communicate with customers, ensure that you’re regularly monitoring your social accounts to make for efficient, satisfactory communication to help boost your customer service reputation.
Helps With the Hiring Process
In the post-pandemic world, finding new talent isn’t as simple as it once was. As you continue to build your startup, struggling to hire new team members could be a major roadblock to growth. Using social media to post targeted hiring ads can be extremely helpful, in addition to sharing posts to let your audience know you’ve got open positions.
Moreover, your social media profiles will likely be visited by prospective applicants. Just as customers would, potential employees will check out your social accounts to get to know your business and decide whether they gel with your values and services.
How to Manage Social Media While Focusing on Your Business
In the startup phase of business development, there are too-long to-do lists and fires to put out daily. Throwing social media into the mix might seem totally undoable or like something you won’t be able to prioritize. You might not be in the position to hire a marketing or social media manager. But the good news is that it costs virtually nothing to use a social media account. That means low-cost marketing with potentially high returns.
Start to Strategize
Using social media for your business will only be beneficial if you have a strategy in place. Start small by simply choosing a platform. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and TikTok are some of the most widely used social media platforms. Any of them are likely to help you market. Research your target audience demographics, choose a platform (or two, or three), and create a content strategy that aligns with and promotes your brand.
Use Tools That Save Time
There are many useful tools out there that make managing your social media accounts a breeze. You can easily find and use professional-looking free social media templates to help make your posts more eye-catching than a simple photo would be.
Likewise, scheduling tools like Loomly make it simple to pre-schedule your posts across multiple platforms. This way, you can spend one day creating and planning your posts for the week or the month rather than trying to think up new posts throughout the week.
Monitor Your Progress
That said, you shouldn’t just schedule your posts and call it a day. You’ll want to monitor your social media accounts at least semi-regularly to communicate with customers or check on your growth progress efficiently. Most social platforms have business features with lots of easy-to-use tools that analyze the metrics of your posts. This allows you to see which posts are helping people find your business, which posts users are interacting with, and what kinds of content aren’t clicking with your following.
Regularly analyzing these kinds of metrics across your social media pages helps you hone in on a profitable target audience. It also helps track the progress of your exposure to new groups of potential customers.
Establish and Grown an Online Identity
While social media is becoming the place for customers to learn about and communicate with your business, it’s also an incredibly powerful marketing tool that will help your startup grow. Not only will you hone in on your target audience and their preferences. But you’ll also be able to reach wider audiences that you may not be able to without a social media presence.
Use social media to solidify and establish your startup’s brand, create valuable content that users will enjoy, and build positive, lasting relationships with your customer base. Even if you start small, using social media is a low-cost, high-yield marketing tool that you should take advantage of as soon as possible!
