The digital age has become a revolutionary phenomenon in our lives, especially now that we are currently riding along its peak. Starting way back in the 1980s, it may be the most remarkable human discovery and innovation of all time, and as the world faces extreme changes brought by the widespread pandemic, technology and the internet might have proven to be the only silver lining of most businesses today.
SEO Optimizers, content creators, copywriters, are some of the few in-demand abilities that can make social media management easier for businesses, however, without the proper knowledge and skills, there can be a love and hate relationship between people and various networking sites. How? Here are 8 ways why social media can make or break your business:
1. Knowing Your Audience Vs. Having Zero Knowledge of Your Target Market
This is where the who, what, how, when, and where come in handy. It's important to know who your target audience is, what current trends are they into, how their interests are of use to your marketing timeline when these people are most active in their social networking accounts, and where most of your target audience comes from. Once you know who your audience is, it'll be easier to plan a marketing timeline. Not knowing anything about your target audience can make it difficult for you to build connections with them, no matter how well-researched and planned your content is.
2. Quality, Factual, and Informational Content Vs. Poor Content and False Information
After you've familiarized yourself with your target audience, you now need to come up with quality content that conveys a clear message. Knowing who your audience is will not be an advantage for the business if you post poor content, false news, and creative materials with complex information. Just a friendly reminder, in social media sites, you don't have to be poetic and deep. Sometimes creating short but informational content with quality images, videos, and other relevant attachments is enough to drive an audience in.
3. Regular Content Scheduling Vs. Inconsistency
One of the things most business owners should know is how social media can bring more customers in if you catch them at the right time. Posting publicity material of your product using a Halloween concept during the Holidays can bring a bad impression to your business. You need to schedule promotions, discounts, events, activities and infographics wisely to increase your social media presence, and time them according to what is currently happening.
4. Positive Engagements Vs. Low and Negative Engagements
If you want to stay afloat in the vast competition of ecommerce, you need to have engagements. How does a product or service normally get noticed by the public? By people's engagements. Eye-catching and factual creative materials aren't enough to maintain a social media presence, making your audience talk positively about the business will. Young people today are more meticulous in checking out stuff on social networking sites, so in order to catch their attention, you need to have positive engagements to let them know that your business is in the now. Getting low and negative engagements can kill your social media presence without even experiencing the start of it.
5. Current Trends and Issues
Most likely to be the second reason why people use social media is to keep up with the current trends and issues, and to gain clout through these two is by urgency. This is where spontaneous opportunities arise, which makes developing and learning agility an advantage. There are trends and issues that can help pave the way for your business to blow up all of a sudden, and there are also some that can damage your reputation if you jump in on the conversation impulsively without knowing what is actually happening.
6. Reputation Management
The most challenging part about social media management is your reputation, and how you can build and maintain a good reputation. This is why it's essential to have a well-planned marketing timeline, in order to know what story and image you want your audience to get from you. For instance, you shared that your business actively engages in corporate social responsibility, which alone can make your audience view you as an entity that supports bringing long-term and positive changes to the surroundings and its stakeholders. However, some time along the way, you promote a product that consists of harmful chemicals that can damage nature. What's happening here is you are inconsistent with the type of reputation you want to portray, and this can raise confusion among your followers.
7. Social Media Booster Tools
One of the tools that can help boost your social media presence is Search engine optimization or SEO. As defined by Forbes back in 2019, "SEO is the process of setting up your website, digital marketing and online accounts to show up higher and ideally at the top of online search results for your target customer". SEO increases your brand's visibility in Google search engines by using keywords or phrases, and this can help gain more attention to your business’ page.
8. Staying Relevant
Your level of relevance in social media can either make or break your brand. Like building a reputation, it's difficult to stay relevant in a platform where change is the only constant. The safest route to staying relevant is keeping up to date with the current trends and issues, and being consistent with engagements, and quality and informational content while you uphold your business' principles. The last thing you want to happen is for your target audience to lose interest despite all your effort in building a strong social media presence.
There are a lot of tools and guides that can help business owners know how to properly manage their social media pages. You don’t necessarily need to have professional skills or certain certifications at the beginning, although they could be an advantage in the long run. By having the right tools, knowledge, and people, you can successfully promote your business on the online market without needing to spend half of your capital on traditional marketing.