A common scenario we’ve all been in-you’re searching for a local business through social media and find that they don’t update regularly or worse, they don’t have any accounts. A 2015 study from Clutch shows that about half of smaller businesses are not effectively using social media. A small portion of surveys indicated that businesses won’t be using it in the future.
As PR specialists, we’re aware that small businesses that aren’t utilizing social media are losing out on an important opportunity. Today we discuss the top benefits of establishing a strong social media presence for companies of all sizes.
- In most cases, creating a social media account is FREE. Free social media means a free porthole to make any announcements to the public. These announcements could be anything from letting your customers know about events, promotions or other important endeavors. By using social media, you’re also able to put out the impression you want your business to make on the public. Hootsuite and Buffer offers limited, free accounts where you can schedule out posts, ahead of time, for your customers.
- Depending on the type of business you’re in, there’s a possibility you might not meet some of your best customers. Thankfully, we have social media networks like Facebook and Twitter where you can make a special connection with customers. This connection could be anything from liking a customer’s comment to sharing an achievement by your employee.
- One of the biggest things we find social media users doing is sharing various parts of their lives. By visiting the profiles of customers that follow your business, you can learn a lot about their needs.
After reading these benefits, it is obvious that using social media is not only a luxury, but it is also an essential element for business owners.