5 reasons why social media marketing is important for your small business

As a small business owner, you most likely wear various guises. You are the CEO, Finance Manager, Marketing Manager, and Operations Manager! Time is a valuable resource which you need to allocate wisely. You may believe that social media marketing is not a necessity for your small business. Or maybe you feel it is only applicable to cutting-edge brands which target younger vibrant customers. You may have a perception that social media marketing does not deliver tangible quick results and so you avoid it all together.
But the truth is every year more and more people go online to shop, to do research or simply because they are bored and want to surf the web. Social networking websites continue to grow rapidly and evolve each year. Now is a good time to invest in social media marketing and connect with potential customers.

Here are the 5 reasons why social media marketing is important for your small business.

1. Community-based approach builds customer loyalty
Social media is about engaging with new and current customers. Social media is a great way to connect with customers and get conversations started that you may not be able to have in person. You can ask customers engaging questions, share valuable content, inspirational content or locally relevant information. It is a personal approach to drive a conversation. Brands that consistently engage with their customers, and are consistently visible on social media, create brand loyalty with those customers over time.

2. Increased 2-way communication
The beauty about social media is that it is not a one-way conversation but a two-way conversation. By being on social media businesses learn more about their target market. Businesses can gather information quickly and cheaply. For instance, you can place a poll up asking clients which services they prefer to see more of in the future. Or you can ask clients to make suggestions on how to improve your products. Gathering market intelligence can be done easily with social media.

3. Builds your brands authority
Consistently sharing valuable content on social media is a clever way to leverage your brand and build brand authority. As you showcase your expertise, you establish yourself as a thought leader in your field. This will ensure you get ahead of your competitors and grow your business.

4. Good for your SEO rankings
When you share your blog posts on social media, more traffic is sent to your website as people click on your posts. Increased traffic will push your website’s SEO rankings up. This means that when someone searches for keywords associated with your industry, your business will be listed higher on the search engine results page. And being higher on the search engine results page means that more prospective customers will be able to find you! Which translates into more sales!

5. Social media marketing is cheap and focused
Traditional print marketing approaches such as billboards, printing flyers or displaying adverts in magazines can be costly without a guarantee that the targeted client will see the message. Social media marketing, on the other hand, is either free or cheap as well as focused. Demographic and regional information is used in Facebook adverts to ensure only people who are interested in your offering will see your advert. You can also easily update your customers about any specials or promotions online. Enthusiastic brand ambassadors also talk about your services on social media and share this information within their networks, helping to spread your message.
The above reasons should assure you that employing social media marketing is not a waste of time and is, in fact, important for your small business! As more people continue to go online each year, social media should not be ignored. At Creative Assistants Consulting we specialize in providing social media support. This includes managing and scheduling your social media updates to create engaging beautiful graphics. Please get in touch with us via our Contact page to discuss how we can help you set up and manage your social media strategy.