Elevate Your Brand
The 7 Benefits of Social Media
And How You Can Use Them to Your Advantage
There are multiple benefits to using social media for marketing your business. This is pretty obvious BUT it’s easy to lose sight when your engagement plummets, a video you thought would go viral flops, and you don’t have the following your heart desires. Here’s something comforting to keep in mind: don’t obsess over the vanity metrics. YES, you want thousands of followers because that does increase your chances of exposure, but there’s a little more to it than just that.
People were starved for genuine human interaction before the lock downs of 2020. Now it’s even higher. Being present on social media gives you the opportunity to not just form a following but form a community. This may vary on what your brand is but people long to express themselves and to have their voices be heard. You can provide that safe place for your ideal audience.
HOW
Reply to messages and comments, be open to discussions, celebrate peoples’ wins, post content that uplifts and inspires. If you shift the perspective from “me me me”, this opens the door for your audience to interact. And they will remember you for it.
2. Establish Yourself As the Expert in Your Field
People buy from those they know, like, and trust. We all know this. Posting consistently on social media and sharing tips and tricks about your field show that YOU are the expert in your field. They can Google anyone in your niche but they will look to YOU for expert advice because you’re the one showing up in their feed.
HOW
Write out all the questions and problems that your ideal customer has had…then BE the solution in your content. If you’re new, that’s ok. Use sites like answerthepublic.com to see what questions are being asked.
3. Increase Brand Awareness
Just because people are liking or commenting on your posts doesn’t mean they don’t see them. Some people like to silently observe and do not interact. While this can be irritating, just remember that someone doesn’t necessarily have to follow you in order for them to buy from you.
HOW
Really get into the mind of your ideal customer. What activities do they like? How do they talk? Is it professional or casual? What kind of message do they want to see?
4. Increase Website Traffic
The goal of social media isn’t to just grow a following and keep them there. You want to guide them over to YOUR turf.
Anyone remember last year when Facebook and Instagram were down? Yeah, a lot of businesses were in trouble that day because their communication was solely through social media, which isn’t good.
Social media is supposed to be a place where you make the connections but you ultimately want them to move over to your own domain, so you can still reach them despite what platform is down at the moment.
HOW
You need to make this step as simple as possible. Make sure you add your links in your bio where everyone can easily access. Bonus tip: test each link to make sure it works. I’ve encountered a couple times where the link was wonky and needed to be adjusted. You can utilize sites like Flowcode or Linktree for free and still use a decent amount of links.
5. Increase Familiarity
The more people see you, the more familiar and comfortable they become with you, almost as if they know you. This plays into building a community and the trust factor will go way up, meaning they will be more likely to be customers. Even better is when they become repeat customers.
HOW
People CRAVE authenticity. Be yourself on social media, not what you see others doing. Doing video gives your personality a chance to shine through and people will connect with you better this way.
6. Stay Top of Mind
Going along with increasing familiarity is staying top of mind. When your ideal customer comes across the problem that YOU solve, they’ll immediately think of you. It may take months or even years, but maintaining consistency and staying top of mind will pay off.
HOW
Be patient! I’ve had clients and customers that have taken a while to sign with me. However, because I wasn’t pushy and kept up with my social media (staying top of mind), when they were ready, they knew exactly who to turn to!
7. Humanize Your Business
Again, we crave relationships and human interaction. If your brand feels robotic, it’ll come across as cold and unwelcoming. But if your brand feels human there’s a stronger sense of trust that comes along with that.
HOW
Stop trying to perfect every little thing. Don’t worry about that zit you have in that one picture or if you’re not perfectly lip syncing on a Tik Tok. Work with excellence but throw the pursuit of perfection out the window. People don’t connect with perfect. Perfect is not memorable or relatable.
Now go out there and be your awesome self!