Is Social Media Worthy for Small Medium Businesses?

Businesses without exception are in it for the long haul and visibility has always been the key to success.

From the time the barter system gave way to money-based transactions, businesses have vied with each other to the tower invisibility, for other conversions to kick in.

For small businesses, presence on digital space matters. Social media marketing for small business fetches results, and the results hinge entirely on how well the campaigns are crafted and managed.

Social media for small business is all the more important for small businesses because of the sheer numbers involved.

Statistics reveal that there are 125 million formal MSMEs globally.

This effectively means that a small business needs to stand out in its domain, in addition to superior quality, to be able to get the desired market share. Here are reasons that demonstrate how social media for small business has helped.

How the numbers are stacked in favor or social media

Before you take a look at how social media marketing for small business has worked, let’s first dive into a few statistics to understand how the numbers are stacked in its favor.

#1 The number of small businesses who rely on Facebook Pages to connect with customers is 50 million.

#2 Nine out of ten adults in the age group of 18-34 are likely to follow a brand through social media.

#3 Seven out of ten customers with good social media experience are more likely to recommend the service to others.

These statistics just the proverbial tip, with other mind-boggling statistics indicating the power of social media in influencing customer preferences.

How to get it right?

Now that we have established the dominance of social media in a relationship-based business economy, it is time to understand who to get it right.

Without the right strategy, no amount of social media campaigns can turn tides in your favor.

To begin with, you need a clear idea of what you aim to establish with social media marketing. Do you want outright conversions?

Or are you interested in micro-conversions?

Do you want to build up a formidable digital presence and then roll out products or services?

You need to lay down the KPIs before you even think about the returns. After you have defined the goals, you can then work a plan around it.

For instance, if your business offers multiple products or services in addition to a business-client relationship, you can look at presenting the services in a manner so that even if a hot prospect does not sign up as a client, he or she would opt for some service or product.

The bottom line is that you need to engage your visitors in such a manner so as to keep the bounce rates low.

If you manage to keep the visitors glued to your site, then you stand the best possible chance of getting a full or micro conversion. This leads to the following question.

How do you keep bounce rates low?

The answer is quite simple. You need a strategy that networks with serious visitors. A visitor who looks for your services or products will most likely stay on your site for a longer time.

In other words, you need to target; you need to focus your social media strategy in such a manner so as to drive visitors who are most in need of your products and services.

Each channel offers a different method of reaching out to prospects. While visual content has a higher probability of getting shared on social media than other content; it will help only for a particular category of products or its users. Instagram, for instance, is more likely to be used by the younger generation of millennial and female users.

Therefore, if your product caters to this category, you need to include it as a digital marketing channel.

If you run a Twitter feed, you need to have someone manage the handle at all times.

Your response rates need to be superfast, to demonstrate your intent to engage, offer information and sort out issues.

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