The number one reason why your business needs to be using social media is because the majority of your prospects and potential customers are on social.

Whether it be Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin, your client base is most likely using social media in one form or another.

They might be spending 45-60 minutes per day, or 5 minutes per week. It doesn’t matter how much time. The fact is your customers/clients are on social. And they’re demanding value, from businesses like yours, to educate and inform them on why they should buy from you.

We’ll talk more in depth in another week about what type of social media your business should be using, but for today, we’re going to break down the reasons why your business (SMB) needs to use social media.

Your prospects don’t need 100% face-to-face interaction

Times have changed dramatically, especially in terms of how you find and cultivate new business relationships. The strength of a mom and pop relationship, while important, is not built only on 100% face-to-face interaction anymore.

You can build relationships, today, in a myriad of ways, instead of literally visiting all your prospects and customers, in person.

Your consumers and buyers will check out your business online before they ever step foot in your building. And if your business is not on social media, you’re missing a great way to introduce yourself to your prospective customers.

It also doesn’t matter if you’re a company that serves a B2B audience, or a B2C audience.

Your company’s path to customer acquisition is rarely built on your prospects walking down the street to find businesses anymore, or searching newspaper headings for advertisements.

When you decide to advertise, you need to go where your peers are finding success, as well as where your potential customers are spending time. Like social media.

The rate of advertising that happens on social media is continuing to grow every single year, as you can see from the graph above. Having a Facebook page for your company can create an additional way to advertise your business, control customer service issues, and showcase how you help your prospects with your product or service.

Think about social media this way: you have a simple, and relatively inexpensive way, to share content from your company’s website on social media platforms.

• Have a band that plays at your coffee shop? Live tweet it or promote it on Facebook.
• Do you sell a product to schools, municipalities, colleges, or to other businesses? Use Facebook to gather reviews, which show how you’re served these audiences.
• Sell IT services? Use high-res images or photos of how you interact with your IT clients in their offices. Or take high-res selfies of you and your team, with your client, so others can see a real-life example of what you do for your customers.
• Have case studies, or an industry white-paper you want others to see? Post it on Facebook, then boost the post through a paid ad campaigns, and target your specific prospects through Facebook’s ad platform.

Social media is just another online forum, if you will, that allows you to get your message in front of your persona.

Think about social media as just another means of promotion

Simply having a Facebook page can help your company distribute important news to prospective customers.

It’s been reported that as of 2015, roughly 73% of all Americans have at least one social media profile. This is up from 48% just five years ago, according to Forbes.com. (www.forbes.com)

Did you write an authentic blog post about something in your industry? How are people going to find that blog post? Someone may just happen to be searching for an article about your topic, but that still leaves a lot up to the search engines to find it.

If you’re not distributing your content or announcements through social media, then chances are your message will not reach all the audience you’re hoping it will.

You are severely limiting yourself by not using social media to promote your brand and your content.

Here’s some stats on businesses with social media.

If you don’t have social media and all you’re doing is posting to your website, you better hope you have great SEO, otherwise you’re limiting how your prospects will find you.

Social media doesn’t have to be boring (or complicated)

Think of how many things have gone viral on Facebook and Twitter.

Does your business have a personality to it? Do you want people to see you as more than a faceless business? Social media presents a great way for companies to give themselves an identity.

While you should shy away from posting controversial or offensive posts, posting pictures related to your company can give you an edge over your competitors.

It creates trust, and makes customers feel like they have a chance to get to know who you are. It’s really hard to convince someone to trust you to do a great job if they feel like they don’t know you.

Social media can not only be a platform to get your information out there, but it can also be a chance to humanize your company.

Be wise with how you use social media

Your company’s social media pages are there to create trust for customers scoping out your business. Using it to establish yourself as an expert will go a long way to promoting trust for your company in the eyes of potential customers.

Share articles about your industry (not everything will be fun and sexy). Share valuable knowledge that’s beneficial to your customers, and not necessarily about yourself.

If you create social media pages for your business that create a sense of credibility, you’re going to get a great return on investment for your time and energy.

Speaking of social media wisdom, here’s the typical cycle of a relevant and excellent Facebook post.

1. You’re a construction company.
2. You write an article about what type of insulation to use when building a house.
3. You post it on your company Facebook page or Twitter account.
4. One of your followers shares it.
5. Someone on their friends list may see that article, click on it and think, “This person knows what they’re talking about. I actually have been looking for someone to build a house. They may be someone I want to talk to.”
6. They go to your website, from your Facebook page, and fill out a contact form.
7. You now have a lead.

Get the point? This happens. It happens every day.

This person has never met you, or anyone from your company face-to-face, but they feel like they know your company.

Share, share, and share again

The numbers showing the benefits of companies using social media are out there, so don’t waste any time.

Get out there and start posting. Your company will be better for it.

Talk to marketing experts

How have you used social media when promoting your brand? Let us know.

And for more information about how you can effectively use social media, take a look at our services, and contact us here for a consultation.