Social media marketing is the fastest way to grow your business today.
Rife with selling opportunities to drive revenue, it’s the best way to reach new audiences, build your brand, and find new customers.
What makes it so unique? Well, for one thing, social media builds on itself. Your social media profiles welcome people to your brand 24/7. Your Pages and accounts are the gateways for leads, projects, speaking gigs, invitations to events, partnerships, and more.
Good news: You already have the tools to sell and promote your brand on social media. With just a phone and access to the internet, you can create content and share it with the world at a low-cost.
If you aren’t yet convinced to hop on board the social media train, here are five reasons why you should invest in social media marketing today.
What is social media marketing?
Social media marketing is a digital marketing strategy that uses channels like Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok, and other platforms to engage with audiences. You can use it for almost everything. From employing influencers to gush about your brand and products to creating online communities to leveraging it as a platform for your customer service operations, the possibilities are virtually limitless.
Is social media marketing worth it?
In 2019, almost three-quarters of small businesses invested in social media. In 2021, researchers from Statista expect that nearly 92% of marketers at more prominent companies will use social media marketing as part of their overall strategy. Judging by these statistics, it appears that the larger you grow as a business, the more critical it is to consider social media marketing. But is that really the case?
You might be wondering whether social media marketing is worth it for business owners like yourself. The short answer: it’s very likely, but your business type will often determine how critical it will be for you.
We’ll dig into this issue later on with specific reasons to invest in social, but there are a few factors you’ll need to consider before you jump in. Let’s start with a short list of pros and cons for a quick overview.
Pros
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It helps create and amplify your brand personality. Social media makes your brand more relatable. Unlike a television ad, customers can have a back-and-forth conversation with businesses through social media. If you establish a brand voice guide, social media marketing can help you refine your brand personality as you interact with customers and broadcast messages.
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You’ll get quick feedback. As anyone who has done in-depth market research can tell you, gathering customer feedback and surfacing actionable insights is a slow process. Yet, with social media, you can post polls or ask open-ended questions to capture quick responses.
- Enjoy creative interactions with other brands. Social media offers your business ample creative opportunities to interact with other industry brands in ways that may not have been possible before. A recent (early 2021) notable example is Heinz topping Weetabix with its beans, which caused a stir throughout the Twittersphere.
Cons
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It’s not an effortless, quick win. Social media marketing can require a decent chunk of time since you’ll need to be responding to every customer’s questions, compliments, and complaints. It’s also not a get-rich-quick scheme. You’ll need to invest substantial time and effort before you begin to see a significant return on investment.
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Your brand voice can become inconsistent. Suppose you decide to hire someone (or multiple people) to manage your social media marketing for you. To prevent your brand voice from becoming fragmented (due to your social media marketers’ different styles and tones), be sure to set them up with a brand voice guide.
- Social media adds a dimension of risk. Social media marketing can be a double-edged sword. You’re able to reach customers much more easily, but at the same time, your brand opens itself up to criticism and reputational risk as it exposes lines of communication to the public.
Though social media marketing can be time-consuming and contains an element of risk, there are still plenty of reasons it will prove to be a worthwhile investment. If you’re still unsure, check out our top five reasons you should invest in a social media marketing strategy.
Social media marketing benefits
Here’s how social media can transform your business from what might be a side hustle into a full-fledged career.
Cost-effective advertising
In 2019, the average cost to run a 30-second commercial during TV programming in the United States was almost $105,000. Chances are, if you’re a small business, advertising on TV is going to be a little out of reach for you. Social media, on the other hand, is far more affordable.
There are myriad ways to advertise using social media. Some of the more engaging (and cost-effective) ways to do so are running Facebook sponsored messages or employing the Facebook ads JSON method