It’s of no surprise that one of the most common questions business owners ask me is “What’s the actual VALUE social media brings to my business?”.

Everybody lives and breathes digital. So, if you are a business owner, you probably know by now that social media is no longer a choice … It’s a must! 

Some people, including Gary Vaynerchuk, even claim that social media is the new “word of mouth” marketing. So, you know it’s a powerful thing!

Without further ado, these are 4 ways, you can use social media to create value for your business:

1. Establish a Credible Brand

Want to convince people to purchase a product or service from you?

Let’s be honest, customers are getting wiser, and if you are a new brand on the market, the chances are nobody will be queuing up to buy a product from you unless they know you and trust you well enough. 

Social media provides you with multiple channels like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram to interact and engage with your ideal customers (did I mention for FREE?). 

Pro Tip: The secret is to be authentic and give your audience the chance to get to know you on a personal level.

Don’t just put a general statement in your bio “I do renovation works”. Show your customers what you ACTUALLY DO. And WOW your audience with photos (or videos) of your most recent projects. Once they learn about your work, they are more likely to call you or inquire about working with you. 

2. Fine Tune your Business through Feedback

Don’t just use social platforms to share one-way communications like:

• “buy my latest product”
• “launching new product soon!”
• “my employees are amazing”
• “promotion!”

Eventually, you’ll build a reputation of an arrogant brand. You wouldn’t want this, do you?

One company that failed to research its customers is Starbucks. To be specific, Starbucks Australia marketing strategy was a failure simply because they focused to much on pushing “me, me, me” content which has build them a reputation of an arrogant brand. (read the case study here)

Instead, use social platforms to ASK for your customers’ FEEDBACK.

You’ll get valuable insights on what you are doing well and which areas you need to improve. And don’t be afraid of negative reviews, respond to them! – it shows your existing customers that you value their opinion and you care about their experience! This is what builds trust.

One company that takes customer feedback seriously is #NYX. Below is a poll they created on Twitter asking their audience to rank their favourite lip products.

#SweetDaze also uses Instagram posts to get valuable insights on their new cake flavours.

4. Link Social Media to Business Objectives

Did you know that 56% of marketers find the “inability to tie social media to business outcomes” as the biggest challenge when measuring social media ROI? (source: Altimeter research 2012)

That’s why, I always advise my clients to add a CTA to all their social posts. You are posting with a purpose, aren’t you?

What is a CTA?

It’s a call-to-action that is aimed at directing your potential customers and followers (usually through a strategically placed clickable link) to your conversion site where they can complete a purchase. This can either be your online store, a subscription list, a physical store, direct them to make a phone call, message you on Whatsapp etc. 

But how do we measure VALUE? 

I get it. The biggest challenge with social media is finding a quantifiable way of demonstrating the importance of engagement and justify the time spent doing it. That’s why you need good social media analytics tools. The metrics will vary from platform to platform.  

However, some common metrics are:

• Likes
• Follows
• Shares
• Impressions
• Website clicks
• Page Views
• Comments
• Followers
• Retweets
• Click-through

Conclusion

But remember, social media benefits you from more than a pure ROI stand point. It’s not only about measuring the value of a “like” or a “retweet”, you need to also take into consideration social factors like: customer engagement, reaching new leads, being present where your existing customers are and so much more…

You already know that your customers are present on social media, whether you are present or not.

So, ask yourself: “can I afford to lose business by not being on social media?”.

Have any questions?

Let me know in the comments!

To learn more about copywriting and want to write social media posts that convert, DOWNLOAD my FREE “Copywriting for Social Media“.

Related articles:

Hootsuite (2019) “How to Increase Social Media Engagement: A Guide for Marketers” [online] Available from <https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-engagement/&gt;

Sproutsocial (2017) [online] “How to measure Value from Social Media” Available from: <https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-value/&gt;

What is the true business value of social media engagement?

See more

Social Media Bakers (2019) “Social Media Advocacy: How to Develop a Powerful Program for Your Brand” [online] Available from: <https://www.socialbakers.com/blog/social-media-advocacy&gt;

Ceambur A. (2018) “Why Starbucks Failed in Australia?” [online] Available from:<https://alexandraceambur.com/2018/11/10/why-starbucks-failed-in-australia/&gt;