Will my business benefit from social media?

26th Jun, 2013

Will my business benefit from social media?

Social media has developed in a very short time from being purely recreational and for private use to being a vital part of a business’s online presence. It is expected now for a business to be entirely open with its customers and to regularly engage with them and keep them up to date with business developments. Social media has become the favoured medium to facilitate this vital business tool for consumer engagement.

Developing and maintaining a social media presence is highly beneficial for businesses as it facilitates the development of a relationship with current and potential customers. This relationship is vital in modern business and with some dedication can bring significant ROI. With regular and well thought out posts a business can engage with and build a relationship with its followers, therefore ensuring that their services remain at the fore-front of the followers mind and if successful can convert into a paying customer.

Before launching into the world of social media, it is important to develop a strategy to ensure that you are always working toward an end goal, rather than just having a social media profile for the sake of it. Firstly, develop a set of goals for your page such as a minimum number of ‘likes’ or ‘followers’. Consider your target market, choose channels that are suited to that target market, your goals, and the type of business that you run.

It is important to have a social media strategy that is in-line with your offline business strategy to ensure that your business- consumer communication is consistent across all aspects of the business. Before you begin posting, think about your brand personality, are you more professional and formal in your approach to your business and interactions with clients or do you take a more relaxed, informal approach? This personality should be reflected in your social media posts to ensure continuity and to avoid misconstrued brand perceptions. Keep your posts relaxed and ‘chatty’ but ensure that the overall tone and messages conveyed are in line with your offline business presence.

Onmark usually recommend that a business begins their social media strategy with Facebook as it is the mostly widely used social media channel for businesses, although for B2B (business to business) businesses, LinkedIn may be the best starting point. Once a business is successfully running their Facebook page, you can then expand into the wide range of social media channels available. Google+ is great in the long term for a websites SEO, by linking your Google+ page to your website and regularly updating the page, the Google search algorithms give your site a higher ranking which therefore increase your chances of being found higher in the search feeds on Google.

At Onmark we strive to deliver superior leads and better sales conversion with digital marketing and customer engagement. Our proven formula combines smart online strategy and execution to drive your business growth. In recent work for a top end Wellington salon, we managed to increase their fan base by 30% within one month, through one targeted campaign and regular engaging posts that allowed an insight behind the scenes of the business and its team.

Onmark are dedicated to providing comprehensive and successful social media strategies for any type of business. If you are not sure about how to ‘go social’ give us a call on 04 803 3255 and we can get you started.

"Social Media is all about developing more brand awareness and customer engagement. Whether your goals are to educate, inform or entertain we'll come up with a plan to deliver".

Author: Samantha Buckler
Contact: samantha@onmark.co.nz

ENDS

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