Whether your brand is new or simply just getting its feet wet in the world of social media, there’s no wrong time to establish a presence. You certainly don’t need to be on every channel, but it’s worth investigating which ones work best for your business goals.

 

Here are 5 reasons why your brand needs a social media presence

 

Control the Conversation

People are going to say things about your brand. People are going to Google your brand. The conversation will happen, so you might as well exert control over it.

Social media has become an overwhelmingly popular avenue for customers to air their complaints, praise, and everything else.  After all, helping your customers find love is free publicity.

52% of customers expect brands to respond to reviews within a week while 72% of people who complain on Twitter expect a brand response within an hour.

On the flip side, customers love having a social media presence to tag when they’re happy – like if they’ve found a cute pair of yoga pants that they want to show off, or just experienced great customer service at a restaurant on their birthday. According to this study , 44% of millennials use social media to spread the word about products or services. It’s no wonder influencer marketing has taken on a life of its own.

In a crisis situation, it’s always best to be able to reach your customers as quickly and directly as possible. This can easily be done via social media.

 

[Tweet “Social media is like a cocktail party. You’re always better off hosting and mingling than being a wallflower. tweets”]

 

 

Build loyalty

High engagement on social media may not translate into immediate revenue, but engagement boosts brand loyalty which ultimately becomes revenue. People who are loyal to a brand drive 33% more sales and 18% more traffic compared to a regular customer.

Whether it takes a few weeks or a few months, building loyalty among your existing customers is a great way to build out your brand’s future. Featuring happy customers is a shines the spotlight on them. If your customers are happy enough to act as your ambassadors, they’re essentially marketing for you.

Burners, Deadheads, and Trekkies – what do these all have in common? They’re names of communities that people identify with because they band together to talk about a common interest. If your brand name translates well into a community nickname, go for it.

Run contests that will keep them revisiting your social media channels because they feel they might gain something from it. Add genuine value to their lives without being overly salesy with your content.

As Tim O’Reilly of O’Reilly Media put it:

“All the people who feel creepy about social media feel that way because they are trying to get more value than they create. All the spammy methods, all the ways of getting more influence, or social climbing. If you focus on creating value, you actually do capture more of it in the long run.”

 

Get Feedback

Whether you’re a one-man business or you work with a team, social media can act as the canary in the mine that lets everyone else know what’s up. If customers consistently complain or criticize the same features of your product or service, that’s a great indication of where you should be concentrating your efforts.

Engage with them. Acknowledge them. If you’ve made changes based on their feedback, let them know. When customers feel that you’re paying attention to them, they’ll be more apt to trust your brand.

At a previous social media management role, my audience was a finicky bunch who were very quick to criticize. I turned this around by asking them for their ideas, and the response was overwhelmingly positive. These posts drove higher levels of engagement but also helped improve our brand perception.

 

Give your brand a personality

Your social media presence is a great opportunity to define your brand’s voice and show your customers that you’re more than a service. Who are you? What’s your backstory? What milestones are you celebrating? Social media is a great chance to showcase these things.

Imagine that if you told three different companies how much you loved their product, they’d come back with three different responses. Which one is yours?

Think of the brands you admire on social media and why. If you can kickstart a list of the characteristics about them you find pleasing as a consumer, it will give you an idea of what you value – and how you can work it into your social media routine.

Here’s a great guide to determining what your brand’s tone of voice should be on social media: https://www.distilled.net/tone-of-voice/

 

More conversion opportunities

As I mentioned previously, you shouldn’t think of social media as a direct path to dollars in the bank. It’s more of a friendly introduction. If a consumer engages with your brand’s social media presence for a few months, it’s a more realistic projection that it could lead to a sale down the road.

It’s been said that marketing is really just flirting, and that principle applies 100% here. Even if a potential customer isn’t buying, they offer a referral now that they’ve been made aware of your brand.

 

It’s absolutely worth putting yourself out there.

 

About the Author

Michelle Rick is a social media and content marketing consultant who specializes in the startup and retail industry. Visit her at michellearick.com for social media tips and Amy Poehler quotes.