Top 4 Benefits of Using Social Media to Promote Your Small Business

It’s the year 2019, and there isn’t a single small business or big enterprise that has zero social media presence. Most brands, especially small businesses looking to grow, have the social media triumvirate of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts with complementary content on each platform that their digital content managers have slaved over for months if only to get that perfect engagement rating that makes them go viral.

Why do brands do this?

The foremost thing is that social media is a great way (these days, a requirement) to foster brand credibility and trust. Even for brands with brick and mortar stores where customers can literally see the products with their own two eyes, the lack of a social channel or two could be likened to throwing customer loyalty and brand recall out the providential window. Successful social media acts as a brand’s extension, as another customer sharing what’s so great about this one product or service they love. It’s the way brands establish social proof and show their audience that they’re completely legitimate – just ask all the other happy customers! New product announcements, special events, and memes aside, a brand’s social media presence can even form part of the customer service experience, so a carefully-thought-out approach to social media promotions are crucial especially for start-up campaigns and small business growth.

Promoting your business over social media can help you reap these benefits.

Creative freedom and creative expression

Although having brand guidelines are an absolute must, having rules means sometimes learning how to break them to your favor. The beauty of social media promotions, particularly for bolstering SME growth, is that you have so much room to creatively present your brand that the possibilities for you are endless. Viral content, memes, infographics, fact sheets, flat-lays — that and all other social media jargon should be in your vocabulary when promoting on social media. Keep yourself up to speed on the latest trends, and always think of creative ways to present them to your audience to keep your content fresh and relevant.

Flexible presentations

Gone are the days when advertisements would be looked down upon and skipped. In the age of social media, creative advertisements are the name of the game. The more vaguely thought-provoking and emotionally charged your ad is, the better it connects to your audience. This means that businesses small and large have flexibility when it comes to the form they present their ads in. There are hundreds of different ad executions to prop up your brand without even making them look like ads – yes, they can be made to look like your average Instagram post. (Just be honest about it!)

Worldwide visibility

This ought to be a no-brainer. More than half of the world’s population are on social media, and somewhere at the other end of the world, someone is scrolling through their Facebook timeline or Twitter feed liking a post you just made and wondering if you ship worldwide. Social media opens up several doors to major distribution channels for any product or service when done right, and it can drastically improve small business growth from the localities to the global market. Make sure to plan your content ahead with a global audience in mind. After all, in this day and age, inclusivity on all fronts should pretty much be a given.

Social media is fool-proof

No brand who wants to stay relevant to its audience is without social media anymore. It is one of the major communication channels to get through to your market, and it’s still where people turn to for daily content. Although no one would go so far as to say that social media is 100% foolproof with no room for error (email marketing and brand websites still play bigger roles in customer retention), one would be hard-pressed to find a brand that doesn’t employ some sort of social media marketing strategy.

For micro, small, and medium businesses that want to build credibility fast in order to reach a bigger market, relevant social media has to be in place. With the right content strategy, sincere values, and transparent promises of data privacy (which is a whole other topic altogether), brands could potentially generate huge sales through digital marketing efforts alone. And who wouldn’t want that?

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