In today’s digital age, having a social media presence is no longer optional for small businesses, it’s essential. Social media platforms are the best tools that can help businesses connect with their audience to build brand awareness and bring in sales. Here are a few reasons why every small business should have social media…

Increased Brand Awareness

It’s the easiest and fastest way to increase your brand’s visibility. Billions of users are online searching Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc. By having social media, you’d have access to a global audience. When I started my youtube channel 3 years ago I expected it to take a year before I reached 1,000 subscribers. After 2 weeks our channel gained 1K subscribers, some of who lived in countries I’d never heard of or knew existed. 

Today our channel has over 10K subscribers and when I started I was very uncertain of how or where I’d find support!

That’s the thing about social media. Your followers will find you, instead of you having to find them.

Back in the days of handing out flyers and business cards people may look in their phone contacts to call you when they finally need the service on your card. But today they will hire the person they can find online.

When people are searching online they often use #hashtags. If you have social media, through hashtags your service (health coach, english tutor, catering services etc) can be easily found. You can reach a larger audience and demonstrate your abilities to solve your customers’ problems.

Social media gives a glimpse of what you are doing in your field of expertise. That way you can show people instead of just telling them about the difference you can make.

Direct Customer Engagement

Social media allows for direct interaction between businesses and their customers. The direct communication helps build relationships and trust with followers. Most people feel the need to trust you before buying something. 

Usually what I do when I check someone’s social media is I look to see if and how they respond to comments. Sometimes I feel shy to send a private message to inquire about services. When I see that the person responds to their comments then it helps build trust for their services and gives me more confidence to reach out.

So I would say social media provides an opportunity to build trust with potential buyers. 

What’s the first thing you do when you’re looking to hire someone for a job?

Yep, you search online to see if they have a social media to prove their credibility. It’s a natural reaction! “Let me see what their Facebook account looks like” hmmm…they don’t have Facebook “Let me check Instagram”…etc.

Would you trust a business that says they’ve helped hundreds of people, but you can’t find a social media for them or any online presence? Where would you expect to see proof of their capabilities?

For me, sometimes I search social media to see a demonstration of the business owner’s character. Whether their personality would be a good fit for the type of person I would want to work with or not…

This is why having a social media is especially important for coaches and consultants! When I was looking for a book coach I searched online and browsed business owner’s socials.

When I was looking for a book editor I went to every social platform online to see what the particular editor I wanted to hire was posting online ( may sound cringe, I know), but I wanted to be sure I had the right fit!

I needed to feel secure that I was hiring a person who has passion for the work they do. You can often tell those things by a person’s social media. If I’m not pleased with someone’s social media, I won’t hire them. And may people operate this way these days…

If you’re a coach, your dedication, energy, ethics, and personality is what clients care about the most. You can use social media to show what you stand for and your business mission.

Building Community and Brand Loyalty

Creating a community can lead to long-term success and repeat customers. Social media allows you to share stories, behind-the-scenes content, and meaningful posts that resonate with your audience. Your followers look forward to your content and when they find the free content valuable they will be eager to experience your paid programs/services. 

Staying Competitive

In today’s marketplace your competitors are using social media to grow their businesses. To stay relevant and competitive, small businesses need to have an online presence. By viewing your competitors, you can recognize trends and opportunities for your own business.

Sharing content on social media can drive traffic to your website. On your own website you can collect emails to build a subscriber base where you can later market services directly to customers’ email inbox.

According to louisazhou.com at least 50.7% of people purchase something once a month from email marketing. It’s a strong way to stay connected to build customer loyalty and gain potential buyers.

Social media is a powerful tool that every small business should have. If you haven’t already, it’s time to take your business online to gain the advantages of having social media bring brand awareness and loyal followers to your business. 

Which social media platform will you start posting your small business to?

The best practice is to start with one and become really skilled at it instead of trying to focus on posting to all social media platforms.

Pay attention to the types of posts your followers engage with the most and post more of them!

until next time…happy posting!