Social media marketing benefits: Small business visibility, credibility, sales
“If people like you, they’ll listen to you. But if they trust you, they’ll do business with you.” – Zig Ziglar.
I posted this Zig Ziglar quote for the members of my Outrageous Success Facebook group the other day and as I reflected on it, it occurred to me that it parallels the most important social media marketing benefits for small businesses…or for any sized business.
We call social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram “networks” and that’s a fitting term. Small business owners should see what they do on these platforms as networking. You’re probably accustomed to networking in person; these social media platforms give you the ability to network on a vastly larger scale and with much greater ease.
Who wouldn’t want to do that?
Traditional person-to-person networking usually progresses like this:
- A desired outcome from a new relationship is conceived,
- An introduction is made,
- A relationship is started,
- The relationship grows deeper, and finally
- The parties begin to achieve their desired outcomes.
It’s the same way in the online social network world. The ultimate goal is usually to make some kind of sale. However, you must first gain visibility, which serves to introduce you to a universe of prospects. You want that introduction to be pleasant so – as Zig Ziglar says – people will like you and listen to you.
Then, as they are listening you grow the relationship to deeper levels, establishing your credibility, authority, and trust. When you have accomplished that you begin to get into a position where individuals from your social media network will do business with you.
Let me share a few quick tips to help you at each step of the process so you can more easily enjoy social media marketing benefits in your small business.
Visibility
How to you get noticed in an increasingly crowded social media marketing universe? There are several strategies:
Go vertical. By this I mean you decide to concentrate on one social media platform and mine it as deeply as you can for prospects. If you believe that your prospects are concentrated on one platform, don’t be afraid to try some ad to build your followers.
Go horizontal. If you believe that you have solid prospects throughout the social media world, then be present on all of those platforms. Fortunately, with an abundance of WordPress plugins, Hootsuite, Buffer, and other apps, it is very easy to post on multiple social media platforms at the same time.
Use hashtags. Hashtags don’t open the floodgates to new followers, but they do help.
Get your employees onboard. Encourage our team to include news about your business in their social media posts. Liz Azyan gives some case studies in the article she wrote for Social Media Examiner.
Credibility
Consistency is central to establishing your credibility on social media. You need to engage your followers on a regular schedule with high-quality content.
Another smart practice is to share the content of noted authorities in your field. This does two things: First it shows that you recognize authority and it may also result in a relationship between you and an established authority. As this new relationship grows, it is possible that the established authority will promote you a little in various ways.
Sales
Once your credibility is strong enough, you can begin to make some sales. But there’s an important point to make here: You can’t turn your social media posts into advertisements. In other words, you can’t always be selling on social media. In fact, you may never want to sell directly on social media.
What you want to do is build your social media trust to the point where your prospects will take one step further and sign up for your email list. Once a prospect has made that “leap of faith,” you can occasionally make a sales pitch.
Are you finding the new followers you need? Are you taking enough time to nurture your relationships? Understand that it’s a long-term play and doesn’t reward you with immediate impressive results. However, it will pay off generously over time and it is certainly one of the most important keys to success in the marketplace today.