Recent research has shown that only 1 in 4 of us trust Social Media - so should we still be using it in business?  

Since the start of ‘fake news’ in 2016, the credibility of social channels has seriously reduced in the eyes of its users. More than half of Britons worry about ‘fake news’, while 64 percent said they could not distinguish between proper journalism and fake news on today's social platform.

But social media is still one of the best methods to improve the credibility of your business.

A recent study by Sprout Social showing what customers want from brands on Social media shows that they want honesty (see graph below). Unsurprising given the growth of ‘fake news’ - customers just want to read things they can trust!

Image source

Social Media is a necessary tool to use within business, almost 70 percent of people will look to social media when researching a brand. By managing your social media channels well, you can reap many benefits and insights into your customers and market your brand accordingly.

• Gain valuable insights

Each social media platform produces huge amounts of customer data for you to access - real time! Every day, there are over 500 million tweets, 4.5 billion likes on Facebook and 95 million uploads to Instagram. Who is posting? What do they like and dislike? How do they feel about your brand? All this information is available to you to analyse and use within your campaigns.

Through regular engagement customers, and monitoring what they are liking and commenting, you can gather information to make smarter and well-informed business decisions.

• Brand awareness

When you have established your presence on Social Media, it makes it a great deal easier for your customers to find and connect with your brand. By connecting with your customers on social platforms, more much more likely to increase the customer retention and brand loyalty of your customers.

• Provide rich customer experiences

Customers expect you to be on social media. It’s just the way it is. Over 67 percent of customers look to social media for customer services and expect fast response times as well as 24/7 support. Companies that deliver this provide extremely rich customer experiences.

• Increase website traffic and search ranking

Not only does social media direct people back to your website, but the more shares your posts receive, the higher your rankings will be. One of the biggest benefits of being active and sharing posts on social media is using it to boost your website traffic.

• Keep an eye on what your competitors are doing

While your monitoring prospective customers, you can also be keeping an eye on your competitors and gain key information. This intel allows you to make smart business decisions to stay ahead of the curve and outshine other companies. Monitor industry keywords, competitor pages and pages relating you similar products to yours.  This will improve your business offerings, enhance product campaigns and improve customer service.

• Share your content quickly and easily

Old methods of marketing, such as direct mail and magazine articles had marketers facing the challenge of making sure their content reached the correct customers at the right time. Now, with the help of social media, marketers jobs have been made easier. Businesses are now able to schedule specific times for when they want content to go live. You can even specify it further by managing each social platform individually.

• Build relationships

Social media is a two-way channel, where you have the opportunity to engage with a mixture of existing and potential customers, as well as the general public. It isn’t about boring your audience with sales pitches day in, day out. It gives you a chance you offer content-rich information that your customers will love reading - increasing brand loyalty. Establish the voice of your brand and don’t stray.

• Give your brand an identity

Give customers a look into your companies culture, and ‘humanise’ your business. If your customers can relate to you and your values, they’re more likely to convert to a paying customer. Be honest!

Final thoughts

Social media is a necessary tool for business today. If you are honest and show your brand as being human, relatable and ‘there’ for your customers - using social platforms can bring you sales. But more important than sales (Yes! There is something more important!) you can gain an insight into your customers. No other platform can offer you such in-depth and valuable data.

Share and enjoy

If you have any questions or comments about this post, please fill in the comment box below. Or send me an email: shale@bonline.com. To find out more about bOnline, please visit our website.