Why does my small business need Social Media?

Having a solid social media presence is not just merely an option for businesses these days, it’s a necessity. Why? Well, we’ll just let the 1.87 billion active Facebook users and four million active advertisers speak for itself. In order to stay ahead of the game, your business has to play the game to begin with.

Sure, all of these ‘active user’ stats are impressive, but at the end of the day, why do they really matter to a small business? And further still, as a local trader, why should you take that next step and advertise on the platform? Well… maybe we should rewind a bit and look at exactly how these ‘active users’ actually consume social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

‘Active Users’ can equal impressive business results…

Platforms like Facebook and Instagram are naturally now installed into our daily lexicon. Let’s be honest, it’s probably rare that you yourself have gone a day without looking at one or both of these platforms, right? The truth of the matter is that Social Media is now a natural element on the path to conversion. Let’s break the numbers down, shall we? A recent study by Facebook (of US shoppers who recently made a purchase) found that:

• 30% discovered a new product on Facebook
• ⅓ said Facebook & Instagram were good places to find out about a new product or service
• 20% said Facebook led them to buy a new product/service online

What do these stats tell us? That extending your reach through Facebook advertising is really a no brainer. The more you can be discovered on Social Media, the better! Actions on this platform are translating into real, successful business results.

Over Propel Digital’s time, we’ve heard a lot of business owners say that they use their Social Media presence for ‘free exposure’ or ‘free marketing’. Whilst this is technically true, organically growing your business on Social really is almost impossible compared to how easy it was 6 or 7 years ago.

The fact is, due to Facebook & Instagram’s continual updates, organic reach is on the decline. If you’ve been managing your business’ Facebook page for a while now, you may have seen this trend in action. That’s because it’s becoming increasingly competitive to get your brand shown in a user’s news feed. Right now, organic reach on posts typically only equates to as low as 2 percent of your audience, and this will probably see a further decline as the years go on.

So, that unfortunately leaves businesses with the following situation: pay to play or shut up shop!

However, this doesn’t mean that you have to pile in a bucket load of cash into your Social Media marketing. It just means that you as a business owner have to be savvy about how you invest on the platform. More importantly, it means you have to think very strategically about how you can use Social Media to enhance other marketing activities that you may be doing.

Did you know that Social Media can also boost other media?

While Facebook ads are an amazing tool, they are not the magic solution to all your problems. It would be wrong to suggest that they are. But, when Facebook works in tandem with other marketing and media outputs, the results can be quite impressive. Again, it’s all about getting seen, increasing awareness and increasing customer recall of your business.

Picture this: you’re running a TV or radio ad locally, but you’re not really sure if it’s converting to sales. You could back up this ad with some spend on Social to increase the awareness of your brand in the local area. The stats support this type of marketing activity – in fact, there’s a 30% increase in brand awareness and consideration when using Facebook video to complement other media.

Or imagine this: You’re running paid Google Ads and are looking to get a higher conversion rate. You could back up your search ads with Facebook ads that have similar messaging and imagery. People who see ads on Facebook are more likely to search and click through to an advertiser’s website, with campaigns experiencing a 6.3% lift in mobile search traffic.

Starting to come around to Social Media?
There really is no limit to what you can do with Facebook ads – it really comes down to testing, testing, testing. After all, you won’t know until you try, right?

If you’d like to learn more about how your business can see success with Social Media advertising, contact us.