It’s not easy for small businesses to get attention on social media in 2024. But there are ways to get that special attention that could take your brand to another height of success. And with over 4.8 billion people using social media, small businesses can’t ignore social media usage to stay relevant in this modern world. That’s why it’s important for every brand in 2024 to know why do businesses establish a presence on social media platforms. More than 59% of the world’s population is on social media, and more people are joining every second.
That’s why it’s important for every business to have a solid social presence to attract people and elevate their brand’s success. This article will talk about the benefits of social media for businesses, why do businesses establish a presence on social media platforms, and how brands can build a successful social media presence in 2024.
Most Important Thing in Social Media
Ariel Boswell, a social media analyst at HubSpot, says that to boost your brand’s social media presence, it’s really important to know and understand your audience well. She suggests that knowing what your audience likes and sharing useful content are key to doing well. This strong connection with your followers helps you meet their main needs and serve them better.
Reasons for Businesses to Use Social Media Platforms
Below we talk about some legit reasons why organizations should start using social media in 2024.
Increase Your Brand’s Visibility
Using social media helps more people notice your brand. When you regularly post interesting and relevant content, you can attract more followers and make your business stand out. This makes it easier for people to find and remember your brand.
Grow Your Customer Base
Being active on social media helps you talk to possible and current customers. It’s a good way for people to ask things, find out stuff, and buy things. Talking with your audience and sharing content that’s easy to share helps you make stronger connections and get new customers.
Show Your Expertise
On social media, you can attract people who value your expertise when you showcase your expertise and earn trust from your audience. Share helpful tips, interesting articles, and answer common questions to establish your business as a knowledgeable authority in your field.
Learn from Your Competitors
It’s a good idea to pay attention to what other companies are doing on social media. You can learn from them and see what their customers like. This can help you make your own social media better and do even better than your competition.
Build and Protect Your Online Reputation
On social media, you can manage your online reputation. You can respond to customer feedback, address any issues, and highlight positive reviews. By staying active and engaging with your audience, you can create a positive image and build trust in your brand.
How Can Businesses Establish Their Presence on Social Media
Set Up and Improve Your Social Media Profiles to Show Off Your Brand Clearly
The first thing to do to be good on social media is to make your profiles on social media look good. Use the same logos, colors, and messages on all your pages. Make sure people can tell who you are and what your business does from the About section. It’s really important to do this right when new customers look at your pages for the first time.
Plan Your Content Ahead of Time to Post Consistently and Stay Active
Keeping a regular schedule is important for growing your social media following. Make a plan for what you’ll post and when, and think about what topics you’ll focus on each month. Planning ahead means you won’t run out of ideas and can create really good content. Being organized and sticking to your plan will help you keep your followers interested.
Use Fun and Interactive Features Like Polls and Quizzes to Keep Your Audience Engaged
It’s really important to get people interested and involved in what you’re sharing. You can do this by using things like polls, quizzes, and live videos to get people to interact with your brand. This helps to start a conversation where you can learn more about what your audience does and doesn’t like, and it also helps to build better relationships.
Engage with Your Community Regularly to Build Strong Relationships
Building a good relationship with the people who follow your company online is very important. This means answering questions and talking to customers. You should also take part in conversations about things that are important to your business. When you talk with your followers and other businesses like yours, it helps create a feeling of trust and togetherness around your company. This can help encourage people to keep supporting your business.
Watch Your Competitors to Learn and Get New Ideas,
It’s important to keep an eye on what other companies are doing on social media so you can learn from them and improve your own strategy. Look at what they’re doing right, what they’re doing wrong, and how people are reacting to their posts. But only use the things that make sense for your own brand. It’s important to stay true to what makes your brand special.
Join Social Media Trends That Fit Your Brand to Get More Attention
Social media trends can make more people see your business, but they need to be like your business. Only join in if they are like what your business is about and who likes your business. Don’t do everything. Also, make sure it looks and sounds like your business and like it’s natural, not like you are trying too hard or like it’s not for the people who like your business.
Be Flexible During Social or Cultural Events and Adjust Your Content Accordingly
During important events or when things are happening in society, it’s important for your brand to be able to change and react. This might mean stopping your regular posts or talking about problems directly with a statement. Keep in mind what’s going on in the world and change your content to show what your brand cares about, while also being respectful of the situation.
Regularly Update Your Content to Keep It Fresh and High Quality
It’s important to check your social media posts to make sure that old or not so good posts don’t fill up your profiles. By using good pictures, writing well, and sharing interesting things, you can keep your social media pages new and exciting. Don’t forget to update your posts to match what you want to say and do, so that your profiles always look good.
Use Tools to Monitor Your Brand and Stay Informed About Industry Trends
Social media monitoring tools help you understand what people think about your brand and how your industry is changing. You can keep an eye on when your brand is mentioned, important words related to your business, and what your competitors are doing. This information helps you understand how people feel and can help you make smart choices to stay ahead in your business.
Customize Your Content for Each Platform to Connect with Different Audiences
It’s best not to post the same thing on all the different social media sites. Each site is different, with its own style and audience. Make sure to change your posts to fit each site’s unique audience. This will help you get more people interested and make your posts more effective.
Analyze Your Social Media Performance to See What’s Working and Improve Over Time
Understanding how well your social media posts are doing is important for making them better. You can use the analytics on the social media platforms to see which posts your audience likes the most and why. Knowing what works well will help you make even better posts in the future and get more people interested in what you share.
Partner with Influencers to Get User-Generated Content to Reach a Larger Audience
Teaming up with popular people on social media and getting fans to create content for your brand can help you reach more people. These popular people have a lot of trust from their followers, and content created by fans makes your brand seem more real. These methods help you reach more people than just your regular followers and show that people like your brand.
Be Open to Trying New Social Media Features to Stay Ahead of the Curve
Social media websites often come out with new things. It’s okay to try these new things. This can be things like showing live videos, short videos, or fun tools to use. If you try these things early, it can help you talk to your friends in new ways. If you find some new things out there, don’t hesitate to try them. Who knows they further unlock your luck. This will also tell you about things that work for your brand.
Case Studies of Businesses with Before and After Social Media Presence
Hubspot did a survey and found that nearly 80% of people buy something after they see an interesting ad of that product or service on social media. Below we will talk about how companies use social media and persuade people to buy from them.
Starbucks
Before Social Media Presence
Starbucks was already a well-known coffee shop. It interacted with customers in person and didn’t have an online presence back in the days. People got to know about their products, offers and rewards through people’s gossip, newspapers, TV ads, and by visiting their shops. Brand was growing but was not reaching customers who didn’t go to physical stores.
After Social Media Presence
Starbucks used Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter and made their customers feel good about posting Starsbucks related photos and videos online. They introduced hashtags like #RedCupContest, and introduced limited-time products that got people excited about sharing Starbucks related content online. This way they build a community of their already fans and more people who want to have a great social media presence. All the Starbucks campaigns consistently went viral, increasing their social media traffic and online sales.
Airbnb
Before Social Media Presence
Airbnb became popular due to personal connections and recommendations. Their rental options were only well-known in specific groups, and they didn’t have a clear plan to attract customers worldwide. The company had trouble getting noticed. They wanted to find a way to show how special its rental places were.
After Social Media Presence
Airbnb used Instagram to share beautiful user-generated photos of unique rental properties. This encouraged people to book stays. Their Wanderlust Showcase campaign caught the attention of over 6.7 million, and their engagement rates became way higher than industry averages. They used storytelling and content posting on social media to become a social media star company.
Nike
Before Social Media Presence
Nike was popular because of TV ads, big outdoor ads, and endorsements from famous athletes to promote their products in TV ads. Even though everyone knew their brand and their partnerships with top athletes around the world, they were missing out on a potential target audience who could reach them through social media only in this modern world.
After Social Media Presence
Nike started using Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook to run special promotions such as #BetterForIt, which made women feel good to share their fitness stories. The campaign was successful and got over 800,000 retweets. This helped Nike gain 50,000 new Instagram followers in just one week. Since then Nike became a top brand in the online fitness world as well.
Coca-Cola
Before Social Media Presence
Coca-Cola was an ever-famous brand. Even when they didn’t use social media, everyone already knew about Coca-Cola because of their TV ads and magazine ads. They had a lot of loyal customers, but they couldn’t really talk to them or do fun things with them because they could only share information in one direction. All of this was necessary in this modern world to attract more people and make them good about drinking Coca-Cola.
After Social Media Presence
The #ShareACoke campaign changed how Coca-Cola appeared on the internet. It asked people to share their personalized Coke bottles on social media using the hashtag. The campaign was a huge success. People shared over 500,000 photos on social media, and visits to Coca-Cola’s Facebook page increased by 870%. The campaign also helped sales grow by 2.5%. This helped Coca-Cola reach people’s feelings and increase their social media followers in no time.
Conclusion
Now you know why do businesses establish a presence on social media platforms. It helps them skyrocket their already-established or startup business to a new height of success. We have shared a couple of brand’s examples of how they successfully established a strong social media presence. You also learnt how to build powerful social media and maintain it in 2024. If you want to elevate your brand like the ones we mentioned above, reach out to First Growth Agency. We have a team of creative and expert social media champs who can help you take your brand to the next level.