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Importance of Social Media Marketing for Small Business

Advertising is a major overhead for most businesses. In this age of shrinking attention spans, you need continuous engagement with customers to achieve customer loyalty. This can be difficult for small businesses with their limited marketing budgets. This is where social media turns into an effective marketing channel for small businesses.
Social media is more than just an advertisement channel. It can provide Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) with many marketing benefits – from personalised customer engagement to analytic tools. Let us quickly look at a few of them.

Targets Community and Individual Audience

Small businesses generally cater to local communities and individuals and benefit from being involved in these communities. Social media is a useful tool for customer engagement – you can easily and quickly communicate with potential customers and solve their queries. Customer reviews and testimonials on social media are seen as more genuine than on mainstream advertising channels.

Reduces Advertising Expenditure

Social media is mostly free. There are some paid advertisement options, like on Facebook and Instagram that provide cost-effective options to reach a targeted audience. You don’t have to spend huge amounts on traditional ads trying to target a huge customer base outside your area of operation. You can post about offers, products, announcements, testimonials, reviews on your social media profiles absolutely FREE.

Create Brand Recognition and Recall

Customers will generally go for brands they recognise and that resonate with their values. Social media provides excellent opportunities for creating brand value and recognition for SMBs. Consistently sharing content that resonates with your audience helps create brand recall, even when potential customers aren’t actively purchasing. Optimizing for social SEO ensures that your business is more discoverable.
Importance-of-Social-Media-Marketing-for-Small-Business-Computing Australia Group

Personalised Interaction with Customers

Personalisation is an essential aspect of small businesses at all levels of customer engagement. Social media allows for personalised attention and engagement with customers. In 2024, platforms favor genuine interactions over mere broadcasting, meaning that responding to comments and messages quickly can significantly increase your visibility.

Tool for Customer Behaviour Analysis

Social media platforms provide businesses with powerful free analytics tools. These insights help businesses understand their audience’s behavior, improve their strategies, and optimize content for better engagement.

Create Conversations About Your Business

It doesn’t have to be all posts on your products. Social media is an excellent space for commenting on industry trends, celebrating milestones, and collaborating with other brands or influencers. Collaborations with micro-influencers or creators can help small businesses expand their reach and gain  credibility.

Enhanced Customer Support

Social media has become a popular customer service tool. Small businesses can offer real-time customer support, addressing queries and resolving issues directly through platforms like Facebook and Twitter. This creates a more personal connection and can improve customer satisfaction.

Content Virality Potential

Social media offers the unique ability for content to go viral. A single well-crafted post or video can be shared widely, providing massive exposure at no additional cost. Platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts make it easier for small businesses to leverage short-form video content that can rapidly increase visibility.

Building Social Proof

Social media enables businesses to build social proof through user-generated content, customer reviews, and testimonials. Positive feedback or reviews shared by customers on social media platforms can build trust and influence potential buyers.

Drive Website Traffic and SEO

Social media is not only about engagement; it also plays a role in driving traffic to your website. Sharing blog posts, product announcements, or offers can lead potential customers to your website, boosting conversions. Social SEO, which involves using keywords and hashtags strategically, also enhances your social media content’s discoverability in search engines.

Competitive Edge

For small businesses, being active on social media offers a competitive edge, especially in local markets. Engaging actively with customers, sharing consistent content, and responding promptly to queries can differentiate a business from its competitors who may not be as engaged. Social media is a powerful marketing tool when used efficiently. The Computing Australia Group can help you create a strong and effective Social Media Strategy. Contact our experts or email at sales@computingaustralia.group to know more.

Jargon Buster

Brand – is an identifying logo, name, word, symbol or sentence that businesses use to differentiate their product from others.

SEO – Search Engine Optimisation – is a set of tactics aimed at increasing website traffic quality and quantity through organic search results.

Brand Recall – the extent to which a customer recollects or remembers a brand name when prompted with a similar product or service. (Unaided recall)

Brand Recognition – the ability of customers to confirm that they have seen or heard about a brand when prompted by the specific brand. (Aided recalls)

Social Media Strategy – a detailed plan of how a business will use social media to achieve business objectives.

Customer demographics – Statistical data that describes the unique identities and identifiers of individuals. It can include basic information such as age, gender, location, including zip code and address.

Article originally published on 26/07/2020
Revised on 23/10/2024
Added new point: Create a conversation about your business
Added new terms to Jargon Buster