WHY ARE SOCIAL MEDIA IS IMPORTANT FOR BUSINESS
Social media for an entrepreneur with a business of any size, you’re too painfully aware of your digital footprint. Maybe your company isn’t new at all. Perhaps you were a few years off retirement when Covid struck, forcing you to adapt quickly or risk losing it all. In either scenario, the outcome is no doubt much the same. You turned to social media to help save or grow your business. Fair enough. Over half the world’s population has a social media account after all. That also certainly seems like the logical thing to do right now, given the post-pandemic situation. It doesn’t take a brilliant business tactician to recognize the sense in expanding an online presence. What Can Social Media Really Do For Your Business? Before we go any further, we ought to define what we mean by “social media”. Sure there are the self-proclaimed social media giants (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) but it takes the form of any kind of interactive, profile-requiring online media. That could be your blog with a comments section. It might be your YouTube channel or podcast page. Anything really where you create content and others can publicly comment on it. Most entrepreneurs put resources into their business’ social media platforms because it boosts awareness of your brand or product. It probably does, but as business owners, we need to get smart about what social media is really doing for us. So many entrepreneurs and business owners to this day see SEO as a magic password. In their eyes, it’s like putting a cheat code into a video game that enables you to win with greater ease and expediency. And who can blame them?! It’s been sold like that for so long, but here’s the truth: It doesn’t work like that. Anyone who tells you that it does is just trying to make a fast buck off you. For most, SEO is kind of like putting a magnet beside a compass. You need to take a longer-term approach to SEO. By consistently creating regular content that is engaging for its intended audience and contains researched keywords, long-tail keywords and properly assigned formatting, you are teasing the needle of the imaginary compass, pointing it your way. Creative Ways to Boost Your Social Media Strategy: All too often we hire contractors and consultants with a mindset that we don’t have to engage in the process any more than this because we threw money at someone. Then we check out, come back in a month and complain that revenue isn’t through the roof. You need to own every aspect of your business. If something isn’t working, don’t pass the buck. Set better intentions. When it comes to your social media strategy, figure out what you want from it. Does your product/service/brand even lend itself to social media, and if so, how? What kind of community do you want to create and how will you serve them? What do you need in place to consistently provide high-quality content for the long term? Budget personnel Equipment The Key Point for Social Media: You must see this as a long-term strategy, throughout which you must remain consistent and focused on your long-term goal. “Giving it a go” will simply produce mixed results at best, and probably just cost you money. In fact, it will do worse than that — it will harm your reputation.
