Marketing + advertising = sales. This is how people perceive our industry. Digital marketing, with all its numbers, graphs and charts, can look like an equation to be solved to the untrained eye. Digital marketing shows day-by-day metrics, and with online advertising, the ROI is clear as day. Organic social media is sometimes seen as having less value than its paid counterparts. While advertising has a more direct line to lead generation, organic social media does something just as important — building trust and connecting you with your audience. Here’s how.
Connecting with Your Audience
Social media connects people and communities around the world. This provides value that you can’t get anywhere else. Most marketing avenues are limited to one-way communication. Sure, someone can fill out a contact form on your website or send a reply to your newsletters, but those interactions still go through a filter. The magic of social media is its ability to bring you and your audience together. You can communicate in real time, building relationships with the people who love your brand.
Building Your Brand
Without a social media presence, your brand essentially doesn’t exist. Through organic social media, you can make prospects aware of your brand while reinforcing the brand you’ve created. When followers engage with your brand on social media, their network of friends and colleagues will see it, too. This leads to growth over time while making more prospects aware of your awesome brand. When your audience connects with your brand and its voice, you’ll earn their trust and loyalty.
Building your brand’s voice through social media helps your audience and your team connect with your mission and vision. This can be done in subtle ways, like using similar imagery and language in your posts. It can also be a creative venture where you dive into different styles of images, videos, music and more. There are endless ways to build your brand on social media. The only limitation is your own level of commitment and creativity.
Free or Affordable Advertising
Anyone can build social media profiles on most of the major platforms and begin outreach initiatives within seconds. You may have a social media pro on your team, and you don’t even know it. Or you may quickly realize that keeping up with social media accounts is like a full-time job. Well, we have great news: for some of us, social media marketing is a full-time job! Agencies can run social media channels using organic and paid strategies, both of which are typically more affordable than traditional advertising methods.
Accessibility on Both Sides
You may feel like social media allows your followers a little too much access. However, you should also consider the access you now have to them. With social media, you can ask your followers questions that you wouldn’t necessarily ask in person. Reading through and responding to comments on social media posts, you can learn a lot about your customers and how your brand can adjust to meet their needs. People tend to be more vocal online, which can provide insight you would never have otherwise seen or heard.
Quick and Easy Updates
When the unexpected happens, people flock to social media. After a natural disaster, remote workers may check social media to see which businesses have power and free WiFi available. During a holiday, they may check social media to see where they can make that last-minute purchase. Business updates, especially during stressful times, can give you an advantage over your competitors. Social media can also be a great place to advertise specials, events, or anything else your business is doing outside of the usual. The more your audience can rely on you to keep your channels up to date, the more they’ll check up on and engage with your content.
Social media is the way of the present, and there’s no better way to meet your audience where they are. However, we get that it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. If you don’t spend your spare time dreaming up Reel ideas, falling down trending hashtag rabbit holes or mentally crafting captions for every photo you see — don’t worry, we’ll do it for you. Get in touch with the On Target social media team online or by calling us at 407-830-4550.
