If you have noticed, social media has turned into a cornerstone for businesses online. The reason is interaction and communication between you and customers go two ways on social media.
No matter how good you think your marketing strategy is, it won’t work unless you know your target audience well. Social media engagement will help you learn straight from them.
In this way, you will know their expectations and ways to approach them. Also, by identifying the market gap, you might even figure out how to get ahead of your competitors.
Plus, you will create brand awareness, reach your target audience, and inform them about the product/services you offer and how it will benefit them.
The best part of social media engagement is it will help you and your customers understand each other and stay connected.
Social media engagement is determined by clicks, likes, subscribers, mentions, comments, shares, retweets, and more.
This article discusses the primary reasons why social media engagement is important for your business.
Major Reasons Why Social Media Engagement is Important for Your Business
1. Opportunity to Reach a Broader Audience
The majority of the world’s population today is active on social media. This makes social the hub of online communication.
According to Statistica, there are 3.6 billion active social media users as of 2020, and it is expected to reach 4.41 billion in 2025. The average time spent on social media worldwide is almost 2.5 hours per day.
Just by being on social media, your business is getting instant access to the majority of its target audience.
All you need to do is post frequently, comment often, respond to direct messages, and encourage customers to share your posts on their profile or relevant social media groups.
Plus, the more trending your social media posts become, the more views your page and its content are likely to get. The major social media algorithms are designed to reward business pages/profiles that have increased interaction and engagement.
This can create a positive spiral that will help you reach higher engagement in future posts due to increased circulation of your content on your target audience’s newsfeed.
2. Builds Credibility
When your target audience visits your social media profile and sees that you actively post and engage with your customers. This will develop a sense of security in their mind.
Psychologically, customers are more prone to trust businesses with more likes, comments, and shares on their social media page, as it shows social proof of your business. It reflects what your brand stands for and the extent of value it offers to its customers.
Statistics suggest that 82% of customers trust businesses more active on social media.
77.9% of users on social media go through the comment section at some point. So, by engaging in the comment section, you can also create a positive impression on your target audience. It also reflects that you are active and respond promptly.
Also, by responding to comments and reviews on your social media page, the chance of your customers trusting your business increases by 1.7x.
3. Helps Boost Website Traffic
Your social media traffic has the potential to correspond to your website traffic.
Think about it; if you post interesting, informative, and lucrative content, it is highly likely to encourage your target audience to click your website’s link that you’ve attached to those posts.
If you present your product/services in a way that appeals to the customers and encourages them to purchase it immediately, they will most likely click on that link and navigate to your website.
Similarly, the same can happen if you post brief, precise, and enticing information to encourage your target audience to read your blog posts. There is a high chance they will click the link to read detailed information.
4. Increases Sales Conversion
According to Hubspot studies, it was found that,
- Social media has a 100% higher lead-to-close rate than outbound marketing.
- 80% of US social network users prefer to connect to brands through Facebook.
- The number of businesses that say Facebook is critical to their business has increased by 75%.
With a bit of creativity, you can attract, persuade and compel your target audience on social media into paying customers.
If your posts on social media appeal to customer demand and create a sense of urgency to purchase it, then chances are, they will engage with you on social media to either get to know more or dive straight into purchasing it.
You can achieve that by making meaningful posts on social media and guiding your customers to purchase through your available channels that are most convenient for them.
But their decision to purchase will mostly depend on how you interact and engage with them. If they find it positive, there is a high chance that social media engagement alone will heavily impact your sales conversions.
5. Humanizes your Brand
Customers find brands more trustworthy that interact and engage in a meaningful way.
Social media engagement addresses customer queries and provides helpful and insightful information.
According to Forbes, 81% of customers prefer humans compared to chatbots. Let’s face it, although it might be convenient for you to use a chatbot or have your employees respond like robots.
Nobody likes scripted responses. Customers find real-time human interactions more convincing.
You can only turn your social media profile visitors into loyal customers by providing them with a satisfactory business experience.
So, you should respond to customer feedback in a positive, lively, and interactive manner. This will create the impression that you treat your customers with respect.
And, most importantly it will allow you to cater to your customers’ problems as soon as possible. It will show how seriously your business takes customer service into account.
Not to mention, customers love to purchase from businesses that provide the utmost convenience. So, with social media engagement, that’s your cue.
Ultimately it will help you build a solid business reputation and a strong relationship with your customers. Not only will it benefit your business in retaining existing loyal customers, but it will also help you acquire many new customers.
Final Thoughts
If your business is already doing well without social media engagement as a part of your marketing strategy, just think how much more you could achieve by engaging with your customers on social media.
On the flip side, if it isn’t, social media engagement has the potential to turn your business’s situation around. The possibilities to grow your business with active social media engagement are endless.
Tapping into social media engagement isn’t a walk in the park either. Each social media platform, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin, etc., has its cultural dynamics.
You need to know how to blend in and approach your customers. You can read our article on how to increase social media engagement organically.
Yet, if you are confused and have queries, you can book a Free Digital Marketing Consultation today. Our experts will get in touch with you shortly.