Social media has changed our lives globally, resulting in an inevitable knock on effect to how we do business. No matter what business you’re in, your audience is doing their research and making purchasing decisions online all the time.
As trusted advisers to our clients, we talk about all things related to business improvement. We’re focused on anything that helps your business grow. So today, we’re talking about social media and the potential it has to increase your reach and boost your business.
In our fast moving world, if you don’t have a presence on social media, you won’t have as much skin in the game as your peers and competitors who are already building relationships with potential customers online.
This learning was eye opening for us at Myers Clark.
And since our clients are often asking us whether they should be on social media, we thought we’d share a little bit about why it’s so important and how we got started.
Social media allows you to connect with your audience online by exchanging thoughts, information, ideas and and interests
What comes to mind first when you think of social media? Facebook? Twitter? LinkedIn?
Truth is, there are lots of social media platforms. Put simply, the social part of social media refers to the ability to converse with platform users all around the world, and the media part refers to the means by which you communicate.
Social media is evolving all the time, and though every platform is designed to be a virtual means of conversing, they all look and function a little differently.
Some platforms, like Instagram, Pinterest and TikTok, are designed primarily for sharing visual media – photos, videos, movie-like stories. Youtube is exclusively video. Others are more text-centric – like Twitter, where users share short 140 character tweets in a kind of real-time news feed.
You may already be using some kind of social media personally. You might catch up with friends on Facebook or network with peers on LinkedIn. But why is it necessary for your business?
Social media has the ability to reach people all over the world, which is why it plays such a huge role for businesses
The trend of businesses using social media to connect with potential customers is only going one way – upwards.
Not only does having a social media presence allow you to reach people beyond your local area and in-person networks, it means you’re able to share content that educates your ideal customers, and builds trust long before they’ve even met you. And it’s free to use.
What an opportunity!
During our recent rebrand, our marketing agency shone a light on why it was so important for us to be regularly posting on social media. We had been through a long process of updating our website to reflect the kind of firm we are and send the right message to the ambitious business owners we support. Here’s a blog we wrote on the reasons behind our rebrand.
We realised there’s little point in crafting a message to share with ambitious business owners all over the UK, if we didn’t, well… share it with the ambitious business owners all over the UK. And the best way to amplify any message right now is via social media. When you post regular content on social media, you are extending the reach of your personality and capabilities, therefore extending your sales potential.
As a result of this realisation, we now share 4-5 times a week on LinkedIn and Twitter. You may have noticed some of our posts there. You can catch up with what we’re up to at the following accounts:
- Twitter: @MyersClark1
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/myersclark/
Since we started sharing content regularly, our social media posts have come up in conversation lots of times with existing and new clients. One client said “Every time I go on LinkedIn you have something useful there”.
We’ve chosen one person within the team to spearhead our social media posts, with supporting information from the whole of Myers Clark.
Sharing useful information (without a catch) has helped us start to build a community online, which contributes to a loyal following of clients we really love to work with.
It would be exhausting for a business to try and be present on all social media platforms. Focus on where your audience is spending time.
As mentioned above, we’ve found we’re getting real traction with our LinkedIn posts. That’s because the kinds of businesses we work with are more likely to be spending time there than they might on TikTok or Instagram, for example.
It might be different for you. Your community might be looking for video tutorials on Youtube, or be very vocal on Twitter. The most popular social media platforms you’ll see mentioned in the UK are:
- TikTok
- Youtube
We very much recommend freeing up time to spend on this social media, BUT before you overwhelm your time trying every platform, ask yourself:
- Who is your ideal customer or client? – What kind of person are they?
- How do they prefer to receive information about your business, products and services?
- What social platforms are they using? – you might even have existing clients on social media that can help inform you as to which platform is best.
If you find it difficult to answer these kinds of questions, it might be worth hiring a brand or marketing agency to help you uncover your audience and map out an ideal customer profile first. Really knowing who you’re trying to reach is the first step in reaching them!
One piece of advice: whatever you do, be consistent
Our new favourite phrase is consistency over intensity.
Once you know which platforms to be spending your time on, carve out time in your business schedule to be consistent in sharing something on social media.
It doesn’t have to be a massive chunk of time or intensity. Here’s a great blog from our marketing agency on what to share if you only have 1-5 minutes a day to spend. You might:
- Write and share blogs to answer questions you get asked frequently and educate your clients
- Record a short video on important topic for your audience, using your phone or a free video recording software like loom
- Create post to share something you did today – a client story, a team training, a day out
- Share something you’ve read or watched that would be interesting or helpful to your audience.
Don’t be afraid to share more than just the ‘business stuff’. As Gary Vee says in this video about Why EVERY Business Needs to Be on Social Media, you can get business from talking about things you’re passionate about in life that will resonate with your audience.
“You can talk about golf and it can lead to financial services… as long as you lean into something you really love and really know”.
Once you get the ball rolling and you start to see traction, then you might want to think about bringing someone in to help you with social media – either an external marketing agency or an in-house member of your team. You absolutely can do it all yourself, and we recommend you do it at the start, so you understand how it works and can continue to have a personal presence no matter how big your business presence grows.
For now, just start by getting something out there and being seen. If it only costs you 1-5 minutes a day, you’ve really got nothing to lose!
If you need help email Priya at priyar@myersclark.co.uk who will be happy to talk you through journey and share some insights.