Why Social Media Should be Your Business’ Top Priority in 2018

Whether you work in a large company or an SME, a strong social media strategy should be on the horizon for your business in 2018. In this article, company formation expert Turnerlittle.com reviews the main reasons why getting social with your businesses should be your New Year’s resolution.   

Tap into a wider audience

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Social media users grew by 121 million in a matter of months last year. With a whole host of potential customers out in cyberspace, the case is clear as to why your digital marketing campaign should be focusing on social networks. This should be the case even if your brand isn’t targetting millennials. Research has revealed that in fact so-called 'Generation X' (from ages 35-49) spend the most time on social networks, around 7 hours a week to be precise. The majority of these users are female, and they tend to be online 25% of their time. Because social networks are cross-cultural too, it can help increase the reach of your brand across borders too. 

Increase brand exposure

According to a study by the Office of National Statistics (ONS), nearly one quarter of businesses say they use social media and blogging to “develop their business’ image or market products”. Indeed, 39% of users admit that they use networks like Facebook and Twitter to discover products and services, stating that this is an important reason for using a social network. With such a large number of potential customers using social media, actively seeking new businesses to use, why would you not want to connect with them? What’s more, 13% of heavy social media users said that they have clicked on an advertisement within the last 30 days.

Become an authoritative figure in your industry

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Giving expert advice about the sector you work in can really help clients and customers see that you know your stuff. This is a great reason to start running a blog for your business. Despite the obvious benefits of blogging, ONS statistics have revealed that a only 42% of businesses currently run a blog. The industry that blogs the least is Transport and Storage, with a mere 21.7% of businesses in this sector blogging. The retail industry saw the smallest growth in business blogging, with only a 1.6% increase since 2013. Indeed, blogging for your business has only increased by 12.9% since 2013, despite the myriad of benefits it can bring, including driving your SEO efforts, bringing traffic to your website and, of course, establishing yourself as an authoritative figure in your company's industry.  

You can connect with current and future customers

According to our study, 77% of Twitter users feel more positive about a business when they have responded to their tweet. Using social networks to “obtain or respond to customers’ opinions, reviews or questions” was the principle reason for using social media for businesses in Accommodation or Food services. Overall, it was the second most common reason why businesses created a social page in 2017. Accommodation and Food services were also the most likely industry to use the likes of Twitter and Facebook to “involve customers in the development or innovation of goods or services”. Establishing such a connection with customers, and involving them in different areas of your business can help build up a real relationship with them- which in turn can help increase customer loyalty.

It will improve the image of your brand

When questioned, 34% of consumers stated that they “might not choose to do business with a small business that had no social media presence”. Having social pages helps add legitimacy to your brand, especially if you garner lots of followers and support. Indeed, 29% of users feel it is somewhat or very important to support their favourite brands online. So creating shareable content in the form of tweets and blog posts can help them do this, whilst broadening your reach and potential client base.

You can use it to hire the best employees

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When questioned, 3 out of 9 industries stated that one of the top 3 reasons they were on social networks was to “recruit employees”. In fact, 20.4% of businesses in Accommodation and Food Services recruit via social media and in Retail the figure stood at 10.5 %, making it the second most common industry to do this. Being on social media allows not only people to find out more about your brand, but it also helps you to discover more about potential clients or employees as well.