Firstly thank you to Brindle Marketing for providing us this fantastic blog.
Does your business REALLY need social media?
The short answer is a big, wholehearted, all-caps YES.
The long answer is a little more in-depth, so if you’re going to keep reading, we suggest you get comfortable! We’re about to take you through the ins and outs of why social media is a MUST, not a maybe.
BUT WHY?
Let’s start with some stats, shall we?
- 72% of Australians are online.
- 85% of Australian consumers aged 13+ have active social media accounts.
- There are more than 16 million active monthly Facebook users in Australia, almost 11 million Instagram users, and more than 5 million LinkedIn, Pinterest AND Twitter users.
- Among the small-medium sized businesses advertising on social media, almost 80% found their campaigns to be effective.
This means that your audience, whether you’re a local cafe or a multi-national brand, whether you’re selling direct to consumers or other businesses, is online. More than that, they’re almost certainly using social media, most of them daily, and as a business that provides you with the incredibly opportunity to connect directly with your customers, whether you want to be on social media or not.
THE BENEFITS
Being active on social media has a myriad of benefits for your business including:
- Driving awareness of your product, service and/or brand and building relationships your audience
- Allows you to reach millions of potential customers with targeted messaging in an extremely cost-effective way
- Builds your social currency by allowing you to present your brand in your own unique way.
- Provides a platform for you to engage with your audience on a personal level. They’re no longer just a name in your inbox or a number on your email list. They’re a REAL person with a face, a name and a story, and getting to know them on this level will allow you to create better products, services and experiences for your now-loyal customers.
We now know what social media can do for your business, so we’re going to take it a step further and tell you what types of content you should be investing in and why.
Let’s start with the old classic (and a personal favourite of ours).
Organic content
Organic content is where it all began, before Zuckerberg opened his money-making eyes to realise the endless possibility of paid advertising (more on that later).
As the name infers, organic content is *essentially* FREE. You don’t need to be rushing for the credit card to have eyeballs land on this content, you just need followers, an engaged audience and the algorithm acting in your favour.
Your audience can find organic content naturally in their feeds, by following you, through hashtags and locations you use, or even through their network who have just shared one of your posts.
This is organic content, and it is a powerful thing.
This is where the connections happen. It’s where you can build a dedicated and loyal audience. It’s where you (or your social media gurus) develop a strategy to work with the algorithms to ensure your audiences are not only getting your content, but engaging with it.
The algorithms ensure the most relevant content is shown in people’s feeds, so organic channels are not the place for a hard sell. Instead, it’s vital to diversify your content with the help of the Rule of Five. This is where you post one piece of sale-oriented content out of every five pieces of organic content, to make sure the algorithm is working for you in the best way it can.
But organic is not the be all and end all of social media, and it needs it’s slightly more sophisticated colleague to help your socials REALLY shine.
Introducing…
Paid content
Now THIS is where you sell. Paid content is incredibly targeted, with Facebook alone having literally THOUSANDS of targeting options, from consumer interests to relationship status to past online behaviours.
It’s why we all think our phones are spying on us, because our ads can be so specifically targeted to our demographic, lifestyle choices and online behaviour that Facebook and other social media platforms serve up an ad for that face cream you were talking about over brunch. It shows you EXACTLY what you’re looking for, or what you didn’t even know you needed (and now can’t live without), and it’s all through targeting.
Social media platforms favour a cohesive organic and paid social strategy, with proven profitable results that won’t break the bank and will ensure your audience is getting exactly what they’re looking for. Like any symbiotic relationship, paid and organic work best together.
So, what are you waiting for?
You know you need social media. You know you need to ramp up your social media activity. You know you need to reach those 85% of Aussie consumers who are engaging on socials, just waiting for the right opportunity to spend their money on YOUR product or service.
It’s time. Time to get cracking on your social media strategy, with a healthy dose of organic content AND paid advertising, lifting your social media marketing game to best benefit your business.
