The Importance of Having a Social Media Voice and Presence

by Yasmine Moulin

Social Media is so much more than tweets, Instagram photos of your lunch, and Facebook posts about your cat or dog or adorable jumping goats. It’s about brand awareness & authentic engagement with your clients & potential new clients. This is especially true for small to medium size start-up company’s, where building brand, product, and services awareness is essential in staying ‘alive’ let alone being successful. Having a Social Voice & Presence is a must.

Having a Social Voice and Presence is essential in creating awareness, opportunities & avenues to successfully target & engage your audience. You can’t get around it, you need to reach your audience & customers where they are.

If you’re a small or medium size business that is not yet using Social Media & do not see the importance or value of it, you are missing out. Today, you need social media if you want to stay competitive. Why do you need social media:

1. Your customers & future customers use it. This is how they get their news, where to shop, what to buy, eat & where to get services. Increase your odds of being found.
2. You want a competitive advantage. If you’re not on social media, chances are your competitors probably are. What are they up to? If they are not, and you are, again, you will have an advantage of being seen.
3. You want a connection with current & future customers & prospects. Connect with your customers & future customers. Have a conversation with them, be transparent. Ask them what they want, tell them what you do. Earn trust, by having a Social Voice & Presence.

Did You Know 

Facebook – As of March 2015, this social media platform had on average 1.44 billion monthly users and 936 million daily active users making it the world’s most popular website. Just crazy!

LinkedIn – As of April 2015, there were more than 350 million users and as of February 2014, there were more than 187 million unique monthly visitors to LinkedIn.

Twitter – As of March 2015, this social media platform had on average 302 million active users & on average sent out 500 million tweets per day! WOW!

Pinterest – As of July 2015, there were 72.8 million users. As of February 2015, there were 500,000 unique business accounts and the percentage of daily Pinterest users that consult it for buying products or services was 52%. The most engaged retail brand – Nordstrom!

Instagram – As of April 2012, there were over 100 million active users and 400 million users as of November 2015. This online mobile photo-sharing, video-sharing and social networking service is a powerful social channel. This social media platform created on October 2010 is rapidly growing with an average of 80 million photos posted each day and 3.5 billion likes on any given day!

Online Shopping

More & more, people are researching products & services, and shopping online. According to different survey resources, shopping online has increased from 10 – 85% in the past two years! If you just aren’t into social media and developing a social voice & presence sounds overwhelming & complicated, hire a social media consultant. An ROI will be in your near future.

Building Relationships and a Sense of Community

We live in a global community and with the Internet and social media we can now engage with customers around the world. With social media, you can engage with your customers & receive almost immediate feedback. You can build alliances and business relationships with other business owners globally. Social media will help you receive and collect valuable information about businesses, products, and services similar to yours.

Don’t be left behind. Get your Social Voice and Presence out there, be part of the conversation, and be part of the global business community.