Social media including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Why should my business use social media? I have used social media in the past and it did not work? It takes too much time to maintain social media? It is to difficult? These are just a few of the myths of social media that we hear everyday from businesses in Canada. The biggest challenges with social media are:

• Not having enough human and financial resources (26 percent)
• Lacking a formal strategy (24 percent)
• Building a community of followers and influencers (24 percent)

Lets put it this way. If you do not take the time to learn how to change a tire on your car, that would become difficult for many. If you have not taken the time to learn how to fix an engine in a car, that would be deemed difficult if not impossible to fix. Look…. everything takes time to learn if you want to do it well.

Why should I use social media?

• 52 percent of social media marketers believe social media positively influences their company’s revenue and sales.
• The five most valuable social media platforms:
  • Facebook (89 percent) (most customers and most small businesses are on Facebook)
  • LinkedIn (83 percent)
  • YouTube (81 percent)
  • Twitter (80 percent)
  • Instagram (56 percent)
• Nearly 80 percent of companies share mostly original content on social media.
• The most important metrics for companies are engagement.

Benefits of Social Media for your business.

1. Get attention and build awareness;
2. Communicate authority and expertise;
3. Show authenticity (humanize your business);
4. Encourage engagement (ask questions);
5. Grow affordably (social media is free marketing);
6. Provide support (many use social media as their preferred communication tools);
7. Establish your brand as a leader in your community;
8. Stay top of mind (stay in front of your audience so they do not forget you);
9. Increase website traffic (that is a given);
10. Partner with influencers (allows cross marketing with influencers targeting your customer market);
11. Reputation management (manage false claims and poor reviews);
12. Crisis communication;
13. Customer service and customer support;
14. Learn from your customers (learn from the followers of your page);
15. Keep an eye on the competition (watch, learn and compete with your competition);
16. Stay on top of industry news;
17. Meet new partners.

Social media provides a platform where you can share your knowledge and gain credibility in your chosen field(s) or markets(s). Within an online community, you can also acquire information and insights from others who have already been where you are now and learn from their mistakes.

It is free! So take the time to learn a social media platform well. Do not try to be great on all of them as they all have different agendas and techniques. Select one and rock it! Then move on.