Social media is everything in this generation we live in; it’s the basis on which communication thrives. Social media is a technology that encourages social interaction among people locally or internationally that share a similar type of network.
Social media messaging is a platform for interaction among individuals where they can communicate, share knowledge and ideas, create and exchange information within a virtual network.
Social media has gained popularity around the world and has become a way of life ever since the introduction of smartphones like Blackberry, Androids, and iPhones. With these phones, access to the social network is made more accessible; the mobile version is created in a user-friendly manner, making it easy for everyone to use.
In this present age, social media messaging goes beyond just being a platform for sending and receiving messages; the latest technological revolution has taken it a step further.
Roles Of Social Media In Business
In this century, any business that’s not affiliated with any social media is probably doomed to fail. Presently, running an establishment has been made more comfortable through the use of social media. The social media is a medium that’s used for marketing and promotion – as this is the place most people go to first to seek knowledge.
It’s also a platform for brand awareness; since marketing aims to alert or get people’s attention to buy a new product, what better medium to reach a larger audience than social media. Aside from using social media for marketing purposes, it’s also a channel through which businesses maintain excellent customer relationship.
In addition to the use of e-mails and phone calls to keep in touch with clients, social media handles like Facebook or Twitter are avenues for your customers to reach you and also for you to keep them informed about your services.
The social media is another avenue for businesses to build relationships, earn customers trust and stay abreast about what people are saying concerning your establishment. It’s a channel for companies to retain originality, create honesty and have open dialogues with customers and clients.
Why You Need A Social Media Strategy
Social media is vital in the business world of today, as it serves so many purposes and helps with time management. For a business, especially a new startup, the power of social media cannot be overemphasized. Below are reasons why you need social media as a strategy to grow your business (for new startup) and to remain relevant in the business world.
Social Media For Building Your Brand
- With the number of people around the world who use social media every day (over half the world’s population), you would realize there is no better place to build awareness for your brand. It’s a place people discover new products. When it comes to awareness building with the use of social media, there is no restriction to a particular part of the world – social media breaks the barrier of distance.
- There’s no better way to get to people than unmasking the faces behind your brand. People trust products and services better when they can relate to the human side of the brand. With the use of social media, you can connect with customers, prospective customers by introducing your employees and everyone who makes up your brand to your followers. You could also share with your followers how your product is of benefit to your present customers and how your brand is creating solutions to problems in society.
- The social media platform is an avenue for you to retain the attention of your audience. Statistics show that people check their social media accounts at least once a day – while there are others who check multiple times a day. To keep your brand top in your follower’s mind, ensure your page is informative, interactive and entertaining. Every time your followers log in, your new content would show in their fields – reminding them about your products and services.
Social Media As An Essential Tool For Business Growth
- Putting up posts and ads on your social media page is an effective way of pulling traffic to your website. Putting up exciting contents on your website and sharing the highlight of such materials on your social media handles would drive readers to your website to get the full detail of such content. Participating in other groups and social chats is a great way to put yourself out there and an excellent way to allow people to notice your brand.
- Social media is also a great place to boost product sales. Irrespective of what you sell, there is always a buyer, the social media brings you closer to them. Your social media account is a vital tool in your sales funnel – a means of bringing contact into being a customer.
- Another great way to grow your business through social media is by partnering with influencers. Building awareness and credibility through word of mouth by an influencer would increase your sales level and draw more attention to your product.
Social Media As A Strategy For Communication
- The social media platform is an opportunity to manage your brand’s reputation. With the help of the media, you can monitor relevant post relating to your brand (positive or negative). If social media is spreading a negative post about your brand, it’s easy for you to address such posts before it gets out of hand.
- Handling communication crisis is made easier and faster with the use of social media. Silence to a situation of crisis that involves your brand on the media platform is not an option. Keeping tabs of your social accounts makes crisis diffusion faster, assuring the public that their interest is paramount to you.
Bots And How They Help With Social Media
Social media bots is a software designed to help you manage your everyday social media activities. They save you time and make your social media activity a lot easier for you to handle.
Bots were created to make social media a better place for business and personal use. The following are ways bots can help with your social media accounts.
- With a few instructions, bots help you perform and complete a task you would otherwise have done yourself.
- Bots help you save time by handling certain activities for you – leaving you free to attend to others.
- Bots help grow your social media accounts and your followers.
- You can use bots to schedule post and ads on your social media page.
- Some bots serve as a miniature virtual assistant, helping you run your social media campaign and providing simple customer service to users.
Social Media Apps For Messaging
Businesses are looking for all possible ways to connect with potential and existing customers; every establishment wants to remain relevant.
The introduction of messaging apps has made it easier for business to stay in touch with clients and customers. Most of these messaging apps are not country restricted allowing people from all around the world connect.
Taking your business’s social media a step forward with the use of messaging apps is not limited to bring you closer to your customers but serves as another avenue to ensure customer satisfaction.
Differences Between Social Media And Messaging Apps
Social media is a platform where everyone from around the world can network, share ideas and communicate. Social media is a platform business owner use to advertise and sell their brands and product. Messaging apps, on the other hand, is much more private than social media; it’s more restricting and requires more personal knowledge of a person before you can reach them.
With more people preferring to use private messaging to connect with others, there has been a difference in the way people use social media. Activities on social media have declined as more people are moving to message apps and private groups. The differences between social media and messaging apps are:
Privacy
While using social media, there is not much you can do concerning confidentiality. It’s a platform made available for everyone to be able to reach everyone. It’s a unique initiative for business use but might require much caution in terms of privacy. Messaging app is more for sending and receiving of messages, files, and documents in a more private manner.
Content Sharing
With social media, contents shared would reach millions of people around the world. Messaging app content sharing gets restricted to some individuals.
Top Social Media Apps For Messaging
Due to the increase in users who prefer messaging apps, business owners have devised other method of reaching clients and customers using social media apps for messaging.
Top social media apps used for messaging includes
- Facebook Messenger. Considered the biggest and the most commonly used messaging app, it works on almost all kinds of phone.
- WhatsApp for Business. It’s more professional compared to the regular WhatsApp; it allows customer support and sharing of updates on customer purchase
- Twitter. Twitter media covers more of news, entertainment, politics, etc. it’s an excellent platform for businesses.
- Instagram. Instagram is a video and picture sharing platform. Business owners can have an Instagram business account which comes with analytical tools that would keep your business running smoothly.
- Slack. Slack is a platform for team communication and work. With Slack, you would get more job done.
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