Social media is a powerful tool to growing your business’ reach and a positive social media influence can transform your consumer base. Consistent engagement with customers (through Facebook, Instagram, etc.) has a multi-prong purpose with growth in your company’s reach and stability in a long-term customer foundation.
When there’s frequent, consistent, and supportive contact with consumers it shows that your business values consumer opinions. Your business is viewed as amenable and mindful if people were to comment. Reputation spreads like a wildfire – if communication is reliable, then it positively portrays your business; if communication is lacking, then it shows a negative online presence as a brick wall.
Take the example of Wendy’s Twitter. Wendy’s has become synonymous with fast, witty, and creative tweets. If you ask any young person what they think about when they hear “Wendy’s,” they will either say fast food or Twitter. Wendy’s didn’t reach 3.8M followers on Twitter through no engagement, and with nationally discussed tweets they were able to find its recognizable niche.
Even if your business is small, the smallest bit of engagement can change the world. Some tips for a small or new account:
1. Reply to every comment on your posts
2. If you gain a new follower, send a quick message thanking them for the follow
3. Reply to private messages quickly
4. Post frequently and write a post caption as a way to engage the audience
On top of a reliable presence, it is important to know what each platform is the best for. Facebook works really well for the promotion of events or new products. When one person likes it, the post will show up on their timeline to reach people not following you. Instagram is great for nice photos, but they are now trying to get into videos with reels and IGTV. A good combination of short videos and pictures can help present a variety of media for the audience to interact with. Twitter is usually really great with quick and short updates. Bad weather? Tweet about it. Operation time changes? Tweet about it. New location? You guessed it, tweet about it!
An active presence on social media can only help a business grow. Using these tips and tricks – while talking to other companies to see what they are doing – is a great place to start. Once you learn what works best for you, the sky’s the limit for consumer growth.
