We are living in an age of technology. Everybody is looking to make their lives convenient. They want things to be quicker, easily accessible and more advanced. Our world is constantly moving towards a more developed future. Nowadays, it has become paramount for businesses to go online, especially after the onset of the pandemic, where offline businesses had to shut down and incur huge losses.
In comes Social Media, a vastly useful tool for any business, whether it is a Small and Medium-scale enterprise (SME) or a Multi-national company (MNC) or a uni-product venture. Social media probably has a utility for every type of business. It is constantly growing, with newer platforms mushrooming every year. The current existing platforms are also coming up with new features that business owners can leverage.
In direct selling, social media has become central. It is a platform to share updates, availability and market products and services. So, this article is for all the folks who’re still wondering, “why is social media a great tool for your business?”
Why is social media a great tool for your business?
Social media presents a great opportunity for businesses to leverage attention and even build a following. It is the single most powerful tool in the current times, which allows communication to the masses. A single post, video or tweet has the potential of reaching millions of people.
However, even before contemplating the use of social media, a business needs to create a strategy and, more importantly, a goal. Every business must know the exact goal and the corresponding objectives of using social media. It’s rather similar to knowing the destination before riding a vehicle. Not knowing the objective results in going around in circles. In the end, not achieving any results.
So, it is important to lock in the goal and business objectives. Once that’s done, we can go ahead and understand the benefits of social media for our direct selling businesses.
1) Raising Awareness
Whenever a business takes a product or service to the market, the key factor is its ability to promote it. In the earlier days, individuals had to resort to physical marketing like creating leaflets, standees and billboard ads. This was with the hopes that the target audience would come across the ad and enquire. In current times, it has become infinitely easier through targeted campaigns. Now ads are targeted to a specific target audience through social media.
Small scale businesses can also vastly benefit from social media by raising brand awareness. They can curate content and reach out to their target audience. All of this is through their social media accounts. While raising awareness, one also needs to note where the target audience is present. Then the next step is to ensure that they receive content, encouraging them to follow and subscribe to the business’s social media pages.
2) Creating a channel for engagement and feedback
In the earlier days, people were majorly reliant on feedback forms, PR events or word-of-mouth for engagement and receiving feedback. However, with the advent of social media, brands can directly start engaging with their audience through social media posts and content. They can also drive engagement and increase website traffic. Another interesting factor for using social media is its role in customer relationship management.
It is also a great way to receive feedback about products and services. Social media can also help build trust and credibility. However, it comes with a caveat that the business must be cautious not to provide bad products or poor service. It could result in bad reviews and, in turn, social media backlash or downgrading of a business.
3) Creating a sales channel
Another objective of social media is that it can create a sales channel. However, this largely applies to established brands. When a brand has already raised awareness and has been engaging with its target audience with unique content, then the brand is perhaps ready to make sales as its primary objective.
The best way is usually to create content directed toward a product or service and then perhaps guide the audience to a Call to Action (CTA). This could be a landing page or a purchase page, where the customer can place an order. The key metric here is Return On Investment (ROI).
Organically, there are many possibilities to leverage various platforms and trends. For instance, Instagram reels and Tweets on Twitter can help grow the audience. Facebook is evergreen with its groups and vast expansion possibilities.
Another possible way that most brands use social media is through Ads. Nowadays, every social media platform has an ads option. These are specifically curated to cater niche target audiences. So, one does not even need a proper business page or a landing website to create ads. All they would have to do is create an interesting ad for their interesting product. And that’s it!
4) Creating Viral Content
Sometimes businesses enter social media with the sole purpose of creating trending and viral content. This could be a unique perspective or a particular trend they use in their posts. These viral posts are usually the catalysts for large growth. People recognise brands, associate with it and even share content they like. Good content leads to reposts and retweets, and that again adds to building the overall business!
So, these were a few ways that would justify anyone asking – Why is Social media a great tool for your business?
Social media for direct selling
The direct selling industry has pivoted towards using online platforms, especially social media, for growth. Direct sellers can connect with untapped audiences and find more like-minded people and further enhance their credibility through social media. Social media, in essence, provides social proof and validates a particular business to a certain extent. Social media is a great way to step into the new world and catapult the business to great heights!
To learn more about direct selling or products, check out the QNET India Social Media channels!
