11 Ways Social Media Strategy Promotes Business Growth in 2022

Last Updated on September 22, 2022 by Valerie Jennings

11 Ways How Social Media Can Aid in Business Growth

When you hear the term social media, you may think of keeping in touch with family and friends or looking at memes, but it’s also a powerful tool for brands. A successful social media strategy promotes business growth and ultimately drive sales. Social media collectively refers to websites and applications focusing on communication, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration. 

As one of the most popular online activities, social media provides immense potential for businesses as consumers habitually log on for an average of 144 minutes per day. In 2020, over 3.6 billion people used social media worldwide. That number is projected to increase to almost 4.41 billion by 2025. Brands can utilize this quick, inexpensive and fruitful way to reach large audiences with engaging content. Effective social engagement helps a brand build trust with its consumers, assert authority in the industry and present the brand’s personality.

Social Media Marketing 101

Social media marketing is a form of digital marketing that utilizes the power of popular social media networks to achieve marketing and branding goals. It requires an evolving strategy with optimized profiles, shared content representing your brand, response to comments, shares and likes, and engagement with followers to build a community around your brand. 

Start by identifying your business goals based on your company’s overall needs and set objectives to measure progress towards those goals. You will need to define your ideal customers, including age, occupation, income, interests, obstacles, motivations and objections. Using that information about your ideal audience, choose channels and tactics to achieve the best results, such as the best platform to convey your messaging. Also, consider the type of content shared, posting time and frequency. The form of content and how it’s presented to your audience will vary from platform to platform. Lastly, you will need to allocate budget and resources to the tactics identified in your social media strategy to execute the plan effectively.

How Social Media Promotes Business Growth

If your brand is not currently implementing a strong social media strategy, it’s not too late. There is always an opportunity to lean into the online community surrounding your brand and industry. According to MarketingProfs, you don’t want to let these 11 ways of promoting business growth through social media slip through your fingers.

1. Increase your company’s online presence: Brand awareness represents your target audience’s familiarity with your brand and what you offer through various marketing channels. By establishing strong brand awareness, you gain consumers’ trust and influence their decision-making process. Social media boosts your visibility among current and potential customers without using much time or effort through tactics like influencer marketing, referrals and content production.
2. Allow your customers to get to know your brand: In a world with an overwhelming number of options available, people want brands they like and trust. In fact, 63% of online customers are more likely to buy from a brand with an informative social media presence as they can get to know the company. Social media is a great tool to convey authenticity to your target audience through personal, human-centric content, essential for conversion. Sharing content that adds value to people’s lives and positions you as an expert in the industry will drive more loyalty to your brand in the end. 
3. Incorporate your audience into your brand: You can make your audience part of your brand and marketing with user-generated content (UGC), or original content created by individual people rather than brands. This includes review postings, product images, unboxing videos and other content that is published online by users regarding your brand. It provides genuine insight from consumer to consumer, similarly to word-of-mouth. When combined with paid content, there is an average 28% increase in conversions, according to Social Media Today.
4. Collaborate with others: Social media presents the opportunity to partner with relevant players in your industry. You can network and partner with other companies through cross-promotions and features to increase your online exposure. You can also work with influencers who are more likely to have your ideal audience in their follower base and can put your brand in front of them on platforms like TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. For example, JSMM worked with a global animal health client who wanted to reach a new market of consumers in Australia. In January 2020, we launched an influencer marketing program with the client that resulted in a 37% following increase as well as thousands of post engagements and impressions. By partnering with influencers who tested and reviewed the product, this client was able to get in front of the right audience effectively and efficiently. 
5. Dive into real-time reporting: Social media generates a considerable amount of data about your customers, including demographics, interests and purchasing patterns. You can also track the performance of your company’s social media strategy through key performance indicators (KPIs). Impressions are an important metric when measuring social media success, or how many times your post was visible in someone’s feed. A post or campaign’s reach demonstrates the number of people that have actually viewed the post. Both of these indicators allow you to gauge organic growth that happens from consistent content creation. It may not be exactly traceable to increased revenue, but social media provides inherent value that drives revenue growth by increasing your audience and potential customer base. 
6. Position yourself as a thought leader: Positioning yourself as a thought leader in your industry can set your brand apart from the competition. Showcasing your knowledge in your industry sets the stage for people to come to you first when seeking information, advice, upcoming trends or inspiration. Social media videos are an engaging way to provide educational and information content to your networks and create the opportunity for discussions. Many of our B2B clients report new business opportunities and valuable insights coming in through LinkedIn when videos are shared.
7. Stay top of mind: Social media doesn’t refer just to publishing your own content. It also involves showing up and participating in conversations that are already happening. Your target audience is already out there socializing. By interacting with them, you remind people that you are available as a resource and regularly available as a solution to their needs. This bond between a business and potential customers plays a significant role when the time comes to convert them to loyal ones.
8. Utilize the advertising platform: Instagram reports that 70% of shoppers look to their platform for their next purchase. Social media has become a hub for targeted advertising through features like Instagram/Facebook shops, direct messaging, call to action buttons on profiles and appointment booking capabilities. You can customize messages based on the profile and behaviors of potential customers you want to reach. You can also use paid advertising to promote the content to reach your ideal customer to maximize your reach. It is an easy and low-commitment way for interested customers to express interest in your business or products.
9. Enhance Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Evidence links social media engagement and organic search engine rankings. Shares, likes and comments signal to search engines that a brand is being mentioned online and becomes more likely to get website hits. Additionally, you can direct traffic back to your website by sharing content that lives on your site. Social media provides access to a broader audience than your website has alone. More people visiting and engaging with your site and its content will help benefit your search rankings from positive user signals.
10. Create an avenue for direct customer service: Unlike traditional media, which offers only one-way communication, social media is a two-way street. It provides direct access between the brand and the customer to answer questions, respond to concerns and build a loyal customer base. You also show your audience that you care about customer satisfaction by handling complaints and concerns. According to Sprout Social, 78% of customers are willing to buy from a business after a positive experience on social media.
11. Keep up with the competition: As a company, social media is an easy way to observe strategies that your competition is implementing and what they are offering to potential customers. You can monitor how well those strategies perform and apply those insights to your marketing initiatives. Also, look for any opportunities to outperform them. Are they engaging with their customers, responding to concerns and sharing relevant information? Provide your audience with the ideal experience where your competition may be lacking.

Ready to Grow Your Business with Social Media Marketing? We Can Help!

Social media is no longer optional for businesses that want to grow. It is essential for raising brand awareness in the digital space by giving consumers a chance to become familiar with who you are and what you offer. Additionally, it serves as a great tool for identifying potential customers and converting them into real leads. The sooner a brand embraces social media as a power tool, the further it will take them.

Jennings Social Media & Martech (JSMM) has been on the cutting edge of social media marketing since 2005. We have helped dozens of brands grow their business using multi-channel strategy, editorial planning, copywriting, channel publishing and reporting. At JSMM, our social media marketing experts develop and execute custom programs for large and small clients alike. These strategies are created to hit tangible revenue goals, increase new contacts and generate leads. 

Our secret to success is combining the right tactics with the proper budget and growing the program over time. In most cases, clients see rapid results within 60 days, increasing website leads. Take a look at our portfolio to see how we have driven business growth and results through digital and social media marketing. Read more about our social strategy, view our package options or contact us directly to see how JSMM can take your business to the next level through digital and social media marketing!