How Good Social Media Engagement Can Benefit Other Aspects of Your Company

You see it all the time: big familiar brands with popular social media accounts. It’s part of doing big business online. Emphasis on the word “big,” right? For companies with large marketing divisions that can afford to hire recent college graduates with impractically skinny jeans to handle their social media accounts.

Not quite. Social media engagement is a true boon for businesses of any size, allowing them to improve their customer interactions, boost sales, and radically change the way they do their marketing. For businesses that can get it right, it’s a true and fundamental change. In this article, we take a look at how good social media engagement can benefit all aspects of your business. Business leaders of every kind should read on for an important survey on modern marketing and sales practices.

What’s the point of social media?

First, let’s consider the point of social media. For many brands, online platforms are where all of the advertising takes place. And why not. It’s fast—Tweets can get pumped out into cyberspace in the time it takes to type a couple of hundred characters. And compared to the price of television advertising it’s cheap—free even if you are willing to go about it in a home-spun sort of way.

And the potential viewer pool is enormous. Billions (yes, with a b at the begging and an s at the end) of people use social media. That’s an unfathomably large number of people who can encounter your brand.

Brand–that’s a good word to remember when talking about business-related social media engagement. Branding is one of the central purposes and benefits of social media.

 Your brand is basically the feeling that your business puts out into the world. What’s it like to be the sort of person who does business with Company X?

Businesses that can really nail their branding are rewarded with a loyal base of repeat customers. People who spend large sums of money frequently, and are all too happy to recommend your product to their friends and family members.

So, how does this feed into other aspects of your business? The wheels in your head are probably already turning on that front, but let’s do a deeper dive.

Marketing

As previously hinted, much, sometimes all, of modern marketing takes place on social media. And while we mentioned the enormous pool of potential customers in our last heading, one of the best features of social media is actually the way it allows you to get really up close and personal with a more select group.

Using social media analytics, your marketing division can identify your core customer base, and make ads that tailor to their personality type and shopping habits. Through social media-derived analytics, you can find learn that your best customers are mostly fifty-year-old well-educated men. Not only that, but you’ll also find out that they are primarily online between the hours of 5-7 at night.

Using that information that can get extremely strategic and make ads that reach even more middle-aged men in the early evening hours. Alternatively, they can look for new ways to branch out and expand their customer base.

Clever, right?

Sales

Better marketing means better sales. That’s a no-brainer. Those same social media analytics that your marketing division is using can also do a lot to help the sales team. Using an Ideal Customer Profile—basically, the data set that is describing all those fifty-somethings who can’t get enough of your product—your sales division can look at existing customers and find out who they should be offering upsells, or cross sales.

Keep in mind that existing customers are, for many companies, the number one source of new revenue. By understanding how to use social media-generated data, your sales team can better sell to new customers while marketing keeps bringing new people in.

Customer service

Finally, social media has become a great way to provide highly personalized customer service. Take a look at some of your favorite brands and you’re sure to see this concept in motion. Highly successful social media brands will use their platforms to answer customer questions, field complaints, and thank specific people for their support.

Not only do you get the chance to offer immediate support to your customers, but you do it on a public space that can be used to strengthen your brand, improve your marketing goals, and boost sales. Hey, look at that. It all ties together.

That’s the beauty of business social media. It feeds into all areas of your business while legitimately providing your customers with a better experience.

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