3 Reasons Social Media is Worth Your Time

Are you wondering how, or if, social media can boost your business? Overwhelmed with where to start? Our Social Media Marketing Certificate program instructor Tyra Burton shared with us her top three reasons why social media is worth your time. Here’s what she had to say:

Your day is already busy enough with the operational side of your business, why should you add social media to your ever-growing to-do list? You wish you could just set it up and forget it — like buying a Yellow Pages ad in days gone by, but you know it is going to take time, and time is a valuable asset.

Regardless of your type of business, social media has something to offer to help you grow. Here are three reasons to schedule some social time into your business day:

#1 – The conversation has already started
Regardless of your business’ presence in social media, your customers are already talking about you and your brand. Your image is altered every day by the conversations in social media channels. Find out which social media platforms your target market favors and jump into the conversation. By having a presence, you can further your brand image and personality in a direction that you want them to take.

#2 – In-the-moment research
Social media is one of the best places to find out what you’re doing right and what you’re doing wrong. And for all the public conversations and reviews, you can bet more conversations are going on behind privacy walls.

Wondering why your sales are dropping? A little research can help you discover the problem from the consumers’ point-of-view that is driving them away. You can search hashtags (the # is used before a word or phrase to help classify a post or tweet) to find mentions of your company or brand. Review sites can also offer you a peek into what your consumers feel about your business. When you see trends and the same thing mentioned again and again — you have a clue to why your sales have changed.

#3 – Making loyal customers even more loyal
The 80/20 rule tells us that 80% of our sales are usually from 20% of our customers. It’s one of the cornerstones of why brand loyalty is important for a business’s success. By engaging with customers in social media you can establish a relationship between them and your brand in a way that was not possible before.

By making your loyal customers feel special — replying to their posts, acknowledging responses on yours, favoriting their tweets, retweeting their photos with your brand — you create an emotional connection where your brand is at the center. These brand loyal customers are more likely to spread positive word of mouth. If the best offense is a good defense, brand loyal customers with emotional ties to your brand are your best defense against negative comments and reviews.

You Can Do It
Social media can help you maintain your brand image, pinpoint operational issues that impact customer experience and increase brand loyalty. Isn’t that worth a schedule slot in your business’ day?

More on Tyra
Tyra Burton is a senior lecturer of marketing at Kennesaw State University. Her first book, Socially Engaged: The Author’s Guide to Social Media, written with Jana Oliver, was published in October 2014. She is available for consulting, workshops and speaking engagements. A native Georgian, she lives in Metro Atlanta with her husband and their three socially engaging fur babies.

Tyra can be found on the web at www.TyraBurton.com, www.SocialMediaMuses.com, and on Twitter as @TyraAnneBurton.