While many of us are consumers of social media nowadays, there are certainly fewer amongst us who know how to use it for maximum effect within our flooring businesses. Now is the time we need to acquire those skills, explains Heather Brown.
The digital age has brought about many changes, and businesses that don’t adapt may struggle to stay afloat. Critically one of the biggest changes relates to how businesses communicate with their customers.
To reach customers, whether they are main contractors or clients, businesses need a solid social media presence. Here are five reasons why.
Increase brand awareness
Social media can increase your brand’s awareness with your target audience. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, and TikTok all offer different demographics and different segments of audiences. Yours will definitely be somewhere!
You will probably already know your target audience. Still, if you don’t you will need to consider the potential age range, education level, homeownership, affiliations, and job titles of your potential customers.
Different social media platforms offer different audiences and different benefits for each channel. For example, if you have video content of new flooring you have just installed, you may want to add it to YouTube, where users search for video content.
If you have some great lifestyle images of an installation, you may want to add them to Pinterest and Instagram, where users regularly search for home, lifestyle, and DIY inspiration.
Increase website traffic, sales, showroom visits and leads
Social media platforms will help increase brand awareness for your company and product, and social media can also directly increase traffic to your website.
If you have a blog or articles on your website, consider sharing them on social media with links back to your website.
If you have an e-commerce website, share products and special offers on social media and include links to your website.
Social media can help increase traffic to your website as you can share links across all of your social channels. Increasing traffic to your site, will also lead to an increase in sales and enquiries.
Reputation management and customer service
Social media is a valuable tool for reputation management and for facilitating customer service. In today’s digital world, reputation management is vital for businesses. Social media lets customers voice their opinions and reviews publicly, making or breaking a company.
It’s essential to monitor social media activity and respond promptly to any negative comments or reviews. Doing so can turn a negative experience into a positive one and show potential customers that you care about your reputation and providing excellent customer service.
In the past, businesses could get away with poor customer service because there weren’t many other options for customers. However, social media has changed that. Now, customers can quickly post negative reviews and comments that can damage your business’s reputation.
That’s why it’s essential to use social media to monitor your business’s reputation. You can do this by setting up Google Alerts for your business name and industry and tracking social media platforms for mentions of your business.
If you see any negative reviews or comments, reach out to the customer and try to resolve the issue.
Often, even when there is a negative review, if users can see that the company has responded promptly and professionally and noticed that they had made an effort to resolve the issue, they will have no worries about engaging you in business. People even change their reviews from negative to positive, outline the resolution process, compliment the company, and say thank you for resolving their issue, making a company look trustworthy and honest.
Competitor analysis opportunities
When it comes to business, keeping an eye on your competition is essential. Social media can be a great way to do this.
By monitoring your competitors’ social media activity, you can stay one step ahead and adjust your strategies accordingly. You can see what they are doing well and what could be improved. You can also see what kinds of content and offers resonate with their audience in real-time and adapt your own business.
Paid social media advertising and retargeting
Finally, social media platforms offer businesses the opportunity to advertise their products or services through paid social media campaigns. These campaigns can be targeted to reach a specific audience and can be used to retarget people who have already shown an interest in your business. You can also use social media to generate leads by running lead generation campaigns and promoting them on social media.
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