For centuries, human beings have been doing business. Whether in ancient Greece or in 2020, one thing remains the same—businesses don’t exist without sales. With sales being a staple for a successful business, the way businesses and marketers have solicited sales over the generations has obviously evolved. Sales tactics 100 years ago looked different than they do today, from the traveling salesman, to the telemarketer to now. What’s the pattern? Marketing changes with technology. Today, using social media to grow your business is a term you hear often. But does it actually work?

Social media is no longer an option

The first way we’d go about answering that question is by negating the fact that it is a question at all. Social media is no longer an optional marketing tool. Just like you offer points of contact to your clientele in the form of your physical address, phone number and website, your social media pages (at least one, if not multiple), should be a standard on that list.

Point blank, social media is a necessary part of your business model. Internet users search for businesses on social media just like they do on Google—or like they would in the Yellow Pages of yesteryear. If you’re not present where people are looking, you could miss out on making connections with potential leads for your business.

Use built-in business-growing tools to your advantage

So we’ve established that even if you do nothing but exist on social media, it’s still better to have a presence there than not. But using social media to grow your business will not work without your participation. Can it work? Yes! However, if your goal is growth (and whose isn’t?), then you have to be proactive about how you use it.

Social media platforms have multitudes of built-in business-growing tools to help business pages get their content seen in front of not only larger audiences, but relevant ones. Various ad formats, for example, allow you to select where your ad appears on a social media platform. Most also give you the opportunity to create custom audiences for your content—so that it is shown to people that may be more likely to pursue you than not.

Using social media to grow your business also involves consistency and maintaining an active presence. Your social media page is not something that you just set and forget. You have to actively share content and engage with other pages and users on a regular basis in order to get the return you’re looking for.

Remember—it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

The most significant thing we can stress when answering whether or not using social media to grow your business actually works—it can (and we see it happening every day!), but it doesn’t happen overnight. If you expect to share your first post and get 100 orders within 24 hours, you’ll likely be let down.

However, dedicating effort over a longer period of time does work.  It’s all about curating relevant, engaging content, interacting on a regular basis and using social media marketing tools to your advantage. You can’t always measure success by the number of likes you have on your page. The idea is to assess your short- and long-term marketing goals and use social media as a tool to help you achieve them.

Summary

Simply existing on social media is not the magic bullet to explosive business growth. However, using it smartly can help you achieve the marketing goals you have set for yourself. It’s a resource for helping you generate positive momentum, like driving leads to your website, connecting with your local business community and instilling consumer confidence in your brand.

If you need help using social media to grow your business, we’ve got you!

McNutt & Partners is a full-service advertising and digital marketing agency. Contact us today for your marketing needs! Call 334-521-1010, or visit our contact page.