Leveraging Social Media: Why Social Media Should be Your Best Friend for Business Growth in 2024

All successful businesses in 2024 are a part of the online conversation. They have strong social media presence and leverage these platforms to drive sales, converse with clients, and launch marketing campaigns. According to the Practising Law Institute (PLI), half of the global population, about 5 billion people, use social media in 2024. The report also states that the average user accesses 6-7 platforms monthly.

If we go by these statistics, it means businesses have an open opportunity to reach clients and grow immensely if they use the best tactics. They also establish themselves as experts in various industries by creating informative content.

So, how easy is it to use social media to grow your business?

Developing successful strategies is no walk in the park, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't put in the work.

The "pay and spray" tactic where you buy several ads hoping they'll land in your consumer's lap is very inefficient. Instead, use lucrative strategies by doing enough research. Collect data to ensure the ads reel in the right audience. Also, only spend resources on avenues sure to drive the greatest ROI.

Before anything else, let's take a deep look into social media marketing. What is it and does your business need it?

Social Media Marketing: Meaning and Benefits for Your Business

Social media marketing (SMM) is a form of internet marketing that uses social media platforms as a tool to create and share relevant content that users will share within their networks. This increases brand exposure and reaches potential leads through popular social media channels.

Social media marketing utilizes at least one social media platform to do the following:

• Drive sales

• Build brand awareness

• Increase traffic to websites

• Promote products or services to target audiences

This marketing strategy is a perfect way for companies to tell their brand story, interact with clients and site visitors, and educate about new products. Consumers also learn about industry trends, keeping them on toes about what's happening in different sectors.

Social media marketing also allows clients to post UGC- User Generated Content like comments online and reviews. This creates a better relationship with brands than brand-related ad copies.

Is Social Media Marketing Worth it?

The average user spends a minimum of 30 minutes daily on social media. In this duration, they shop online, scroll feeds, and interact with content influencers. As such, it doesn't matter if your company is a B2C or B2B. Your target audience is online!

Here's why you shouldn't think twice about optimized content marketing and strategic social media marketing to increase ROI.

1. Reaching Larger Audiences

Millions of people globally use social media, making platforms a great avenue for the business to reach more interested people. These individuals can easily turn into leads because they interact with your brand, ask relevant questions and view what you offer.

A good example is hotels using social media to reach tourists and locals. By posting great food content and showing the perks of their establishments, they boost foot traffic from users within a certain radius.

2. Direct Connection with the Audience

Social media marketing is among the few tactics allowing businesses to directly connect with their target audience. Whoever follows your social media accounts shows interest in your products and services.

After that, you learn more about them, thus deliver more valuable content personalized to their preferences. Ultimately, this increases page and business engagement. The perks of direct interaction include:

Provision of Better Customer Service

Direct connections with your audience means you solve issues easier. You deal with client issues one-on-one, therefore building the brand positively. Include review and comment sections on your website and social media channels.

Doing so encourages leads to leave comments or complaints, making your business a favorite among target audiences.

Gaining Valuable Customer Opinions

How do others view your business?

Social media marketing places you at the right position to know what your audience thinks of your company. By learning their positive opinions, you get to capitalize and encourage more leads. On the flip side, learning what the audience doesn't like about the company gives you the chance to fix them, and get into customers' good books.

3. Creating Organic Content

Organic content helps companies build loyalty and trust with their audience since they showcase expertise and value through the content. So, being able to promote this organic content free of charge benefits businesses immensely.

Through organic content promotion, businesses connect with leads, making their products and services well-known. A great advantage is that you can create as much content as you like. Post updated and relevant videos and photos depending on the platform to create more familiarity

4. Access to Paid Advertising

While organic posting on social media has significant advantages, businesses also have the option to run paid ads. Each platform has its own paid advertising method. So, learn the best for the business and social media channel before spending money.

Paid ads allow you to connect with new leads because you tailor them to appear in the feeds of those interested in products and services you offer. Consequently, you reach and keep new leads. New followers means conversions for the business.

5. Building the Brand

The more the business connects with leads, the more the exposure to the brand. Regularly posting organic content makes you a household name and builds brand loyalty. Brand familiarity contributes to more conversions because people always buy from brands they know well.

Again, social media channels encourage content sharing. Re-pinning and retweeting content to family and friends on these channels exposes your brand to an even greater audience.

6. Driving Traffic

Social media is a catalyst for driving traffic to your company website. Many social media channels allow businesses to add their links where users are redirected to learn more about the company.

Since the website clearly showcases the products and services offered, potential leads choose whether or not to spend their money.

7. Performance Evaluation

After running marketing campaigns, you're curious to know how it's performing. Social media platforms are excellent for tracking campaigns and see if they are driving great results.

Through campaign results, you get to see how many people viewed, commented, shared and liked the posts. Ad campaigns also show metrics like conversions, impressions and clicks. This information encourages optimization and improvements to drive better results.

But how do you choose the right platforms for your brand?

Factors to Consider When Choosing Platforms for Social Media Marketing

Let's get straight to the point!

There are several platforms, and getting the best for your business increase chances of success. Factor these in before making critical business decisions:

• The target audience and their preferences

• Your objectives

• The competitors and the platforms they're on

Once you have these squared, focus on consistency since it breeds familiarity and strengthens your relationship with your audience. Creating a content calendar helps plan your content, thus improving your posting frequency and content diversity.

Each platform is unique in culture, content format, and user etiquette. Tailor your content to suit every platform and user preferences. while creating unique content is critical, experts recommend recycling and repurposing content across platforms to maximize content reach.

Since we've looked at the advantages of social media marketing and the considerations, here are the best social media platforms to spend resources on:

6 Well-known Social Media Platforms to Leverage for Business Growth in 2024

The way we perceive social media in 2024 is nowhere close to how we viewed it five years ago. Today, it's unimaginable to run a successful business without a strong social media presence. That said, we're going to explore the best platforms that effectively contribute to growth in 2024.

You don't have to use all these platforms. Choose the most relevant according to your resources and target audience.

Facebook

Despite Facebook being started in 2004, it still remains a relevant platform to reach potential leads on. many new platforms have come up, but Facebook has billions of monthly users. Still, content is the key contributor to Facebook engagement. Ensure the content sparks interest and conversation so you remain relevant.

The Facebook Ads Manager is also a great tool since it helps create audience-specific ad campaigns. Learning the tool's complexities provides incredible ROI and chances for smaller brands to launch campaigns with smaller budgets.

Another great thing about Facebook is it insights. These provide plentiful data about how the page performs. This data is useful to analyze behaviors and trends to make good business moves.

The platform has evolved over time and remains the go-to due to:

• A large user base with diverse demographics

• Advanced and specific Facebook ads targeting options

• Platforms, like pages and groups for interactions, engagements, questions and community formation

• Availability of Facebook messenger for chatting and solving customer issues

TikTok

Do you know the new kid on the block disrupting the social media scene?

TikTok has some of the best opportunities for brands to get ahead through its algorithm and trending topics. By understanding these two factors and creating authentic and entertaining content, you align with TikTok's culture and reach your target audience.

Still, content creation doesn't cut it. You must engage with the community by doing duets, and participating in challenges and trends. To boost your brand visibility and credibility, work with TikTok influencers.

The benefits of using TikTok for business growth:

• Unique opportunities to connect with younger audiences

• High potential to go viral quick

• Collaborations with TikTok influencers to skyrocket credibility and visibility

• Creative ways of showcasing services and products
  

Instagram

Instagram is that one platform that most people want to be famous on. It's one of the best platforms for creating content and building an audience due to its visual-centric approach and wide user base. Visuals say a lot! So, take time to create distinct aesthetics that effectively represent the brand.

Another thing to incorporate are hashtags. The art of using appropriate hashtags and understanding the algorithm pushes your content to the proper audience so they see and engage with it. But, don't forget to engage content influencers for collaborations which have a domino effect on your brand's engagement and reach.

Consider adding Instagram to your list of social media platforms because of:

• The visually-rich platform that evokes emotion through stories and other tools

• Instagram's ability to engage audiences through stories, posts and IGTV

• The Instagram Shopping feature, great for ecommerce

• Influencer marketing opportunities on the platform

LinkedIn

Social media platform is famous for professional networking, job hunting and hosting digital resumes. Still, businesses can leverage LinkedIn thanks to its vibrant community that promotes growing, learning, and connections.

To grow your brand, utilize LinkedIn to complete your personal and company profile. Optimizing these profiles has maximum impact since you connect with the right professionals and brands. After that, always share content that showcases your industry expertise and starts conversations to LinkedIn groups. Publishing articles on LinkedIn Pulse enhances your visibility and authority despite your industry. So, it's also a viable option for getting your content to the target audience.

We cannot fail to talk about LinkedIn Ads when listing the perks of this platform. They are a great marketing tool with detailed targeting options to reach audiences at the right time.

To nail it in, here are the pros of optimizing your LinkedIn profile:

• Mutually beneficial opportunities and professional connections

• Opportunities to share insightful content and become an industry leader

• Potent advertising options for B2B businesses

• Successful recruitment features, making it a favorite for businesses looking to hire skilled individuals

Tumblr

Tumblr's lack of name recognition does not stop it from being a social media unsung hero. It has a strong fan-forward culture and active user base, and to succeed, brands must respect and understand the unique culture and etiquette. Again, this platform upholds shareable and attractive content.

It's all about the visuals! Incorporate tags into this content to get discovered and interact with suitable communities to make your presence profound. fortunately, interacting isn't difficult since you engage the audience through liking posts, reblogging content, and answering comments.

Add Tumblr to your social media list for:

• Its creative and niche communities

• Tumblr's laid back vibe, allowing brands to showcase their personalities

• Excellent multimedia options for diverse storytelling

• The fair opportunities at creating viral content for exposure

YouTube

Video content consumption is on a high and businesses cannot afford to ignore YouTube. Billions of users are logged in monthly, so creating valuable high-quality content to resonate with your audience is a good tactic. Similar to Google SEO, YouTube SEO needs video title optimization, descriptions, and tag inclusion to improve rankings.

Encourage user interactions through liking, commenting and channel subscriptions. Doing so increase engagement on your page and alerts YouTube that your content is valuable. Don't forget to use YouTube's analytics tool to review your performance and optimize content strategies.

Here's a run-down of the advantages:

• High reach and engagement via video content

• Monetization chances through the YouTube Partner Program

• Good chances to create brand authority through vlogs, YouTube shorts, tutorials, and demos

• The opportunity to leverage YouTube SEO on the second largest search engine, YouTube

So, What Now?

It's evident that social media marketing has a significant impact on businesses. What we considered successful decades ago is no longer viable, and brands need to revamp their presence on these platforms. By learning your target audience and objectives based on your offerings, you get to choose the best platform to increase visibility, credibility and leads.

The end goal is to get your products and services out to the target market, and whichever platform works for you has all the tools necessary to do that. The six platforms we've delved into are updated and suitable for all businesses, so choose carefully and get the marketing plan rolling!