Social media usage is expected to grow to over 4.41 billion by 2024, nearly doubling the amount of users online since 2017. The growing number of social media users, as well as their quick attention spans is a topic of concern for business leaders looking to make an impact.
Social media platforms are now being used more than ever as a source of sharing information, news and product updates. As business professionals look to the future for ways to improve their online strategies, it’s important for leaders to start paying more attention to their social media platforms and practices.
Tapping into the most used social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube and Instagram will help business leaders increase social media engagement across various platforms, providing them with an enhanced brand presence and greater audience reach.
Benefits of Using Social Media
The benefits of using social media to improve business outcomes are arguably endless. However, there are a few benefits that stand out as most useful for business leaders in 2021. For those looking to make quick and impactful changes in their social media engagement strategies, taking a closer look at the core benefits of using social media for business will help inform current practices.
- Creates Brand Awareness: Using social media platforms can help businesses establish brand awareness. A well-put together social media profile with brand-specific content will give visitors an opportunity to familiarize themselves with a company’s story and background, building visibility and brand recognition online. Brand awareness can be built in social media profiles by using brand logos, company history descriptions and general information about products and services.
- Leads To Higher Engagement and Exposure: Businesses can also fuel customer engagement through social media. Research shows that 57% of consumers follow brand profiles to learn about new products and services and customers that follow social media profiles are more likely to convert into a valuable sales lead. Businesses can increase their engagement by posting more engaging content to their profiles, such as interactive posts for social media, quizzes and resources that link to the company’s website. Anytime there is an interaction with a social media profile, a company’s social media engagement grows, thus creating more momentum around a company’s services.
- Expands The Customer Base: Posting content to multiple profiles will help expand one’s customer base and drive more site traffic. Every social media platform has its own benefits and engagement opportunities, so it’s important for business leaders to tailor their content depending on the platform being used in order to get the attention of a specific audience. For example, a business may want to post more educational or formal content on LinkedIn, whereas on Instagram, using pictures and short, engaging captions will generally catch the attention of an audience faster. Generally speaking, the more social profiles a business has, the more reach a company will have to people across different networks. However, it is still important to maintain consistency and quality of content in all social media platforms being used.
Strategies To Use For Social Media Success Now
As we move into the last half of the year, business leaders are now looking to take quick and actionable steps to improve their social media outcomes online. While improving social media practices may seem challenging, there are several key steps that can be taken to start making beneficial changes that have a lasting effect.
- Create engaging content: As mentioned in the section above, creating engaging content such as interactive social media posts can help increase overall engagement on your website. Social media managers use different types of content strategies to engage followers, such as polls, giveaways and initiating conversations directly with their followers. Starting weekly or monthly series like publishing periodic guides and infographics can also help create consistent and engaging content for current customers.
- Host virtual events: Professionals should also consider hosting virtual events like webinars or summits to help educate new and existing customers on industry developments, product updates and services. Virtual events are also a great opportunity to provide post-event material including content such as event recordings, blog posts that outline key takeaways, and video accessibility captions and transcripts. An added benefit of posting event material on your website is it can also help improve a website’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO) over time.
- Create accessible content: In order to broaden the reach of social media even further, it is essential to ensure that professionals and social media managers at businesses use the right tools to create accessible content for posts. Creating accessible content will ensure that businesses broaden their reach to the Deaf and hard of hearing and blind and low vision communities. Providing accessibility may seem challenging at first, but small, incremental steps can be taken to ensure that accessibility needs are met. For example, business leaders can start by providing alt-text for all images used in posts, as well as providing captioning and audio description for all video content that is shared.
Reaching Social Media Potential
The number of social media engagement ideas that are available in the market is nearly unlimited. Business professionals can start by using these key strategies to help them reach their social media goals faster and easier.
Using innovative technologies and distribution channels are helping business leaders increase overall brand success across different social media platforms. The process of creating innovative text and visual content is just one step in the marketing process. Verbit is committed to helping business leaders meet their social media goals as industry needs evolve. Verbit’s suite of video accessibility services can help professionals reach their social media goals and ensure their content is inclusive to all audiences. By supplying innovative video accessibility technologies like captioning, transcription and audio description, Verbit can greatly help professionals reach and engage with more audiences – including those with disabilities or who are watching in areas which don’t allow for the sound to be played out loud.
To ensure your social and video content is accessible and inclusive to meet all of these diverse needs and include all consumers, contact us.