We know what you’ve heard: social media is a time suck, it causes jealousy, and it can lead to seemingly endless political arguments between cousins that somehow, you’re still reading.
But there are still some good things about social media — especially when it comes to using it to market your IT business.
Want to learn how you can use social media posts for businesses to your advantage?
If so, then keep on reading.
In this post, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about how to harness the power of social media.
1. You Have More Platforms Than Ever Before
One of the good things about social media is that you have more ways than one to connect with your target market.
You can get incredibly specific when it comes to finding your niche, because the right research can help you to figure out which specific social media platform your target market hangs out on the most.
For example, since you’re most likely providing business to business IT services, you may want to concentrate the majority of your marketing on LinkedIn and Facebook.
Think of using different social media platforms as a form of market segmentation.
To connect with your millennial market, head over to Instagram and Snapchat. To promote your services to users who you know prefer to watch videos instead of reading blog posts, rely onYouTube.
Not sure which platforms your market prefers?
This helpful post on social media is a great place to start figuring it all out.
While you don’t need to focus on promoting your business on every social media platform, we suggest creating accounts on at least three.
Remember that you can find marketing automation tools that will allow you to upload posts to all of your social media accounts simultaneously. Consistency is key, however.
So, if you don’t think you can remember to update all of your platforms, it’s better to use only one until you get the hang of it. It’s not worth muddling your brand recognition or coming across as unprofessional.
2. You Can Embrace Influencer Marketing
When you scroll through social media posts for businesses, you’ve likely seen hashtags like #sponsoredposts, or heard of “influencers.”
Influencer marketing is the process of working with a “big name” in your industry, or someone in your field with a large following on social media.
In exchange for payment or free products, the influencer creates a promotional video or post that shows them using your products or talking about your services.
Though many people associate social media influencers with the beauty and wellness industries, the truth is that your IT service can benefit from working with them, too.
First of all, influencer marketing is a great way to make it clear to your market that you know the right people. This will do wonders for enhancing your brand’s reputation.
Additionally influencer social media posts for businesses are an excellent way to shorten your overall sales cycle. Think about it: instead of a more general marketing tactic, where you hope that someone who needs IT help sees your post?
You’re connecting with people who you know for a fact are involved in the IT world in some way, because they’ve chosen to follow the influencer in the first place.
Finally, remember that influencer marketing can exist on a local level. Partner with leaders in your community, popular restaurants/event spaces, and even local sports teams to make your presence known in your neck of the woods.
3. You Can Use Hashtags to Your Advantage
Posting isn’t just about promoting business on social media. It’s also about using it as an effective tool to conduct your market research.
By following hashtags related to the IT industry, you can get a much better feel for the current conversations, popular players, and even trending topics. Then, you can upload posts that also feature those hashtags, adding your voice to the conversation.
One of the good things about social media is that it allows you to keep up with what’s happening in your niche, in real time. This way, you can prove to your followers that you have your finger on the pulse of industry events.
And once you’ve found the accounts that are posting using those hashtags?
Make sure you give them a follow, and check out their profiles to see the kinds of things they respond to. It’s an awesome way to find your next customer — and build lasting relationships with them.
4. Social Media Pages Are Cost-Effective
You don’t have to blow through half of your budget in order to learn how to use social media effectively.
That’s because, unlike paying for billboards or television spots, social media is incredibly affordable. In some cases, especially if you have a knack for staging photos and editing, it could even be free.
The cost-effectiveness goes back to what we mentioned earlier in this post. You’re marketing directly to your followers — people who have already “opted in” to getting messages from your brand because they’re interested.
Even if they’re not interested right now, social media is a bit like a promotional product in that it keeps your name in their heads. So, when they need IT services in the future?
They already know exactly who they’re going to call: your company.
5. You Can Re-Connect with past Leads
The one that got away. The company that you really wanted to work with, but never ended up closing with. The lead that you totally forgot about and never even followed up with.
What if you could get a second chance to re-connect with these leads through social media?
Thanks to re-targeting on social media, you can.
In a nutshell, re-targeting (also known as re-marketing) means that links to, ads for, and photos of past products and service pages that a website visitor passed over show up in their social media feeds.
Think of it as a kind of “reminder” to past site visitors that the were browsing your page in the past. In some cases, re-targeting can even remind people of a consultation they wanted to book, or a service they meant to sign up for.
Whatever kind of an action you’d like for someone to take on your page, re-targeting makes sure that you don’t lose those leads for good.
We know that you don’t want to feel like you’re spamming your customers. While it’s smart to use re-targeting campaigns with caution, the truth is that the majority of leads find them useful.
Plus, it’s one more way social media advertising is cost-effective!
6. Your past Clients Can Leave You Reviews
One final entry on our list of good things about social media?
How easy it makes it for you to get a higher number of quality reviews to feature on your website.
For example, Be Structured Technology Group has online reviews on the homepage of their site, some of which are linked directly from social media platforms.
Social media helps you to find the glowing things that people are saying about your IT company online, so that you can include those awesome reviews on your own website.
This way, you don’t have to rely on survey answers or even ask for as many reviews as you did in the past. Because social media makes it so easy for your past customers to voice their opinions, you’ll find that your number of reviews grows fairly rapidly.
Just make sure you’re responsive to these reviews, both the good and the bad. It shows that you value the customer experience, and that you’re always looking for what you can do better.
Plus, when someone leaves a nice review about a specific member of your team or your company as a whole, sharing it with your employees can seriously boost office morale.
Want More Good Things About Social Media?
There are more good things about social media than just the opportunity to share pictures of your kids or stalk your ex’s profile.
Instead, it’s time to start thinking of social media as a cost-effective way not just to get to know your market, but to grow your business as a whole.
Give re-targeting, influencer marketing, and much more a try.
Need additional advice on how to make the most out of social media marketing?
Keep checking back in with us for access to more advertising tips you can’t afford to miss out on.
We can’t wait to help you to grow your follower count — and, by extension, your profits.
