Social Media Marketing for Small Businesses

​Many small businesses make the mistake of thinking social media marketing is only for big corporations. The truth is that small, local businesses are actually much better suited to social media marketing than many large businesses are. If you own a small business in the Boston MA area, social media marketing should be included in your marketing campaigns. But why is social media marketing so important? Why is it valuable? Here are some of the biggest benefits of social media marketing for small businesses in and around Boston:

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Improves Brand Awareness

​No one can buy from your business if they do not know you exist. Twenty years ago, it might have been enough to buy an ad in the local Yellow Pages. When a consumer wanted to find a business, they would open their Yellow Pages and flip to the appropriate section. Hardly anyone does that today. Instead, they take to the internet. If you want business, you have to be where consumers expect to find local businesses: on the search engines and on social media.

​Social media is one of the best ways to increase brand awareness—and not just with people that already know about you. Just about every social media has a tool that makes it extremely easy to reach out to consumers that are likely to be interested in your product or service. With more than 66% of consumers currently using social media, it’s the ideal way to get your brand’s name in front of people who would be interested in what you have to offer.

​Lends Legitimacy

​Before the internet, most businesses had to set up a storefront or at least have a legitimate, working phone number. Without these two things, a business would not be considered “real” and no one would buy from it. Having a social media account does the same thing for today’s businesses. Social media marketing, using an established social media profile for your business makes your brand appear as legitimate as it actually is.

Social media marketing actually works better for proving legitimacy than having a storefront and working phone number. How? Because social media is just that: social. You will be building not just business, but also personal relationships with your customers or clients (or potential customers or clients). They will get to know your personality—the core of your business, not just the name and logo.

Improves Profits

​Having higher brand awareness and a more legitimate appearance will automatically help you sell more—but if that was all social media marketing did, it would be called public relations. When you hire our Boston MA social media marketing services, we can actually help you get more sales. How? By implementing a campaign that highlights your products and services and funnels your fans or followers towards making a purchase. From promoted content to social media-exclusive deals, social media marketing helps you sell more, and therefore, make more money.

Social media is also continuing to improve the tools it offers to brands like yours—in the coming months and years, many social media will start allowing brands to set up shop right on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. These are tools you want to take advantage of, before your competitors get the leg up

​Better Customer Service

​One of the biggest benefits of using social media as a business is the ability to provide real-time customer service, on a platform that your customers/clients understand and which showcases your responses to those questions or concerns. Consumers today are far more likely to jump on social media and seek out a business to ask a question or discuss a concern than they are to call a provided customer service phone number or send an email.

Social Media Bolsters All Other Marketing Efforts

​Social media marketing can improve just about every other marketing campaign you might have. Your social signals are extremely important to search engine optimization, for example, and social media marketing can make sure that those signals are as strong as possible.

In addition, when someone see, hears, or reads an advertisement for your business, they will turn to the internet to learn more about your business. While this requires you to have a great website, it also means you should have a highly visible and active social media account. They can look to that account to see how you interact with your customers or clients, what your following is like, and for any relevant reviews.

Social media marketing is so much more than simply getting your posts into the feeds of potentially interested customers (though social media does, perhaps, have the very best analytics for doing just that), it is also about building and legitimizing your brand for today’s consumer.

For more information about social media marketing for small businesses in the Boston MA area, or to start your campaign, contact us today!

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​​By Paul Johnson - Paul has over 25 years of marketing experience including 10 years of helping small and medium sized businesses navigate today's ever-changing online marketing world.  Contact Paul