There are over 25 million businesses on Instagram, most of which are considered ‘small businesses’. Social media is definitely the new marketplace. Long gone are the days of competing with your neighbor for the buyers attention... now you’re competing with the entire world at any given time.
Does this sound overwhelming?
But social media has given us the tools to play in that bigger marketplace, we just have to learn how to use it to our advantage. And there are big advantages – 90% of Instagram users follow at least one business and Instagram has the highest engagement rate of any of the social platforms, even more than Twitter or Facebook.
Why is Engagement Important?
Engagement is how you get your audience involved, and therefore, in love, with your brand. Everyone is absolutely glued to their smartphones, and while this presents challenges of its own, it also provides a 24 hour platform for you and your business to engage your target audience.
Every time they open Instagram and happen to see your page, it’s like an opportunity for them to be walking by your ‘storefront’. And if they’re not seeing your page? Then they’re not walking by your storefront!
To be successful on Instagram means that you need to be adding value to the feed. But through the lenses of your own brands flavor. It’s critical to the success of your social media marketing strategy for it to never feel like sales.
Social media has given us plenty of opportunities to ‘humanize’ the brand. You get the chance to reach out and actually connect with your audience. There’s way more of a one to one relationship and less of a disconnected, corporate feel. Engagement allows you to open up the conversation with your customer. So this is important to include this in your marketing strategy.
Who better to learn from when it comes to making improvements?
By asking your audience (i.e. followers) questions, creating surveys, getting their product opinion's. Interacting with your audience you’ll have a first hand look at exactly what they expect from you and your brand.
Why else is engagement so paramount?
Besides creating a one on one touch base with your clients/customers, high engagement will also boost your search engine optimization!
When your social channels receive a lot of engagement, and many people are actively clicking your page, watching your videos or saving your posts, the search engines picks up on that. In return, the engine will use that data to provide better placement when your business is being searched for on the internet.
More and more consumers are choosing to research a brand online before even setting foot in a store or making a final purchasing decision. They will go online to learn more about who you are, what you offer, and what you can provide over their competitors. If this information isn’t readily and clearly available to them, you’re already out of the running.
A strong, well planned social media strategy shows your customers not only that you care, but that you are there and ready to connect and that’s what will create trust.
Here at Flourish we work with many small business owners in all sorts of industries in helping and training them. We want to work with you next!
We would love the opportunity to help design your social media strategy plan that fits your current and future business goals.
Email us today, support@flourishmarketingsolutions.com and setup a free call to see how we can help you and your business!
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