My small business owner friends and I talk a lot about marketing. What strategies deliver results? How many touches does a prospect need before they buy? And my favorite: Do you even need to use social media for marketing?
That last one is a biggie. Ever since Facebook burst on the scene, companies of every size have used social media as part of their marketing mix.
But is it worth the time and effort involved? Does it lead to sales? Are my posts increasing my reputation or getting lost in the noise?
And that brings us back to our question:
Do you even need to use social media for marketing?
Every company is different, so I can’t provide a blanket response. Instead, let’s look at a few scenarios when I would say no – or yes.
Three scenarios in which you don’t need social media
If you have a highly engaged, high-quality email list you’ll get more bang for your buck with email marketing than you will with social media.
An email newsletter is quick to put together, and you can add links to your website without being penalized. (Social media channels make it hard to add links and/or will make a post with links less visible.) And yes, people read email newsletters.
If you cannot devote sufficient time to posting your own stuff and commenting on other peoples’ stuff, don’t use social media.
Posting occasionally doesn’t provide the social algorithms with enough data to understand how relevant your content is. Therefore, your once-a-month posts might not reach many people.
You also need to spend time monitoring your business accounts for comments (so you can respond, and you know, be social) and commenting on other peoples’ posts.
Finally, if you network your butt off and keep up with people who are referral partners, prospects, and clients, you are doing what social media is meant to do – have conversations and share information.
And if those conversations and relationships lead to new clients on a regular basis, then social media might be fun, but it’s not a must-have.
Three scenarios when I would encourage you to use social media
When your company is new and you are building brand awareness, social media can help you spread the word. Two things to keep in mind:
1 – Be careful not to talk about you and your company. Talk about how you help your clients. For example, an estate attorney might talk about why her wills and estate plans make probate a breeze – especially important when loved ones are grieving.
2 – Research which social media channels your target market is active on. How can you tell? Do a search for the topics you talk about. Look up competitors to see if they’re on that channel and getting engagement (comments and shares).
Likewise, you can use social media to reach a big audience quickly. Social ads will help! In fact, if I ran ads, I would include an offer that allows you to capture emails. (You own your email newsletter. You don’t own your social channels.)
Now, I’m not a social ad expert. If you need more guidance on them, let me know and I’ll put you in touch with people who can help.
And if you love creating content – it’s fun, you always make time for it, and you see the value in the long game that is social media marketing – keep at it. Using social media for marketing will not hurt your brand. You just might not be able to attribute sales directly to it.
A thought about social media boosters
In the category of things that sound awesome but are not, we have social media boosters.
These services are either standalone apps or built-in features (like on Instagram) that allow you to “boost” regular posts. This is a paid feature and essentially turns a post into an ad.
Now, this might sound great. Technology keeps track of your posts, and if they’re doing well, it urges you to pay to get it in front of more people.
However, there are two big drawbacks to boosting:
Targeting is limited: You can typically only target age, gender, and location, while ads let you get deeper into demographics.
You can’t add a call-to-action: If Instagram tells you your post is doing better than 90% of similar ones, you can only boost the original post – you can’t add a call-to-action.
Also, a lot of marketers view them as money-grabs by Meta. So there’s that.
Since you have to pay to boost and pay for ads, stick with ads. They are more flexible, support detailed targeting, and let you choose your call-to-action.
Do I use social media for marketing?
I sure do! I only used LinkedIn, because that’s best for B2B and therefore it’s where my clients and prospects are. Plus, I like sharing my knowledge, and it’s a great way to network.
Do I get business from LinkedIn? Indirectly. Last week, I talked to a prospective client who I’ve known for years. We are connected on LinkedIn (and Facebook), and he could use my services for his latest venture.
So, given what I have said, I want to know – did I make the case for using social media for marketing? Or not?
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