Want to grow your brand and reach more customers? Then you need social media.

It’s no longer optional—it’s an essential part of the modern business landscape.

Whether you’re a small startup or a well-established brand, social media is one of the best ways to reach your customers, gain valuable insights into their needs, and grow your brand.

Social media is one of the fastest, easiest, and most effective ways to reach customers.

There are now more than 4.2 billion active social media users across the globe. That’s more than half of the world’s population!

If you’re not taking advantage of social within your digital marketing strategy, you’re missing out on a fast and inexpensive way to reach almost half the planet.

1. Brand Awareness

Social media is a great way to reach potential customers.

It’s no surprise that half the world’s population uses social media, so it’s a natural place to reach new and highly targeted potential customers. Think people only connect with brands they already know on social media? Consider that 83 percent of Instagram users say they discover new products on the platform.

2. Stay connected all the time

Social media gives you the opportunity to connect with fans and followers every time they log in. Keep your social posts entertaining and informative, and your followers will be glad to see your new content in their feeds, keeping you top of mind so you’re their first stop when they’re ready to make a purchase.

Seventy percent of social media users log into their accounts at least once per day, according to a 2021 study by Pew Research Center, and many people (49 percent!) admit to checking social multiple times per day.

3. Increase your traffic

How do you get more people to visit your website?

Social media is one of the best ways to drive traffic to your site, and it’s free! By sharing great content from your blog or website to your social channels, you can get readers as soon as you publish a new post.

Participating in social chats can also be a great way to increase your visibility, get attention from new people, showcase your expertise, and drive traffic to your website.

4. Generate more leads

When you’re running a business, it can be hard to know where to start. But one thing that’s guaranteed to make your life easier? Social media.

Social media offers an easy and low-commitment way for potential customers to express interest in your business and your products. Lead generation is such an important benefit of social media for business that many social networks offer advertising formats specifically designed to collect leads.

So if you’re looking for something fast and easy that will help grow your business—and what entrepreneur isn’t?—social media is definitely a great place to start!

5. More sales

Did you know that your social media presence is a critical part of your sales funnel?

We’re talking about the process through which a new contact becomes a customer. It’s called “social selling,” and it’s one of the hottest trends in marketing right now.

As more people use social media and social sales tools evolve, social networks will become increasingly important for product search and ecommerce. The time is right to align your social marketing efforts with sales goals.

6. Connect with influencers

Social media has become an integral part of our lives, and it’s not just because of the memes.

Social media benefits you and your business in a number of ways.

First, recommendations from friends and family play a huge role in consumer decisions, as do reviews. When you get people talking about your product or company on social media, you build brand awareness and credibility, and set yourself up for more sales.

One key way to drive social word of mouth is to partner with influencers—people who have a large following on social media and can draw the attention of that following to your brand.

7. Going viral

Social media is a powerful tool for marketing, but did you know that it can make your content go viral?

As people start liking, commenting on, and sharing your social posts, your content is exposed to new audiences—their friends and followers. Going viral takes this concept one step further.

As people share your content with their networks, and their networks follow suit, your content spreads across the internet, potentially getting thousands or even millions of shares. This exposure is especially beneficial because, in a world where there is far more content than any one person could ever consume, a friend’s social share acts as a kind of pre-screening. Going viral is no easy task, of course, but without social media, it would be next to impossible. Being on social media also means that your fans can help you with this goal.

8. Manage your reputation

Social media is a great place to find out what your customers are saying about you. If you’re not already on social media, you might think that’s a bad thing—but it’s actually an opportunity.

Your customers are already talking about you on social media, whether or not you’re there to respond. If you and your team are on the ball, you can pick up on important social posts about your brand to highlight the positive and address the negative before it turns into a major issue.

For example, if someone singing your praises? Send them plenty of thanks and draw attention to their kind words and if someone is saying something wrong about your business, share your story in a professional way.

9. Know more about your customers

Social media is a goldmine of data about your customers’ wants, needs, desires, and preferences. And with the right tools, you can use it to make smarter business decisions.

All of the major social networks offer analytics that provide demographic information about the people interacting with your account. This can help you tailor your social media marketing strategy to better speak to your real audience.

10. Keep on eye on your competitor

Want to know how your competitors are doing? Check out their social media accounts.

It’s also important to know what people are saying about your competitors. For example, tracking mentions of your competitors might reveal pain points with their products or services that you could reach out to address, winning new customers in the process. Monitoring the competition on social media also means you’ll be aware when your competitors launch new products, run promotions and release new reports or data.