Social Media for Small Business

Over the last decade, Social Media has changed the way we lead our lives. From checking in to our favourite restaurants to sharing our achievements with the world, we use Social Media for anything and everything.

Importance of Social Media Marketing for Small Business

According to statistics, over 3 billion individuals around the globe are active on various Social Media platforms. In simpler terms, over 40% of the world's population is active on Social Media. Of the 3 billion, 22.69 million are from Canada.

There are a ton of advantages of using Social Media Marketing (SMM) over traditional marketing techniques to promote a business such as:

1) By using Social Media, one can track the various parameters such as leads received, exposure of an ad, conversions from a particular ad, etc

2) Small business owners can upload engaging content on Social Media and interact with their followers and potential companies.

3) Since everyone is online most of the time, businesses can get instant feedback on a product/service, offers, contests, etc.

4) A strong presence on Social Media translates into a rise in website traffic and a better ranking on search engines.

A small business can benefit from these advantages by being at the right place, at the right time. Instead of being active on all Social Media platforms (though this is ideal), it is best to be active and have a strong foothold in about 2-3 platforms. The most popular Social Media platforms are:

1) FACEBOOK

With almost 2.12 billion users worldwide and 19 million users from Canada, this is one of the most popular Social Media platforms in the country and the world. Facebook dominates all the age groups including the key age group of 18 to 34-year-olds.

Key Benefits:

• Pocket-friendly marketing campaigns
• Improved brand awareness
• Tracking tool (Pixel) used to run ads more efficiently
• Analytics to gain better customer insights

2) INSTAGRAM

A picture is worth a thousand words. Instagram is the Social Media platform that has proved this statement over and over again. There are over 800 million Instagram users around the globe and about 9 million users are from Canada. A majority of these users are in the age group of 18 to 34 (62%).

Key Benefits:

• Higher customer engagement rates
• Easier to reach the target customer
• An array of creative features
• Tracking users’ activity and reaction to posts

Also read: How to Delete Instagram Account

3) PINTEREST

Pinterest boasts 200 million monthly active users worldwide with over 5.2 million users from Canada. Pinterest is growing at a rapid pace in Canada with a 35% increase in the user base from the previous year.

Key Benefits:

• Popularity across multiple age groups
• Quicker Conversion rates
• Increase in website traffic
• Multimedia content sharing Blogs, images, designs, etc.

Conclusion

With the advent of Social Media, there have been many changes in society and our lives. It is important for business owners to identify and adapt to these changes in order to provide a holistic experience to their customers and to enhance their business.