If you’re not using social media to grow your business, you’re missing out on a free and effective way to gain exposure, make connections, and attract new clients.

Social media isn’t about doing something that different than what you’re already doing. It’s simply an extension of what you’re already doing.

Speaking as a marketing strategy is the same concept as creating videos. Writing compares to blogging. And if you are into networking; Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn are just additional ways to network.

When I talk about Social Media I’m referring specifically to these five platforms: Blogging, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Video/YouTube.

Here are five things you’re missing out on if you’re not using social media.

Visibility

If you’re not using social media you’re limiting the visibility of your content. For example, if you are not posting your ezine on your blog and then posting a link to that blog on Twitter and LinkedIn you are missing out on the opportunity to reach more people and share your content with a bigger audience, more visibility.

And in case you’re wondering, it is OK to share the same information across platforms. Repetition is not a bad thing and it’s fine if someone sees it on more than one platform.

The more people who see your content, and your main call to action, the more you will build your list and make more money.

Leverage

If you’re not using social media you’re not able to leverage your content to the maximum. People like to consume information in different formats and as mentioned, repetition is powerful for learning.

You can take content you’ve created and convert it into many formats.

For example, you can take the content from an article you’ve written and create a video about it.

You could take that same article and extract interesting short quotes to Tweet. You can take that short quote and not only tweet it but share it on Facebook and LinkedIn as well.

You can do this easily from one place by using either HootSuite or TweetDeck. That way you save time and you don’t have to go to each individual platform.

You could also take the content from that same article and turn it into an audio recording. The options are limitless.

Saving Money

The cost of using social media doesn’t get much better than free. This is amazing. Yes it takes time and so does any marketing activity. But think about some of the “traditional” marketing activities. They cost time AND money.

When you go to an in person networking event there are multiple costs involved beyond the time of just attending. There’s also the time it takes for: preparation, follow up, and transportation. As well as costs related to membership fee and travel costs.

In addition to all of the platforms being free, many of them provide free valuable information and statistics. The insights you can get from each of the social media platforms are remarkable.

For example on Facebook, you can find out who is interacting with you by gender, age, location, and more.

Reach

Using social media extends your reach. You can connect with people you would otherwise never have the chance to connect with.

And you can build relationships with them over time. This can lead to more clients, more referrals, and new partnerships.

Community

You can build communities that are able to connect and interact with each other on social media.

You get to provide valuable information for your community as well as ask your community to share information and invite them talk with each other.

You can also ask your communities for feedback on your ideas, like naming products or choosing a new service. This is called crowdsourcing. Involving your community with your business also helps create more loyalty.

You will also learn things from the communities you create. Things about your industry and your clients so that you’ll be a better resource for your clients and be able to make products and services they really want.

OK, let’s talk about the 3 Biggest Objections to using social media that I hear.

1. Social Media takes too much time. The thing is that all marketing takes time, anything valuable worth doing will take time. I really believe you can’t afford not to do it. It’s about understanding how to use it effectively. If you’re thinking you tried it and it didn’t work then you weren’t doing it right.
2. Social Media is too complicated. Trust me; I am not a super technically savvy person. I know just enough to do what I need to get done. And if you get stuck, there are always people who can help you. It’s like many things, the more you do it the easier it gets. There is a ton of information available and it’s worth taking the time to learn how to do it and what kind of content to share.
3. Social media can’t be measured. Actually the opposite of this is true. It is very measurable, even more so than some traditional marketing strategies like advertising on the radio or in magazines. You can use a free monitoring tool like Google Analytics on your website to see exactly where leads are coming from and how many there are.

I hope you’re starting to see how using social media can help you attract more clients and grow your business. Make the decision to get started today, you won’t regret it. For even more detail on this topic, listen to the audio recording.

© Stephanie Ward

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