Social media is one of the simplest ways to get a business seen and heard. Used well, it drives traffic to your website, gets you talking to the people who buy from you, and builds a following that comes back. Either you are looking for more visitors to your web pages, or you are trying to build a new client base from scratch. Either way, this article covers why social media matters and how to use it to grow your business.
Reach your desired audience
With over a billion social media users between the main platforms, you are bound to find people who are interested in your products or services. Setting up a page such as Facebook or Instagram allows you to be seen and heard, and from there you can share content worth reading and build a proper relationship with your customer base. We would recommend using hashtags relating to your product or service to help increase your reach. Content that people want to share can travel a long way and bring in new customers, so the important thing is to keep at it consistently.
Build a loyal following
If you post consistently a following will come along naturally, but it is how you look after that following that really matters. Engaging and interacting with people is the quickest way to build loyalty. Replying to comments, answering direct messages and posting things that invite a response all build a close rapport with your followers. Those followers are far more likely to visit your website, read what you put there and recommend you to someone else.
A direct source of traffic
Social platforms are a good direct source of traffic, which simply means people clicking straight through to your site rather than finding it through a search engine. That puts the pressure back on the site itself. If someone arrives from a post about one of your services, the page they land on needs to be clear, quick to load and easy to find your way around on a phone. A steady stream of social visitors is wasted on a website that makes people work to find what they came for.
Posts that get shared widely can also lead to genuine links from other websites, blogs and local listings, and those links do help how you perform in search. It is worth saying plainly, though, that the links on your own social profiles carry little weight with Google by themselves. The real value is in the visitors, and in the occasional mention somewhere else that follows from them.
Which platforms are actually worth your time
You do not need to be on all of them. Spreading yourself across five accounts you cannot keep up with looks worse than having one you post on properly, because a page whose last update was two years ago makes a business look closed. Think about where your customers already spend their time. A restaurant or a salon usually does well on Instagram, where the photographs do the selling. A tradesperson often gets more from a well kept Facebook page. If you sell to other businesses, LinkedIn is frequently the only one worth the effort.
For some businesses, social media barely moves the needle, and it is only fair to say so. If you are an emergency plumber or a solicitor, people tend to search at the moment they need you rather than browse for you in advance. In that case your time and money usually go further on your local search presence and on a site that turns visitors into enquiries, with a modest social presence kept ticking over simply so that you look active and real.
FAQ
Which social media platform should my small business use?
Start with the one your customers already use rather than the one with the most users. Instagram suits anything visual, such as food, hair, interiors or trades with good before and after photos. Facebook still works well for local services and community reach. LinkedIn is the sensible choice if you sell to other businesses.
How often should I post?
Little and often beats a flurry followed by silence. For most small businesses, one or two posts a week that you can genuinely sustain is plenty. Consistency matters more than volume, because a page that goes quiet for months does more harm than a page that only ever posts occasionally but reliably.
Does social media improve my Google rankings?
Not directly. The links on your own profiles carry very little weight on their own. What does help is the knock-on effect: visitors who arrive from social media, people searching for your name afterwards, and the occasional link or mention from another website that follows a popular post. Treat it as a traffic source rather than a ranking tactic.
Do I still need a website if my Facebook page is busy?
Yes. A social page is rented space, and the platform decides who sees it and what the page looks like. Your website is the one place you control, where you can explain your services properly, be found in search and take enquiries or orders. Social media works best when it points people back to it.
Should I pay for social media advertising?
It can work well, but only once the basics are in place. There is little point paying to send people to a page that loads slowly or does not explain what you do. Get the website and the profile right first, then start with a small budget on one platform and see what it actually brings in before committing more.
In short, if you are not using social media at all, you are making it harder for people to find you and harder for them to trust you when they do. Set up the one or two pages that suit your business, post regularly and keep pointing people back to your site. If you would like help making sure your website is ready for the visitors social media sends you, get in touch. We are based in Sale, South Manchester.
