Introduction

A few weeks back, we held a webinar themed, "The Hidden Secrets Every Business Owner Should Know About The The Social Media". The guest speaker, Collins Okere (Digital Marketing Specialist), introduced us to what social media entails. In his words, "Social media is a place where people connect. However, you could go beyond yourself and start using social media intentionally; start talking about your business, products, the services you provide and how best you can meet the needs of people online. The people online are real, and they have real needs that they need to be met.

If you can tell your story rightly and use social media to pass your message across to your prospective customers rightly, they will be willing to pay you money to meet those needs.

Social media is an avenue where everybody can express themselves; be it from business or individual perspective, either who they are or what they have to offer".

1. The danger involved if a business fail to utilise the social media space.

The world is changing. The way business was done a decade ago is quite different from how business is done today. You have people who run business today and have no physical storefront. Still, they are making thousands and millions of naira just because they know how to utilise social media to reach a particular audience and drive sales for themselves. If you are running a business today and it is not on social media, there is this perception people have about you that you do not exist. Nowadays, once people come across your business name, the first they do is search for you online, and if they can not find any information about you, it is as good as you are not existing. It senses a wrong signal and makes people feel you are probably not living. They want to be sure you are a business entity they can hold onto. If you are not online, you are shooting yourself in the foot.

Social media takes you beyond your physical location. With social media, you can take what you are selling beyond that physical location you are in. It is only the people who pass by your storefront that can know that you exist. People can know you from any part of the world with social media. For instance, someone in Australia can be searching for a business in Nigeria today and come across your page simply because you are on social media, so it has cut the barrier of location and space. If you are not using social media for that, you will be shortchanging and limiting yourself only to the people who pass by your store or live around where you are.

Suppose you are not using social media to push your business, and you want to scale up. In that case, you will most likely be spending more on traditional marketing, which involves printing flyers, billboards and banners at physical places where people can locate your business. You will discover that by the time you do a cost analysis of how much is involved to get those materials done and put them in the hands of your prospective audience, you will discover that you are spending way much of what you could have done on social media.

Practically, social media is accessible to everybody. You can create an account for free across all the social media platforms; all you need to do is come out with good content about your products and services. If you streamline your business to your physical location, you will be spending much more on traditional marketing than using social media today.

Social media is now the game-changer. It has come to stay, and nobody can fight that. But, if it is not something you are good at, you have to learn how to use it to grow your business.

In addition, social media reduces the level of doubt. Likewise, people get to know you without asking questions.

2. If you want to run a business, what should be your priority?

The priority for anyone who wants to run a business today is not getting a physical store; what is essential is to get customers. So as a business owner that wants to start, the first thing that should come to your mind is, "how do I get customers?" Where are they? How do I put my products to them? Such that you can get customers without necessarily having a physical location.

You will get there definitely, but you need first to get customers who are willing to buy your products.

Have a customer base. Once people see your product online, they likely get attracted to it and reach out to you via DMs, calls, etc.

3. How can a business owner know the right channel to drive sales?

When thinking of what platform to start with, you need to think of where your customers are before starting talking about the platform to utilise. It would help if you crafted a "Customer Avatar" or "Buyer- Persona". It enables you to know who your customers are, what interests them, what platform your audience is, their age bracket, their occupation, and what topics and conversations they are involved in. This would naturally inform you of what you should focus on. For example, if you have a product that is graphics inclined, you need to target Instagram. It allows you to put out a picture or video that shows clearly what your product is all about such that people can see, have a feel and reach out to you.

What kind of content do you want to put out? The type of content you want to put out would tell the type of platform to go with. If you have video content, you should consider YouTube. If you have picture content, you need a platform like Instagram. However, if you're going to be starting on social media, you should have a Facebook page. Facebook houses many people today, which is one of the biggest platforms to leverage to get people who would be willing to buy your product. Many people who use social media are found on Facebook, and if you can tap into that resource, it will be of help to you.

Suppose you sell intellectual property, which is also known as information marketing. In that case, you should consider a platform like Twitter, where you start conversations and trends that can blow you up and get many people involved.

It is your audience that determines what platform you use. Although you do not necessarily need to be on all platforms simultaneously, focus on one or two platforms that can help you grow your business.

4. How can business owners find paying customers.

First, you need to be sure you have done the necessary things that need to be done as a business owner such that you position yourself rightly to be seen and discovered on social media. For instance, you are into fashion items, and there is no information on your bio that gives us an idea about your products; you are hindering yourself from being found online. Your biography has to tell a good story about what you are doing. Allow people have visual information about what you are doing. Do not let people slide into your DM and ask what you are doing. They do not bother to ask; they just move on and search for other vendors. Instead of losing such people, make sure your bio gives information about what your business is into.

Put out good information/ story about what you do. To get leads and customers, make sure you tell captivating stories about what you are doing as a business owner, including the importance of selling your product and what value/ benefit it will bring into people's lives. Go beyond selling your product; sell the benefits of what people will get from using your product.

A lot of businesses do not have an offer, like discounts, bonuses, etc. Your prospective customers should have an added benefit for buying your product. Come out with something compelling that will gravitate people to you. Go to the point where you are selling value.

How well are you engaging with your customers? What do you do with them when they ask questions? Make sure you are answering their questions the best way possible such that they get so much value and they feel loved. You can go all out by sending a voice note, take it personally, make them feel your vibe.

5. How can a business owner personalise the brand on social media.

It would help if you were clear on why you exist, what you are out there for. It will go a long way in helping you to pass across your message rightly to your audience. Putting your brand out there, you also need to know your unique selling point, what stands you out from others, what will people get from your brand that they won't be getting from other brands. When you put all of these in place, you will discover that your message is quite different from what someone else is offering.

6. What do I need to run a successful campaign and engagement?

Have a clear objective and goal for what you run in a campaign. For instance, if you are using Facebook to run a digital campaign, you have 3(three) stages;

Awareness stage
Consideration stage
Conversion stage

Your audience will determine what you want to do. So, for example, do you want to be aware of your existence or are you trying to send them to your website? Are you trying to engage them with your platform to get leads? Or you want to sell your products online such that when you are clear with your objectives, it helps the platform know the kind of people your target audience is.

Have a budget for your campaign. You are not the only person bidding for it; thousands of people are also bidding for the same audience you want to sell your products to. If you put out a low budget below the benchmark for that particular campaign, they will try as much as possible to optimise for the who bids the highest. So make sure you have the proper budget for a specific campaign. If you put all of these in place, you will get the correct result of your campaign and make sure to test your copy and creativity while the drive is on.

Social media is changing every passing day. It would help if you were on your toes with what is happening on social media every time. Outsource your business to a Marketing Agency if needed. It will take the stress off you because social media can be hectic.

If you need one, Optimal Infographics can do that and give you the best result.