There are 3.78 billion social media users at the time of writing this, according to Statista . That’s an equivalent of 48 percent of the current world population.
Do you know what this means for your IT business?
It means you should be advertising on social media if you’re serious about putting your company in front of prospects, customers, and other stakeholders.
But wait, why would an IT business want to advertise on social media?
Numbers don’t lie.
Look at the following social media advertising statistics:
Of 63 percent of people who click on a social media advert, 33 percent make a direct purchase (Episerver).
46 percent of global consumers active on more than one social media site (DataReportal)
Up to 93 percent of all social media advertisers use Facebook ads regularly
61 percent of Americans believe that diversity in advertising is crucial
A whopping 50 percent of all social media traffic generated by B2B websites comes from LinkedIn
See? With such stats, you’ll want to advertise on social media, right?
Here’s a rundown of the benefits your IT business stands to gain by advertising on social media.
Increase Your Brand Awareness
Because of the sheer number of users on social media, it is easy to know why you should be using social media to share content related to your products and services along with your company’s info.
Besides, research consistently shows that social media can increase engagement and boost your brand’s awareness by extension.
Social engagement encompasses things such as re-posts, shares, likes, and comments.
On top of that, social media can help increase your brand’s awareness by directing traffic to your business website. All you need to do is include links to your company website in your bio, posts, and profile.
Generate Leads And Boost Conversions
One of the simplest ways to extend your reach and generate more leads is to promote and share your products and services on social media.
For instance, if you’re an MSP, you can boost conversions and increase sales on your Facebook page since you’re advertising to people who’ve engaged with your business by following you.
How can you generate leads on social media?
Here are a few suggestions:
Create contests for your followers and visitors and run them on your social media account.
Include links to your website and offers in the bio section of your company profile.
Launch and implement a social media marketing campaign on one of your social media channels.
Host live videos and announce your new service or product while giving your followers updates on what your company has been up to.
Sell your services and products through your social profile. For instance, you can activate your Instagram’s Shopping function or Facebook’s Shop section on your company’s social media profiles.
These functions enable your visitors and followers to click on products you’ve shared in your posts to view info such as price, features, and more.
Afterward, users can proceed to checkout via the platform and buy the product directly from your business.
Nurture Relationships With Your Customers
Because social media allows you to connect and engage with your followers, you can foster a lasting business relationship between them and your IT company.
The best way to bond with your followers is to interact with them on your posts by answering their questions and comments while providing any help that they may require.
On top of that, you can ask your followers to tell you what they think of your products or services and what you can do to make them better.
Learn From Your Competitors
Social media is an excellent way to spy on your competition, whether about the products they’re advertising, the level of interaction with their followers, or the campaigns they run.
In addition, social media enables you to see what is and isn’t working for your competitors. That way, you can decide which advertisement route to follow and what you should change about your advertising approach.
Moreover, keeping tabs on your competitor’s social media account can help you figure out how to make your marketing and brand stand out.
Get High-Quality Backlinks To Your Website
Advertising on social media can help boost your SEO efforts.
Even so, you have to position your company as an industry leader to gain your reader’s and follower’s trust. And, when you provide value with your content, other businesses will want to link to blogs on your website, earning you backlinks in the process.
Indeed, backlinks are among the many ranking factors, and the more backlinks you get, the better. It is important to mention that you must share high-quality content to attract high-quality backlinks that can boost your SEO campaign.
That said, how can you make your social media advertising campaign suitable and, most importantly, worth the effort? That topic makes the second part of this post.
How To Create A Social Media Advertising Strategy
It would help if you had a solid strategy to make the most of your social media advertising campaign.
Here’s a rundown of what you ought to do.
Research Your Buyer Personas And Audience
It makes perfect sense to determine who you’re advertising to, even before you create a budget.
Ideally, you’ll want to define your buyer personas and audience. To do this, think about the market you’re trying to reach.
For instance, if your IT company sells e-invoicing software, your prospects would be small businesses.
By determining your audience and buyer personas from the get-go, you can know what ads attract the type of followers you’re hoping can buy your product or service.
Determine Which Platform You’ll Advertise On
You know who your target audience is. You have created buyer personas. The next step is to decide which platform you’ll market on.
Ideally, you’ll want to advertise on a platform where your prospects hang out.
Andrew Delaney, a Social Media Marketing Manager at HubSpot, says, “It is important to be where your audience of potential customers is today, and where they might be tomorrow. It is better to be ahead of the curve than behind.”
For instance, if you sell a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution, you’ll want to join social media platforms where small businesses and startups are likely to be found.
Create Unique, Valuable, And Engaging Content
The truth is…
With billions of people on various social media platforms, there’s every probability that some of your followers – or users browsing your profile – have come across your competitor’s content or other IT businesses in your niche.
Therefore, you need to make sure that your content is unique and super engaging to help your brand stand out. Check out for this article from a firm in the US. It’s unique, engaging and educational to the audience. It clearly describes how people can reduce their overall debt by following healthy spending habits like paying bills on time and keeping low balances and debts relative to income levels.
You see, engaging content entices your target audience to click the “Follow” button and, most importantly, engage with your brand.
To get your juices flowing, be sure to check what your competitors are sharing, then come up with a better strategy to promote your products or services.
In addition, be sure to leverage the features offered by the platform you’re using. For instance, you use Facebook Live to cover a product launch.
Also, create user-generated content. You can do this by reposting your current customer’s content or encouraging them to use a hashtag to share their experiences with your products in pictures and videos.
Speaking of content, GrowthGenerators can help you create engaging social media content to help you grow your brand’s following and extend your reach.
All you need to do is get in touch with us, and one of our social media marketing specialists will discuss the best way to go about it.
Schedule Your Posts
You need to post regularly on social media to create brand awareness. The easiest way to do this is to use social media management tools.
The best tool will enable you to schedule your posts in advance and monitor interactions and engagement.
There are several tools options available in the market, including:
HubSpot
As part of your marketing software, HubSpot will enable you to publish and monitor your content while establishing a connection with your followers.
In addition, you can compare in-depth reports on your article’s engagements to determine the performance of your content and the best time to post.
Sprout Social
Sprout Social will enable you to organize, plan and manage your social media content creation campaigns while allowing you to analyze engagement and review content reports.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite helps find, schedule, manage and report your content.
The best part is that you can simultaneously schedule your content in advance on all of your social media channels. It also allows you to measure your return on investment with an in-depth content engagement analysis.
Analyze Your Impact And Results
Like any advertising campaign, you’ll want to analyze your impact and results when advertising your IT business on social media.
That way, you can know if your strategy is working or whether it’s time to change tack.
Here’s a rundown of the most crucial metrics to track:
Engagement- This encompasses comments, clicks, likes, and replies that your social media ads attract.
Reach -These are the number of people who’ve seen and interacted with your ads.
Followers -These are the number of users that are following your brand on social media.
Impressions -These of times your ad ads on your channel are seen, whether or not a person clicks on it.
Profile visits -These are the people who’ve opened your social media page.
Would You Like Help With Your Social Media Marketing Efforts?
Advertising your IT business and actually getting the desired results is easier said than done.
You’ll need to plan carefully and, most importantly, determine the sequence of events in your campaign.
If you’re having problems creating a marketing campaign or are getting results with your current strategies, GrowthGenerators can help.
We’ve run successful social media advertising and marketing campaigns for top-tier IT campaigns.
Contact us today, and we’ll schedule a free consultation session to help you get started.