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5 Reasons a Social Media Presence is Important for a Small Business

By: Toffer Grant

 

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Why should SMBs have a social media presence?

 
1. Company humanity
 
As humans, it is engrained in our DNA to make personal and emotional connections. Social media offers companies an opportunity to humanize the brand by providing customers with a forum for personal interaction with the people behind the brand. Social media gives companies a voice, and a strong social media presence acts as a living, breathing extension of your brand.
 
2. Customer Service and Feedback
 
Using social media platforms allows for everyday communication with consumers and can be a great place to provide a higher level of customer service. Does Yelp ring a bell? Customer reviews on social media sites can sometimes make or break a company. Giving your customers the option to connect with you through social media gives them the ability to offer feedback, and gives you the ability to quickly respond to fix problems or answer questions.  Ultimately, social media platforms allow you to stay connected with your customers to increase brand loyalty.
 
 
It is 2013, everyone is online—everyday, sometimes all day. With the rise of Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, information is constantly being shared, pictures are being uploaded, people are researching and buying products and services. With all of this content, social media platforms are a potential gold mine for lead generation.  Posting educational and positive information increases your rankings in search engines and keeps customers who follow you on social media engaged. Sharing content through social media carries over into a more effective SEO, leading to higher visibility, more traffic, and ultimately more leads. Social media is also the perfect place to connect with potential partners and vendors. As your company’s social network grows, so do your opportunities.
 
4. Building trust and a following with your customer base
 
Sharing your experience and knowledge through online content can establish your business as an expert in your industry. Regularly sharing interesting and educational content will help you develop trust with your customers and naturally lead to a dedicated following. Trust breeds brand loyalty among customers, partners, and vendors. Posting useful information can be as simple as weekly tips or industry-relative quotes. Customers will come to expect that you will continue to provide great content that can help them run their business effectively and will recognize your brand as a key source of information. In turn they will willingly and regularly visit your pages for updates and even share your content with their social or business networks.
 
5. Cost effective
 
Think of your social media presence as a nearly rent-free storefront. When used in the right way, social media can be a huge asset and one of your strongest marketing and advertising tools.  Want to tell your customers about a new product, service or feature? Social media should be your go to.  Posting news on your company to social media platforms is an easy, fast, effective, and low-cost way to spread your message. When you implement and maintain your social media plan in a way that is aligned with your business goals, the real question is: can your company afford to not be using social media?
 
Published: February 28, 2014
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Toffer Grant

Realizing that banks and card issuers were not serving the development of prepaid debit card services for small and mid-sized companies, Toffer Grant founded PEX Card to help SMBs maximize the efficiency of their financial operations. His career in the prepaid card industry began in 2000 at Clarity Payment Solutions, a leading venture-backed platform company servicing the budding prepaid industry. Toffer focused on customized check to card payment conversions for large brand corporate clients and grew a high value reseller network for the company. Over six years, he initiated 65 prepaid card programs in consumer, corporate and emerging verticals of the prepaid card industry.  Toffer saw the company grow from a tech startup to life in a large public company after acquisition by TSYS in 2004. Follow Toffer on LinkedIn and PexCard on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

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