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By Jack Gelder
Special to Niagara Frontier Publications
Social media, recently, has been taking over due to the amount of businesses and customers who take advantage of the ability to communicate on the platforms. This has started to become a part of everyday life for people and the businesses they create as we move into 2021. This can be seen from some of the most successful people on Earth all the way to smaller businesses.
According to a study by the founder of backlinko, a very popular online marketing blog, Brian Dean, 3.96 billion people currently use social media worldwide. The population in the whole world is up to 7.8 billion people as of 2021, so by calculation, 50.77% of people are using a social media site currently. This just goes to show that of every two people you see in the world, at least one of them will own a social media account of some sort. This is important because it shows how many potential customers are using social media, so it would be a good tool for businesses to branch out more into newer territories to reach a wider audience.
Barden Building Products Inc.
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Social media has found its way from personal connecting to business interactions in 2021. It is now rare to find a company without some sort of social media presence in this day and age. Jamie Kline, the director of sales at Barden Building Products, says, “A social media strategy is a pretty basic component of a marketing plan today.” Now that the world is switching to a more technologically advanced era, it is important for businesses to stay in touch with that. Kline also added, “Pushing out messages that drive customers to our website via social media naturally complements our digital initiatives. It gives us the opportunity to reach people remotely, particularly a demographic that may be difficult to reach via more traditional channels like print or radio.”
This added presence of social media is not necessarily a necessity to each and every business. Although, according to Prity Shah, author for the Henry Harvin organization, about 73% of marketers have found a social media presence is beneficial in their business strategy. This proves that even though it does take time and effort to keep a social media account running smoothly, it can be beneficial towards growing your business and reaching out to more clients.
Responding to if growing a social media account is important to the success of the business, Kline said, “I would, but I also have to believe that its importance depends on the nature of the industry, the demographic you are looking to target, and the action you want the customer to take.” It is important for your social media to make sense to the audience you are planning on reaching out to. Depending on what your business entails, this is a factor that shouldn’t be taken lightly.
Gelder Media
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Ryan Gelder of Gelder Media is using social media to further his company. What made him want to integrate his social media into his business is, “A lot of work is found through social media today and it is important for potential clients to see previous work you have done. It really just helps grow an audience.” The idea of social media is important when it comes to reaching new customers for your business and making a name for yourself.
Ryan had also said, “In today’s world, having social media for your business can only help it, not hurt it.” This just goes to show that by making a social media account and running it efficiently, your company can only improve from it.
He may have a point. Consumers, in 2021, are widely influenced by brands over social media. According to the Influencer Marketing Hub, “76% of American consumers purchased a product after seeing a brand’s social post.” This is a large percentage of people who are being reached out to just because of a promotion on social media.
Ryan goes on to say that most of his social media insight is from the platform, Facebook. He says, “I tend to find most of my work through Facebook posts and Facebook groups, so it is important to have an online presence.” This is not a very rare instance, though, seeing as Facebook has the largest social media network worldwide sitting at 2.74 billion monthly active users as of January 2021. This being about 450 million more than the next platform, which is YouTube.
Adding on to that, Dominic Carlino of Green Knight Landscaping Inc., has started building a social media account for his business in hopes to reach new clients. When asked why he chose to start a social media account for his business, he said, “Social media expands the opportunity for new growth and more clientele. I decided to create a social media page because it lets me post pictures and daily posts to keep our customers up to date on things we’re doing and potential clients looking at my page to see what we offer and what our daily job consists of.” Dominic has already made a couple of customers off of Facebook even though he just started up his page this year. Dominic says, “It has helped me reach new clients throughout Buffalo using this feature Facebook offers.”
Image courtesy of Facebook
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Using social media to interact with customers is one way that has helped companies grow and succeed in 2021. According to the author at Oberlo, Maryam Mohsin, “By interacting with customers through social media platforms you show them that you care. This step could go a long way in terms of building positive relationships with customers.” This is a step that big companies as well as small companies use to gain more interactions from clientele.
The recent rise of social media in the world has become huge in 2021. From getting your name out there to getting new customers, these are the benefits that come from creating a social media for your business. This is a strong advantage that should be getting used more and more in 2021 and the future years to come.
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