Maximizing Social Media For Business Growth: A brief summary of our virtual session with Mr. Ogunde Bolu

It is no big news that the internet has widely gained adoption over the last few years, a sizeable number of people in the country now have access to a smart phone and the internet, even kids do these days and with every passing day, the number of people joining the throng increases.

So what does this mean for business owners? It means you have a very potent tool at your fingertips to reach your prospective customers, seeing as millions of people are on the internet, odds are on that no matter what your service/product is, there is someone on the internet who needs what you have to offer.

Thanks to the advent and immense popularity of social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp. With just a couple of swipes and keyboard clicks, you now have the platform to talk to thousands of people, gone are the days when you had to pay exorbitant fees at media houses to showcase your business/brand to the world. These days the only fee you need to be paying is for data subscription to your Internet Service Providers (ISP).

Given all of these clearly established facts, and coupled with the fact that no matter what service/product you are offering, there are probably tons of people out there doing the same thing as you, how then can you use social media to maximize your business growth? Well not to worry, we have broken down a couple of action steps for you;

·       Be clear on what you offer the customer: Have you ever visited the social media handle of a business and you find it hard to understand what exactly the business is about or what they are offering. As a business owner, you should always ensure that isn’t the case for your business, make sure that your social media handles are properly optimized to convey your value offering to all of the prospective customers that visit your social media handles, clearly spell out what your business is about.

·       Create content that stands out: A wise man once said, “You can’t stand out by blending in” and this truism also holds for businesses when it comes to social media, take care to ensure that you are not posting the same boring content that everyone else is posting, make your content feel different, your content should tell a story, a story that revolves not around your business but around the customer, your customer should always be the hero of the story with you just explaining how your product/service can help them feel better or be of use to them. Also, you can collaborate with relevant influencers in your field from time to time, people with an already established audience who can help share the story of your business/brand with their audience too.

·       Be consistent with your content: Don’t be that business owner that only posts content on your social media handle whenever you feel like, the process of generating customers for your brand is a continuous one and as such, you should stay consistent with feeding your audience content.

·       Constantly monitor your data: The popular social media platforms (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter) recognize their increasing importance platform in the business ecosystem, as such they provide analytics measure for business owners to monitor their audience and get insights into what’s working, what’s not and how they can better reach their audience on social media.

·       Ensure that the customer gets what you promised: Getting customers for your business is not the end of the journey, you need to ensure that the customers have a delightful experience as well. A popular maxim in business circles says “It is much harder to get new customers than it is to keep the ones you already have”, so customer experience should be a big priority of yours, ensure that the customer enjoys every interaction with your business and that the value you promised them via your content is what they end up getting.