Social media is now a permanent landscape in our increasingly virtual life (hello WFH 👋) and a crucial part for a brand’s success.
With established social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, 7 billion and 1 billion users globally respectively) and newer, popular platforms seemingly mushrooming overnight (TikTok anyone?), you might still be unsure how you can make the best use of social media for your brand and your business.
Here are some of its main benefits and how social media can fit into your marketing strategy.
📈 Increase brand awareness
In Malaysia alone, there are 23 million Facebook users, and the number is expected to reach 27 million in 2025* (as a comparison, Malaysian population currently is around 32 million*). That means about 70% of Malaysia's population is on Facebook alone, and if you add the other social media platforms like Youtube, Instagram, LinkedIn and others, the number of social media users is even higher.
There’s probably no other platform that allows you to reach so many potential customers, not only within Malaysia alone but potentially bringing your brand and business regional and global!
Imagine you have a billboard on a highway, only that the traffic on a highway is limited to the vehicles on the road - with social media, you have the potential to reach 70% (and growing!) of Malaysia's population! 🇲🇾
🧠 Stay top of mind
Brand association is one of the ultimate goals you want to have with your audience. Think of this like sports shoes and how people associate Nike with it. Or Ikea with furniture or Baskin Robbins with ice cream. These are the brands that come to mind when people mention a certain product (of course it might vary depending on local tastes, you might associate shoes with Bata for example, but hope you get the idea 😄)
Social media users in Malaysia are quite active, they spend an average of 5 hours a day across social media platforms* and the numbers are probably going to go even higher as we spend more and more time working from home and staying at home because of the pandemic (stay safe, wash your hands and take care of your hygiene!)
Consumers and your customers are always being exposed to new brands and new products everyday. If you are not promoting to your audiences and capturing new customers, another brand will.
🛣️ Increase traffic (online and offline!)
Social media is a great way to distribute traffic across your other online and offline channels, like your ecommerce website and your physical outlets as well of course!
If you have a website and are struggling to get traffic, you can leverage on social media to drive traffic. You can send customers directly to your website from your social media postings or if you have a physical outlet, you can do ads that target a certain location so you can increase your outlet’s exposure to local residents. You can promote your outlets online so customers can come visit. You can push traffic from your social media to visit your ecommerce website so they can make a purchase or obtain more information.
The potential is huge (just need to be creative how you can leverage on social media to gain traffic!)
⚡ Boost sales
There are many ways you can leverage social media to increase sales for your brand or business. For example, if you are running a promotion, you can amplify it on your social media page or increase the promotion exposure a lot more by boosting and doing ads. Doing ads is also a good way to gain more customers and showing your brand to people who may not have heard of your brand or consider your brand before.
Once you have gained traction and gained more followers for your social media page, there are also many ways you can leverage on your following to help increase sales, launch new products and other marketing campaigns.
See what the power of an engaged social media following did for Khairul Aming 👇
But do keep in mind, social media is a platform for your brand to build brand awareness, if your brand is too ‘pushy’ or ‘salesy’ on social media, you might risk turning off your customers.
🤝 Connect to new customers
With so many users on social media, and so many social media platforms, the potential to reach new customers is practically limitless. Different social media attract different crowds though so you have to take note of this when choosing your social media platform. 🧔👨🦱👦👩👱♀️
For example, if your brand is a skincare product, having a presence on Instagram would make more sense rather than LinkedIn which is more for business to business (b2b). You also have to consider your resources as doing social media can be quite intensive. Alternatively, you can consider outsourcing the work to a social media agency.
Tell your brand story
Customers have so many choices today, you need your brand to stand up, reach out and relate to them and their values and their problems, their aspirations and their lifestyle. This is how you can stand out from other brands - through your brand story.
With so many creative formats to choose from (videos, animation, square designs, slideshow posts, 24 hour vanishing stories), there’s always a story you can tell about your brand to build a better relationship with your customers.
By telling a brand story, you can build a closer connection to your audience and differentiate your brand from others. An example of this would be the Raya adverts and CNY adverts that you see popup during the festivities to connect how those brands are a part of their daily life like this video from Adabi (you can view the video below) which generated 1 million views.
As an upcoming brand or business, you may have some budget restrictions, but this does not necessarily mean you cannot leverage social media. Having consistent presence on social media is key and you build it up from there!
These are only some of the benefits and there are many more, especially once you start to gain more followers and increase your exposure on social media. Remember, it’s a marathon, not a sprint - consistency is important, having a plan and monitoring your progress is key.
No better time than now to start becoming better at your social media marketing. If you need help with creating content on social media and growing your brand’s presence, get in touch with us!
*Population stats from https://www.statista.com/statistics/490484/number-of-malaysia-facebook-users/
*Data from Department of Statistics Malaysia https://www.dosm.gov.my/v1/index.php?r=column/cthemeByCat&cat=155&bul_id=OVByWjg5YkQ3MWFZRTN5bDJiaEVhZz09&menu_id=L0pheU43NWJwRWVSZklWdzQ4TlhUUT09#:~:text=Malaysia's%20population%20in%202020%20is,to%203.0%20million%20(2020).
*Social media usage - https://my.yougov.com/en-my/news/2019/04/30/malaysians-spend-almost-quarter-their-day-social-m/
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