There are a lot of reasons why brands should use social media, but many brands seemingly try to invent reasons as to why they shouldn’t use it. In some cases, they believe their brands are too small or localized to make a difference on one social media platform or another. In other cases, they may consider themselves to be social media-illiterate or lacking in computer skills necessary to perform perceived functions. Some even make the excuse that they do not have enough time to maintain a social media presence. All of these excuses are poorly thought out ones and must be abandoned by any brand who wants to get ahead. We’ll discuss below why the use of social media is important for all brands, large and small.

Meeting Your Market

Even local brands have plenty of current and potential customers, subscribers and visitors on social media. Let’s be realistic: a nascent social media presence will be hard work at first with respect to growing a larger audience, but it will occur if you stick with it. This is an opportunity to meet your audience and markets, learn more about them, and engage with them in meaningful ways. In the beginning, you will have the ability to create “loyalists” to the brand more easily; with fewer people interacting with your social media presence, you’ll have more time to meaningfully engage with each of them. This will inevitably lead to them engaging with the brand – likes, shares, comments and on-site conversions – much more so over time.

Generating Attention

When you learn how to use social media, you’ll also pick up on which posts do well (and which ones do not). Generally speaking, long-winded paragraphs do not generate much interest, while shorter posts that contain videos and images do remarkably well. With this in mind, you can use social media as a clever promotional tool that will help spread your message far and wide. By linking the importance of your brand to the importance of an ongoing issue, current event or desirable trend via multimedia, you’ll be pinging users with content they genuinely enjoy (and will subsequently share, like and engage with).

Connecting with Professionals

Social media is not just a place in which to meet people who may be customers and visitors, but it is also a place in which to make acquaintances and impressions in your broader industry. Chances are that several of your competitors or counterparts are already on social media, making the justification for you to join that much more prominent. Particularly with sites such as LinkedIn, you’ll be able to provide information within your niche, join group conversations about what it is you do and recommend/ find people who are important to your goals. You’ll not only be pinging users with impressions about your brand, but you’ll also be pinging the entire industry in which you wish to have influence.

Conclusion

There are literally dozens of reasons as to why your brand should be involved on social media, but the most important and basic tenets should be enough to get you started. By connecting with professionals and influencing your overall industry’s dialogue, learning more about the individuals who make up your market and generating attention with new audiences, you should have all the motivation necessary to get started with social media today.