What Are The Benefits Of Social Media For African Businesses?

Social media has become an integral part of our lives and its influence on our lives cannot be underestimated in any way possible. For some individuals, the influence of social media is such that it has become an addiction for them and everything they do in their lives, they post it on social media.  In […]

Social media has become an integral part of our lives and its influence on our lives cannot be underestimated in any way possible. For some individuals, the influence of social media is such that it has become an addiction for them and everything they do in their lives, they post it on social media. 

In Africa, people only think of social media as a platform for socializing and interacting with your friends and family but it is much more powerful and useful than that. Most people seem to undermine the benefits of social media, especially for businesses. The benefits of social media are overwhelming and it can help your business from zero to hero in just a couple of months, given that you take full advantage of social media. We will be discussing today some of the overwhelming benefits of social media for African businesses:

Increased Traffic

Any online business, whether it sells some products or offers any services, cannot survive without traffic. The more traffic a website has, the more sales it will make. For businesses that operate online, social media is a tool that can help drive traffic to their website.

If you have built a profile for your business on various social media platforms, you can promote your website through them. You just have to post unique articles and redirect your followers to your website to convince them to buy your product or service. While doing so, ensure that you are not click-baiting or tricking users into opening your websites and they are opening your website on their own.

Gain Trust Of Followers

Through social media, businesses can gain the trust of their followers and try to convert them into customers. Many people in the African region consider online businesses as scams or hoaxes that are meant to rob off their money but if you post unique content, engage with your followers, and make them trust your brand then you can convert your followers into customers. You can ask open-ended questions, hold polls and surveys, as well as, give them the freedom to openly criticize your product/service. This will make the customers feel like the business is legit and they will begin to use your product and services.

Various Ways To Promote Your Brand

On social media, you will find different ways to promote your brand and reach out to the audience. There are various media formats that are being used on social media. The use of images, video, and gifs has increased in recent years and these formats can help to create visually appealing content that can be used to attract consumers. 

Texts are becoming boring and no one wants to read through whole paragraphs. Businesses can leverage various media formats on social media to promote their brands. Social media platforms like Omegle that allow you to talk to people from around the world can also be used to promote your brand to people from around the world.

Cost-Effective Marketing

Even if you don’t have an online business, you can still use social media to promote your physical business. If we talk about social media as a channel of marketing, it is one of the most cost-effective ways to promote your brand. Social media is dirt cheap compared to traditional channels of marketing such as TV or Billboards and it can provide even better results than traditional marketing channels. At a fraction of the cost, you can promote your brand on social media platforms and see a boost in lead generation and sales conversion.

Identify Target Audience

Social media provides businesses with different tools through which they can identify their target audience, monitor their marketing campaigns, and see the lead generation information. Identifying the target audience is nearly half of the job done and social media platforms offer an easy way for businesses to find out their target based on demographics.

Open Communication With Customers

People think that social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter offer communication between users and platforms like Chatroulette offer communication between random people but in reality, social media allows open communication for everyone including businesses. One of the major advantages of social media to businesses is that they can effectively communicate with their followers and customers to resolve their issues or get feedback. Social media has removed all the barriers of communication that stood between a customer and a company & allowed two-way communication, providing an effective way for businesses to make their customers happy.

Quicker Than Other Channels

Social media is faster than other channels and if a business wants to provide any update to its customers or make an announcement, it can do so through social media in a much quicker way. If a business wants to announce its new product, it can do it through social media platforms because there are millions of people active all the time on social platforms and it is much faster to reach out to the desired audience than through traditional marketing channels. Businesses all over the world have ditched traditional marketing channels and started to use social media for all the announcements and updates.