The year 2020 wasn’t less than a roller- coaster for every industry. There were so many organisations who shut themselves down because of instability and not favourable conditions of the market. And everyone was waiting for the magic to find the solution to deal with uncertainty in business and to expand globally.
In this world of digitalization, we prefer to do everything digitally. Also, it is not less than a boon if we get the chance to explore the international market. Then why not businesses? Ever thought about how to expand your business globally? Probably, the answer is yes but, how to do it? If you are one of them and want an answer for it, then read this article till the end.
Either you are a CEO of a startup or an owner of an enterprise whether running an E-commerce site or leading a company having multiple franchises, social media platforms are important for the expansion of your business.
- According to January 2020 social media statistics, there are 3.8 billion users around the globe. Considering the population of approximately 7 billion, currently, more than half the population of the world is using social media in one form or another.
- According to a survey in 2019, marketers spent more than $89 billion on social media advertising and marketing, expected to increase more by the end of 2021.
- Social media marketing is the new wave for the future growth of businesses.
- 39% of customers only trust brands when they have an interaction with them on social media.
- According to Facebook statistics, it has over 2 million monthly active users and more than 140 million businesses.
Social media has built a way to communicate a brand’s messaging to the right people at the right time. Before proceeding further, it is very crucial to understand why you need to be on social media platforms and how it is going to affect your business.
Benefits of Social Media For Business
- Increased Brand Awareness
The basic and the crucial benefit of using social media is that it helps to create a brand’s awareness among people. According to the study, it was found that more than half of the people get to know about a brand while scrolling their social media accounts. Every brand which is categorised under successful brands is one, who once opted social media marketing as one of the integral parts of the marketing mix.
- Better Customer Satisfaction
One of the most important advantages of social media for business is that it helps in the day-to-day touch with their customers. They connect with their customer base via sharing useful information, posting stories which help in solving their grievances, clarify them regarding products and many more. Connecting with customers leaves an impact of care about the customer base.
- Improved Brand Loyalty
One of the main objectives of the businesses is to generate a loyal customer base. Customer satisfaction and brand loyalty go simultaneously. Social media helps brands in engaging with their customers which helps in better customer satisfaction resulting in a loyal consumer base.
- Higher Conversion Rates
Social media helps in greater brand visibility. Higher visibility means higher the credibility and higher the credibility means higher the conversion rates. On social media platforms, people share the reviews of different products they love which automatically spread awareness of that brand and results in increased conversion rates.
- Cost-Effective
Social media marketing is the most cost-efficient medium of digital marketing. Even the low budget startups could afford it easily. Signing up and creating a profile is free on almost every social media platform. Even if you are willing to go for a paid one, it is the most cost-effective than any other marketing tactic.
- Gain Marketplace Insight
One of the most valuable advantages of using social media is that it provides marketplace insights. By allowing connecting with audiences, brands can easily gain knowledge about their preferences, likes, dislikes, grievances etc much better than other mediums of marketing.
As your business grows, so social media activities too. There are a few questions you need to ask yourself before you plan your social media strategy
- What are the most suitable channels where more customers are available?
- What are the required ways to target my audience on these channels?
- What are my goals and the ROI of the social media strategy?
What if when looking to expand your business internationally on social media, what should you do first? So the answer is, analyze platforms popular in that area.
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The major mistake made by every business who is doing exceptionally well in the native country but fails in the international market is not analysing platforms used by people of that particular country. People of the other countries don’t need to be using the social media platform which is popular in your country. So, it is vital to know the right platform to target a wider audience properly.
No doubt, Facebook is the most popular social media site used by more than 2 billion active users across the globe. But there are other regional platforms too which you must target for success.
As your business expands, so could your social media activity. You could create localised social media accounts for different countries and target specific content and attractive offers towards them. Obviously, you don’t have much knowledge about it and to do this successfully you’ll feel the requirement of a professional translation agency who understands the local language and needs for helping you to create relevant content and to avoid translation issues.
Some Popular Social Media Sites of 2021
- Facebook- 2.60 Billion Monthly Active Users
- Youtube- 2 Billion Monthly Active Users
- Whatsapp- 1.6 Billion Monthly Active Users
- Messenger- 1.3 Billion Monthly Active Users
- Instagram- 1 Billion Monthly Active Users
- Tumblr- 437 Million Monthly Active Users
- Reddit- 430 Million Monthly Active Users
- Twitter- 330 Million Monthly Active Users
- LinkedIn- 303 Million Monthly Active Users
- Snapchat- 287 Million Monthly Active Users
- Viber- 260 Million Monthly Active Users
- Pinterest- 250 Million Monthly Active Users
- Discord- 250 Million Monthly Active Users
- Telegram- 200 Million Monthly Active Users
- Medium- 60 Million Monthly Active Users
Aside from the enormous players cited in this article, numerous other social networks around the world still retain fussing user bases. XING in Germany, for example, is a professional site similar to LinkedIn, where 90 percent of its page views come from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
Viadeo is an identical site for professionals in France. Founded in Paris back in May 2004, the social network still has more than 65 million uses worldwide. The Viadeo Group also owned ApnaCircle and Tianji – the latter of which has more than 17 million members and is China’s biggest professional network.
With over 20 million users, the largest social network in Latin America is Sonico and flatters itself on having genuine users, not spam accounts. The original serves Spanish speaking regions, but it’s Portuguese edition is the second vast social network in Brazil.
In Russia, Vkontakte is more prominent than Facebook and in China, with over 500 million users combined, Weibo and Renren are worth exploring, empowering you to escape the government’s restrictions.
Also, there’s Yonja, once the biggest social networking site in Turkey, Japan’s Mixi, Spain’s Tuenti, and Poland’s GoldenLine. Ultimately, a search for ‘social media network’ plus any country will probably produce a local site that could become your confidential trade weapon.
If you’re the one who is thinking of expanding globally and want to utilise social media platforms as a way to target a wider audience, there’s no one, not even the biggest hindrance could stop you reaching there. Develop your strategy, prepare your messaging and content and create relevant accounts to communicate and attract international customers. Choose a reliable social media agency to get a proper audience and avoid wastage of time.
