For any business, whether small or big, to thrive in today’s era, social media is a must. With digital transformation, social media is a place for discovery and it’s common for consumers to learn about brands or companies just as it is on radio and TV.

With over 3.7 billion active social media users worldwide, social media platforms provide an immense audience for your business to link with your customers, increase brand awareness, and create more leads.

James Kadimba, a business personnel in Kigali, notes that social media improves your online presence as people can easily research your brand, you can just post more often your products, and that’s how buyers can see before even making a purchase.

Trust is key to consumers, being active and including more detailed information and location on social media guarantees clients that your business is real and not a scam, he adds.

He also says that some customers want business owners who interact with them in the comment section.

Kadimba says that marketing through social media assists in reaching more people. All you have to do is to know the specific platforms that your target audience uses. It’s advisable to keep your posts informative and engaging, when posting to your social media channels, use tools like hashtags for your target audience to trace you easily. 

He explains that social media is powerful when it comes to growing your brand, this is because social media marketing will make it easy to spread the word about your products and mission.

Kadimba also says that social media marketing has a unique intuition into your market through conducting surveys and polls. You can straight away ask customers to evaluate your products and to like, share, or comment, and through that, you can identify the customers’ feelings about your brand or product.

He further notes that with social media, you can market your products strategically. Although creating a business profile on social media is free, paying for advertising on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram helps your business reach a broader audience.

According to Brian Mugisha, a sales and marketing expert, social media also helps increase your website traffic. When you share your content on social media, you are giving users a motive to click-through to your website.

He says that social media can assist in boosting brand loyalty. For instance, if you want to get the most out of your social media marketing efforts, it’s crucial that you focus on increasing brand loyalty. Having a loyal following requires better conversations and engagements.

According to Digital Marketing, having an online presence as a business on any of the social media forums like Facebook or Instagram is a great way to interact with your audience and to really connect with them on a personal level. Which gives you the chance to tell your story to all your followers, and inspire them through your success or past failures. Social media is a place where interacting with your audience gives you more exposure and helps you better understand your audience.

"With all business profiles on all social media networks accessible to the public, this could be your chance as an entrepreneur to know your competitor better and understand the strategies that they are implementing to attract their audiences. You would be able to see the content that they are posting on their social media profiles and judge which posts are doing better. After carrying out this analysis of your competitor’s profile and looking into all the queries asked by their audience, you will be able to incorporate those questions into your digital marketing strategy.”