In this day and age, 79% of the U.S. is on social media—and even if you (somehow) aren’t, some knowledge about different platforms is almost unavoidable. Social media is no longer just a way for friends to connect or to see pretty pictures of strangers’ lunches; it’s also an amazing way for businesses to connect with consumers on a personal level and build relationships that go deeper than people just seeing products in stores or on TV commercials.
In fact, 91% of people believe in social media’s power to connect communities. Social media is one of the simplest, most cost-effective ways to engage with and speak DIRECTLY to your audience. So as a brand, why would you not want in? And to take that a step further…if you already have a social media audience built, why would you turn away from such a powerful form of communication?
We understand that marketers—especially fresh produce marketers—are often on a tight budget, and that a lot of times, marketing activities and spend are questioned (and can be the first thing that gets cut when changes in business occur). Now, there are plenty of reasons that eliminating marketing activities overall is risky (and most likely not in the company’s best interest). To focus on social media specifically, given that the average customer spends 2 hours and 22 minutes a day on these platforms, know that your audience will notice your absence, and that direct line of communication to your customers will be gone—sound alarming? We think so, too.
3 Reasons Abandoning Your Brand’s Social Media is the Wrong Move
Losing the (long) hours of work you already put in.
This may be the most obvious, but there is a reason it’s the first point that comes to mind. Think of all the work you’ve done to build your audience and gain their trust, all the time you’ve poured into creating content, and all the money you’ve spent in the process (creating visuals, running campaigns, promoting posts, etc.). If you suddenly decide to cut your budget and no longer invest in social media, what was it all for? Knowing that 63% of consumers are more likely to trust and purchase from a brand that has a presence on social media, know that “ghosting” your online audience essentially means wasted time and resources spent building and nurturing this community.
Your audience will feel it.
The community you have built is made up of people who followed or liked your page—and they did so for a reason. They have looked to you for enjoyable, informative, and interactive content, and many appreciated having an easy way to communicate when they had a question or issue they wanted to bring to your attention. Once you take away that line of communication and no longer have someone monitoring and responding to questions (i.e. nurturing your consumer audience!), people will notice—and there is a good chance they will feel a loss of connection.
Lost line of communication.
Social media is on the front lines of customer service and overall communication with consumers, so when you take that away, it not only breaks down the relationship with your audience, it makes it plain harder to communicate when you need to! When people are upset or disappointed with your product or service (or are wondering whether your product is safe when there’s a recall on the news), one of the first places people will go is to your social accounts—in fact, 47% of all complaints will be through social media, which is one reason social media can be your best customer service tool. Word to the wise: if there is no one managing comments online, a small and solvable complaint could turn into a much larger PR issue. Why not avoid all that in the first place by keeping lines of communication open, thus allowing you to adequately serve your most loyal brand advocates?
Overall, social media is an excellent tool for communication with your customers, and serves as a way to connect with people on a more personal level. Yes, it can be an investment to maintain an active, engaging, and responsive social media account, but it is an investment that pays dividends—many times over.
Have something to add? Leave us a comment below or reach out to us on Twitter @TheCoreBlog!
{{cta(‘32699105-97e4-4e13-a0af-fc31e29ca446’)}}
