Today, the stage social media has reached and the facilities it offers bring opportunities for SMEs that were considered “impossible” in the past. In the past, becoming a nationwide or global brand was a result that only large companies could achieve by spending huge amounts of money on advertising and promotion. Today, a qebaptore of the neighborhood until last year can be known enough to compete with the most well-known brands in the country. And it can do this in a very short time. Of course, there are other problems here; becoming a brand is normally a stage that takes a long time to reach and requires the ability to remain a brand for a long time too. Since everything is consumed at full speed in the digitalized world, it can be just as fast to become a brand by using social media well as it is to fall off the agenda and being a forgotten brand. However, since the topic of this article is “What MSMEs can do on social media”, we will leave this topic for another article.
SMEs can basically use social media for three main topics:
- Making their brand known and raising their brand perception
- Increasing sales
- Improving customer relationship
Each of these topics cannot be separated from the other as if “cut with a knife” and there are points of interconnectedness within them. As we discuss what MSMEs can do under each heading below, the common points that intersect between the headings will be better understood.
- Making their brand known and raising brand perception
The digital world does not only consist of individual influencers, but there are also many influencer businesses on social media today. In fact, most of the people we see as individual influencers are also brands as the “face” of their businesses in the digital world. This allows their businesses to become a phenomenon and increase their awareness. To continue with the example we gave above; while we watch the video of a qebaptore master who has become a phenomenon on social media, the brand awareness and the brand perception of that business increase, but the sales of the qebaptore increases, too. This is what we call transitivity between the main topics explained in this article. A business whose owner with too many followers on social media, increases its brand value at the first glance by increasing its awareness. However, it also increases its sales through the videos and photos placed on social media.
Under this topic, the primary goal is to get the most response in the digital world and naturally increase the visibility. While more followers are needed for this, it is also necessary to be on the agenda in the digital world with “viral” posts. For both, posts should be able to attract the attention of the target audience. The target audiences of businesses can sometimes be primary customers, i.e. their own customers, and sometimes end consumers. For this reason, it is necessary to identify the target customer audience correctly. Sharing photos and videos for the target audience is among the digital actions that immediately come to mind for MSMEs. We are not talking here about the photos of the boss’s son’s circumcision wedding or the sales team’s company dinner. (Although, when used correctly, these can also contribute to increasing the brand value.) In addition to photos or videos, actions such as sharing news about the company or sharing valuable social media posts for the target audience by directing them through their own accounts also contribute to increasing the brand awareness.
- Increasing Sales
Becoming visible in the digital world will have a sales-boosting effect for MSMEs, as it is. But apart from visibility, using the effect of social media posts that share the new product/service information of the business have a strong promotional aspect, too. The point to remember here is not to share a simple photo and the news that our new product is out, but to share this post with a design that will attract the attention of the target customer base. Campaigns through digital channels have become an effective sales method that MSMEs can also use to increase sales. While doing this, it is worth noting that profit margins for businesses that sell directly to the end consumer is also increased. Campaigns made by sending e-mails, sharing on the website or social media will reach a much higher number of audiences. In addition, it is easier to reach out the right target audience in the digital world than traditional promotion and campaign systems.
- Improving Customer Relations
In fact, the actions proposed in the first and second chapters are also steps towards improving customer relations for MSMEs. This is a good example of transitivity between the topics. Sharing feedback information from the customer is important to determine how happy the customer is to work with our business. In doing so, a channel to improve customer loyalty is also created. Since SMEs have limited resources, it is important to find the right product/service when offering new products/services. Simple and short surveys on social media with potential customers as the target audience are an effective way to nominate the right product/service. This step will also have positive side effects in terms of increasing sales and brand perception. Providing the information that the customer will need when purchasing or using the product on the WEB site and making it easily accessible, and publishing videos on social media on this subject are very important for strengthening customer relations. While doing this, it should not be forgotten that the brand perception of an MSME is also carried upwards.
In this article, we aimed to make the digital world more familiar for MSMEs. The more MSMEs know about it, the more they will use it and the more they use it, the faster and more robust growth will come through.
