Fifteen years ago, when Facebook was still The Facebook, many people questioned if social media was important for a business. Now that we see Facebook is still around (and probably here for good as Meta), most businesses treat social media marketing as a normal part of their marketing plan.
Is your managed IT services company using social media? Here's why you need to implement a prudent social media marketing strategy for managed IT services that will help attract and retain new customers.
Managed IT Services & Social Media
Let’s face it, it is difficult to market a managed services company. There is a general lack of understanding of what an MSP company does. And when people don’t understand what a company does, it is always harder to make a sale. Marketing for an MSP company needs to be clear, strategic and targeted. This is where social media can come into play.
Clients Use Social Media
The number one reason why your IT company should be on social media is that your clients use social media. According to a survey, the average person spends two hours and twenty-two minutes on social media a day. That’s a lot of time!
These numbers only appear to be getting bigger. Social media provides an IT company with a great opportunity to connect with existing or new customers. If your business isn’t on social media, it should be.
Social Media Improves Brand Recognition
Another advantage of managed IT services marketing on social media is it is a great way to improve brand recognition. Your company can have a fanbase of people on social media that support you just as other large brands do. Here is how social media can improve your brand recognition.
- It gives your company a little bit of personality. Your website, brochures and other marketing tools can seem a bit robotic. Social media allows for managed IT services to have fun and show a little bit of personality online.
- Unleash the power of hashtags. Hashtags can be used to help your social media posts receive more engagement. More people engaging with your brand equals increased brand recognition. Hashtags make it easy to uncover dedicated communities of potential fans. There is a hashtag for everything, yes even a managed it service company.
- Break your news online on your very own social media profiles. People love social media posts that they can reference. Comment on industry trends or happenings from your companies perspective. Social media helps you contribute to the conversation instead of sitting on the sidelines.
Marketing on social media is an effective way to increase your inbound traffic. This traffic can be directed to your company through email, phone calls, or even walk-in traffic. With every post you make on social media, your IT company has the potential to gain new customers. Your social media needs to be treated as a marketing tool to bring in new customers because it will.
People who have used your managed IT service can leave reviews about your company and it’s customer service. Marketers can also use promoted content and posts to sell your services to people who haven’t even heard of your company yet.
And what’s even better? Social media targeting allows you to be much more specific in your targeting than direct mail or other forms of marketing. This gives you better results when you are targeting the right group of people and doesn’t waste your time on people who probably won’t buy your services.
Legitimizes the Brand
Another way social media marketing can help IT companies is by giving them some credibility. We talked a little bit previously about the reviews people will leave you on your social media page after they have used your services.
Companies that have better reviews or a greater number of reviews are often ranked higher in search engines, meaning they will show up higher up in the search ranking of sites such as Google. This gives your company a lot of credibility.
The first thing people do these days when they hear about a company is they look them up online. If your company isn’t on Facebook that can look sort of fishy. A managed service provider should take advantage of all that social media has to offer.
Improves Customer Service
Social media marketing for IT companies also helps improve the customer service experience. Even if your business has a dedicated customer service department, phone number, and email address some people just prefer to handle their issue online via social media. Meet the customer where they are and use social media as part of your customer service.
People ask lots of customer service questions online on social media platforms. Smart companies encourage this behavior. This goes back to helping your IT company establish its brand in this case as a helpful, fast responding company who has their customer’s back.
People want to be assured that if they have a problem they can get help. Being receptive to your customer’s needs will help you increase your brand loyalty.
Distribute Content on Social Media
Social media should be a part of your greater content marketing plan.
Social media refers a lot of people on the web to different websites. People see something that they are interested in and click over to learn more. People also share topics that they are interested in online. If your company can produce content that people will want to read and want to share your business could get a lot of referral traffic from social media.
The Wrap Up
All of these points show that managed IT services do receive a lot of benefits to being on social media platforms. It isn’t a waste of time. Social media can help your company by being where your clients are and being apart of the conversation on your industry.
Social selling can also improve your brand’s recognition, increase inbound traffic and sales. Social media legitimizes your company and can help improve customer service. And it also provides an excellent way to get referrals from content your company distributes online.
If your company isn’t on social media, then sign up today. And if your colleagues ask you why, send them this post so they can read about the benefits of social media for themselves.
Also, be sure to check out our other business posts to help grow your business through social media. Visit the Tech and Social Media sections to learn more about managed IT services and social media marketing.
