Written by Lydia Ngwakwe

Digital marketing experts have strongly suggested that SMEs use the many available social media channels to increase brand awareness and sales.

During a Firstbank SME Connect webinar on Thursday in Lagos titled “Leveraging Social Media for Business Success: Best Practices and Strategies for Building Your Brand and Growing Your Audience,” industry leaders shared their insights.

Mr. Tobi Asehinde, founder of the Digital Marketing Skill Institute, recently gave advice to business owners, telling them to use social media to spread the word about their company.

He argued that businesses need to establish themselves as a trustworthy and well-known brand on social media if they want to raise awareness of their services among users.

Presumed credibility, reputed credibility (third party reference), surface credibility (use quality pictures to engage people), and earned credibility were the four types of credibility he named that business owners could use to their advantage when promoting their brand.

He suggested they start working together with other social media sites, such as Instagram life, to promote their brands by showcasing their faces or products.

His argument was that by the time their brand would be visible on those sites, consumers would no longer consider them to be a startup.

He claims this will immediately increase their sales and credibility.

Firstbank’s Head of Digital Marketing, Chinwe Bode-Akinwande, recently advised business owners to focus on building the middle of their sales funnel with engaging content.

Define your target audience and identify them, their interests, and the type of content they consume; this is essential no matter how big or small your business.

Establish your goals for your content marketing campaign.

Asking if a company calendar exists. You won’t be able to do your content scoring or even plan what to publish tomorrow without this.

“Deciding on a content formula will help you focus on the types of posts you want to make; eavesdropping is acceptable; investigate the newest developments in social media trends.

She emphasised the significance of maintaining your own identity and establishing your voice in the content creation process by recommending the above actions.

Also Read : Before and after Architect opens his own design firm

Head of Growth at Cashaam, a social commerce platform and marketplace for micro-entrepreneurs, Mr. Michael Olanrewaju, revealed three tips for small and medium-sized enterprises to successfully use Facebook Ads on WhatsApp and Amazon.

According to Olanrewaju, the fundamental concept behind generating revenue from Facebook advertisements through WhatsApp and Amazon is straightforward.

He suggested narrowing in on the perfect client, fine-tuning the ads to increase the likelihood of a sale, and fine-tuning the allocation of campaign funds.

Therefore, Olanrewaju revealed the strategies business owners could use to dramatically improve their abilities and expand their operations.

In order to make significant changes to your company, the first step is to hone in on your ideal customer. This involves learning about your customers’ wants, interests, and pain points so that you can tailor your marketing efforts to them.

In other words, if you take this action, you will increase the number of ideal customers frequenting your store.

“The second is maximising the effectiveness of your advertisements by focusing on a goal known as sales or conversion and adjusting your advertisements accordingly.