SMMEs need to maximise social media impact

Marwaan Sasman, owner and director of Pigeon Pie: Design Lab, an innovative and tech savvy agency, which is supported by the Innovator Trust through its enterprise development programmes, offers solutions that are delivered by the latest technologies.

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“Ensuring you have an engaging social media presence which offers value to its audience may sound like a daunting task, but it is about knowing how to build the foundation and prioritise relationships. That is the key to success on social media. The Innovator Trust has helped Pigeon Pie by providing it with the support to scale up its operations and help its clients reach success on these platforms.

“Social media is the perfect opportunity to create a platform for interaction and engagement with current and prospective customers, clients or audiences. In my line of business, relationships are key to our success and social media enables us to maintain and develop new relationships every single day. Social media is like a 24/7 networking event and every connection is an opportunity.

“The first step is understanding what you want to achieve. Your business objectives should be kept at the core of your plan – do you want to grow your network, make more sales and connect with key targeted decision makers? Draw up a map of all your business stakeholders or target audiences and prioritise them by importance and urgency. This will help you better understand whom you want to reach. Also, do your research on the different social media platforms available and where you are most likely to find and connect with your target audience.

“Remember, merely broadcasting to social media pages is not enough, you need to engage with the audience, interact and most of all, try to understand their needs. The more you understand your audience, the better you can serve them. Social media provides us with an opportunity that traditional media, such as TV or print, does not provide and that is real engagement.

“Different social media channels will serve different purposes to your audience. While the audience may like to see fun and visual content on Facebook, they may want to see timely and thought-provoking content on Twitter, or visually outstanding posts on Instagram. It’s all about understanding the context of the platforms you’re engaging in.”

Social media pages require commitment in terms of resources, time and quality in order to create meaningful channels that make a difference for the SMME.

“It’s time to revolutionise the way you think about marketing your business and social media could establish your offering and build relationships with the people that matter. Social media is not the future, it’s already the way our connected world works today, ensure you are not left behind,” concludes Sasman.

View an infographic created by The Innovator Trust titled How Social Media Can Propel Your Business.