There are over 5 billion active social media users, still counting, and out of which 36.72 million users are known to be in Nigeria. With that huge number of audience, it is safe to say that marketing your business on social media is visible and can propel your sales and grow your earnings exponentially.
Nigeria, as a developing nation like many African countries, also takes advantage of social media marketing to nurture its businesses. However, many of these sects do not have the right knowledge and experience and sadly, are not seeing the expected growth they wanted from the beginning.
We have been able to draw out most challenges businesses have experienced when it comes to generating growth for your brand and business. We would talk about these issues along with their solutions.
“Also, Mirald Scale Content is here for you. With our team of experts l, we can tailor your voice and content to align with your brand voice.”
In this guide, we will navigate you to the mysteries of social media marketing along with ways you can increase your brand visibility and finally drive growth.
What Do You Understand by Social Media Marketing?
Social media marketing centers around the use of social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google +, LinkedIn, and also WhatsApp of course. Social media marketing is carrying out your social media endeavors through social interaction using individual choice of social media platforms.
Unlike traditional means of marketing that does advertising from one source to many, with social media, you can promote peer-to-peer communication, giving many the choice to join in, or opt out, of digital conversations.
Now, in a layman’s tone, Social media marketing involves engaging in conversations, sharing content, posing questions, increasing website traffic, and enhancing visibility across various social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Nairaland.
Social Media Marketing in Nigeria
Numbers matter when it comes to marketing all over the globe and even in Nigeria. We cannot leave out analysis and data when we come under this topic.
As of April 2024, there were approximately 38.65 million Facebook users in Nigeria. This accounts for 18.5% of the country’s population. In May 2023, last year, men covered more than 58% of Facebook users in Nigeria, while women made up the remaining 41.8%. As a business person, what should be swimming across your mind is how to take advantage of these numbers.
Social Media Marketing Benefits for Your Business
Social media marketing drives businesses to reach their goals. Research platform, Statista says that one of the most recognized benefits of social media marketing is its increased visibility and exposure, increasing organic traffic and generating more leads also make the cut.
If your business or brand isn’t making use of social media marketing for its dealings, then you are missing out on the following benefits;
Brand Improvement
If you follow the right process, SMM can help humanize your brand while also creating trust, loyalty, recognition, and authority in the market/industry. One thing the “internet people” love to see is originality and authenticity in your content. One way of achieving this is to show people behind your brand as well as real users of your product.
Note this, showing off your brand values and putting the needs of both employees and customers first can help your brand shine uniquely in the marketplace.
“Mirald Scale Content provides consulting to help clients who want to manage their social media accounts but need guidance and support.”
Always Carry the Audience Along
What would be of us if we did not care for our audience? Social media, of course, is good for brand awareness, but one other important benefit is that it reduces the thin line separating the business and the customers. We mean, it gives companies like yours that chance to engage, reply to posts/messages, follow up with dissatisfied customers, and share user-generated content.
Social Media is really the opposite of traditional media. You can only do some of these on radio, television, newspapers, or magazines. Social media promotes interaction.
Gives Competitive Advantage
SMM helps a lot in this aspect. Many of your competitors are probably not handling their social media well (in fact, this is true for most businesses), and this is a great chance for you to outshine them by this means.
On the other hand, if you choose to stay away from social media, you’re giving your competitors a chance to attract your audience.
Affects Your sales and conversion rates
Effectively promoting your brand or a particular product on social media can significantly boost sales and conversions. This is ultimately the primary objective behind any marketing investment.
Although a large portion of leads generated from social media are typically at the top of the sales funnel, studies indicate that the average individual spends about 147 minutes, or almost two and a half hours, on social media daily. This extensive engagement means your content has the potential to reach a broad audience, and if it resonates well, it can encourage viewers to make a purchase.
Lastly,
Become a Recognizable Figure
You can tap the power of a voice from social media platforms. With consistency, your company can have a voice by publishing useful content on LinkedIn, having opinions on Twitter, or even sharing an authentic circular on Facebook and sister platform, Instagram. Doing this turns your business into a recognizable source and brand. It builds loyalty and trust among your customers over time.
Do not relent in any way. Social Media Marketing is a great place to begin to stand out as a leader in your niche and industry.
Social Media Engagement Tips
- Keep an eye on online discussions related to your industry, products, and brand. Utilize tools like RSS feeds, Twitter, Google Alerts, and various social media platforms to stay informed.
- Engage in these conversations by being helpful rather than promotional, which will help you build trust.
- Establish a personal connection by being recognizable; use the same name consistently, share a good photo, maintain transparency, and always be truthful.
- Be ready to assist others.
- Communicate clearly: Draft, edit, share with your team, and refine your content to achieve the best outcome.
- Broaden your network by connecting with fans, followers, and subscribers. Make it simple for people to discover you and join your community.
- Produce relevant and focused content. Tailor your material based on the feedback you receive, and be generous with your resources and links.
- Exercise patience.
- Incorporate visuals: It’s often said that a picture is worth a thousand words, and this is especially true on social media. Use images, videos, and graphics to enhance your content and make it more engaging.
Social Media Marketing Challenges and Solutions in Nigeria
Social media Marketing for small and medium enterprises comes with its own challenges that can affect achieving your goals, but there are also solutions for them. Some of the common challenges are algorithm changes, content creation, limited material and resources, having to deal with bad PR etc.
If you are working with a small budget as most businesses are today, then you will truly have to think creatively on how best to spend this money. It can be challenging to come up with content on a regular that is always interesting; however, solutions like running user-generated content ideas and theme-based products seem to work. Another thing to know is, always keep tabs on changes on these platforms and also the adjusting algorithms to make sure your visibility is not weak. Sadly, there are many organizations that face some negative publicity, but it is not as bad if a firm has a good crisis management plan in place. By dealing with each of these challenges on a direct manner, you will overcome hurdles and ease the ways to get to the success of your SME in Nigeria’s social media marketing strategies.
Improve your social media marketing today
At Mirald Scale Content, we support Nigerian SMEs to significantly improve their social media marketing efforts. With our understanding of the unique characteristics of the local market, we’ll help SMEs create content that resonates with your Nigerian audiences and reflects cultural values.
We are aware that many SMEs operate on tight budgets, so we’ll create high-impact content that doesn’t require a huge investment, including graphics, short videos, and educational posts that engage audiences. Our team can also repurpose your content [whether video or text; in any form] across different social media platforms, maximizing reach and minimizing cost.
Whenever you need to reach your business goals, reach out to us for more inquiries.
Conclusion
To summarize it all, businesses in Nigeria need to understand their target audience in order to create those engaging content. Creating content requires work and time and using the right message makes it much more profitable and makes them stand out from competitors. You can make use of user-generated content and the act of storytelling to convey your voice to the right audience.
