Staying Connected to Your Customers

As a business owner, one of the things at the top of your mind is how to promote your business and stay connected with current customers at the same time. Thankfully, social media for business does both! Most businesses in today’s market have a social media presence on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or all of the above. Maintaining an active and engaging social media presence can be more important for certain types of businesses – especially those that deal in pet care like a dog daycare and boarding facility. Pet parents want to know what’s going on with those they trust their beloved four-legged friends with when they’re away and they love seeing updates that include their pets! Who doesn’t love an adorable dog picture? Luckily, a dog daycare and boarding facility has lots of great opportunities for popular content when it comes to keeping an active social media presence. But beyond cute puppy pictures, here are some reasons why you should use social media for your business.

Interaction

Did you know that 71% of consumers say they’d recommend a brand to a friend if they’ve had a positive interaction with it on social media? That’s monumental! Having a presence on social media for your business, and maintaining it, is key in building your customer base. Word of mouth is still one of the most lucrative ways businesses find new customers and social media is where that type of referral lives in today’s market. Simply posting content isn’t enough, however. To have a successful social media presence, you need to interact with your customers. Pet care has sort of a built-in engagement opportunity through interacting with current customers, as noted below, but it also provides vast opportunity to bring in new customers as well. Positive interaction with current customers can lead to word-of-mouth referrals. If your current customers are interacting with your brand on social media, their friends may see it and be interested in your business! On the other hand, not every interaction on social media will be positive. Frequently, people use social media to air grievances about a particular business, that’s why it’s so important to keep current with your brand on all platforms. Quickly addressing a complaint or bad review about your business in a professional manner goes a long way in building and/or maintaining your reputation and can even turn out to be positive if it’s handled appropriately.

Updates

As noted, pet parents LOVE seeing their babies on social media whether it’s their own personal pages or that of a facility that cares for them. Pets are true members of the family for most people and that means they want to see updates when they’re away from them. Social media provides an ideal platform to keep parents informed and draw in potential customers. The best part is, snapping a few cute pics every day and posting them is easy! Today’s phones have stellar cameras which means it doesn’t take a professional photographer to capture the fun that all the pups are having at daycare and boarding.

Social media is another great way to keep pet parents or potential customers informed of upcoming events, hour changes, offerings, or simply new information. People may not see postings at your physical location or glaze over emails you send out. But if you make your social media page a place people want to come through engaging updates, they’re more likely to receive the information that you’re putting out there and share them with their own social networks. That helps you find potential customers where they already spend time at no extra charge or time commitment. Having frequent updates of engaging content promotes your business and your brand.

Brand Awareness

Perhaps one of the most obvious reasons to use social media for business is for brand awareness. According to market research, the average person spends 11 hours a day on some sort of social media platform. Reaching people where they already are is the easiest route when it comes to promoting your brand. Social media provides you the benefit of connecting to a broader audience, where they spend their time. Instead of casting a large net and hoping to snag those that may be interested in your services, you also have a platform that allows you to target specific groups by several different qualifications. Not only can potential customers connect to your brand through current customers sharing your posts, you have the opportunity to use social media advertising to reach more people that may not be familiar with your brand. Social media gives you a way to build a far-reaching yet affordable strategy to gain new customers and keep your current customers happy at the same time!

So, why use social media for business? Simple – it helps you connect to your current customers and reach potential customers for a relatively low investment of time and resources. It’s one of the easiest marketing channels to explore with a social-friendly business like dog daycare and boarding. As a bonus, if you partner with a trusted franchise like K9 Resorts, you’ll get baked in marketing support as well as an existing social network. It’s a win-win!