Importance of social media in the modern world is not unknown to us. Any business even small or large backed up by a social media presence will experience substantial growth in terms of brand awareness, improved interactions, customer engagement, increased profits and a lot more. It does not matter if you run a local shop or a large scale company, social media should be an indispensable piece of your marketing strategy.
There are many social networking platforms that help you connect with your customers, but all these are limited to an extent. To overcome the limitations of these social network platforms, what you can do is to create a social networking website for your business. Giving your customers an identity of their own can be fruitful in ways that you have never imagined before.
In today’s blog, we will tell you a few reasons why investing in a social media network can be a smart decision for your business. We will also let you know how you can create your own social networking website for your business in just a few easy steps.
Importance Of Social Media Networking In Business
Table Of Contents
- Increased Brand Awareness
- Improved Customer Interaction
- Providing Customer Support
- Reduced Marketing Costs
- Increase Website Traffic
- Making Your Content Go Viral
- Get a Domain Name and Hosting
- Install the Required Platform WordPress
- Installing a Dedicated Business Community Theme
- Installing and Configuring the Required Plugin
1. Increased Brand Awareness
With a social network of your own, you can make your customers a part of your business by allowing them to join your community and becoming a part of it. With a social community, you are giving your customers a distinct identity of their own which is related to your brand. This will make them feel valued which can encourage your content visibility, sharing and interest on the site. They can also help your business grow by word of mouth and sharing your content on other social platforms.
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2. Improved Customer Interaction
Another incredible benefit of a social network for your business can be improved customer interaction. Giving a platform to your customers to express their opinions, their preferences, their likings and connection with other customers can be a lot beneficial for your business as a whole. This will improve your customer base interaction which eventually will be profitable for your business. You can also engage your customers or members by posting attractive polls, feedback forms and asking for their reviews on your social networking platform.
3. Providing Customer Support
Customer support gets easier and affordable when you have a social network for your business. With an online community website, you can offer answers to your customer’s questions at one place without having to resort to long email threads. Moreover, with a social networking website of your business, you can also reduce your customer support cost as customers can help each other in solving problems which they have already been through or which are frequent.
4. Reduced Marketing Costs
Another major benefit of having your own social network is reduced marketing cost. Not every business can afford huge expensive campaigns. But with their own social network, they can concentrate on already acquired customer base and promote their product which will result in repeat purchases and higher sales without having to spend huge on marketing. A satisfied customer will always promote your service to the outside world.
5. Increase Website Traffic
A social media network of your own where you share great content can act as a fuel to increase your website traffic. People always get attracted to content which is not only visually appealing but also gives them something useful. Creating such promotional posts on your social network, taking care of the keywords used can really help in improving the traffic of your site. This eventually will make more prospective visitors interested in your products and generate more leads for your business thus boosting your sales.
6. Making Your Content Go Viral
As more and more customers start liking your content, commenting on it and sharing it on their social accounts, your content will get exposure from new readers. As customers share your content with their networks and their networks share them further, your content gets viral with thousands or even millions of share which will be completely organic.
How To Create A Social Networking Website For Your Business?
A professional social networking website can be a fully functional website to improve your sales, promote your products, services and establish effective communication with your customers. A more local, corporate social networking website for your business will unite your employees, customers and administration thus increasing their loyalty to the company.
Let us know how you can create a social networking website of your own using WordPress as the platform.
Get A Domain Name And Hosting
The first step in this guide is to get a domain name registered. A domain name should be such that it reflects your business and can be easily pronounced and remembered. Find a suitable domain name for your website and get it registered. Next up, you will be required to get a hosting plan for your website. You can check this article to choose a hosting service provider as per your needs.
Install The Required Platform WordPress
Next up, you will be required to install the platform on which your site will operate. In this case, we will suggest you use WordPress as your desired platform as WordPress allows you to create any type of website with full ease. Even if you are not aware of coding, this platform can be ideal for you. Your hosting provider will offer you WordPress installation services on your web server when you have signed with them. You can now log in to your WordPress admin dashboard directly from your account.
Installing A Dedicated Business Community Theme
Need a website along with a community feature requires a theme that is dedicated to your business. There are many WordPress themes available that allow you to create a fully functional business website of your own. But choosing a theme that is also ready to give you a community feature is a bit difficult choice.
To make this choice easier for you, our suggestion will be to go with Varuna Multipurpose WordPress Theme. This theme is a multipurpose WordPress theme allows you to create websites of various niches including a Business website. Furthermore, this theme is BuddyPress compatible theme allowing you to add community feature on your Business Website.
Other useful features of this theme include:
- Multiple Blog Layout
- Compatibility With Elementor, WooCommerce, BuddyPress and Gutenberg plugins
- Multiple Header & Mega Menu
- Unique Panel and Customize Options
- Consistent experience across all devices
- Creative Inner Pages & Layouts that can be easily imported and a lot more.
Installing And Configuring The Required Plugins
Once, you have installed a dedicated WordPress theme and have got the desired design for your business. Next step is to install plugins that will add the functionality required to create a social networking website. For this, you will be required to install a free plugin BuddyPress that will offer features to create a community website of your own. This plugin is the most popular social networking plugin and comes with features like activity streams, member profiles, private messaging, notifications, groups and more.
If you also want to add forum functionality to your community website through which your members can discuss various topics related to your business, you can install bbPress WordPress plugin that allows you to integrate a forum functionality to your website for free.
You can also install other BuddyPress add-ons to extend the functionality of your social networking website.
Your Business Community Website Is Ready!
Once you have followed the above-mentioned steps, all you need to do is to replace the demo content with your site’s content and start allowing your customers and team to become members of your social network website. Your business social network is ready to bring new leads to your business.
We hope you found this article on Social Media Networking In Business informative. If you have any suggestions for us, let us know in the comments below.
Interesting Read: Top WordPress Plugins for Social Media Marketing
