10 Reasons Why Social Media Marketing Makes Good Business SenseBeing at the top of your game in business means staying on top of what is current and relevant in the market, and that means using social media as part of your marketing strategy. Social media is the marketing tool of the millennium and if you haven’t yet implemented a social media marketing strategy here are 10 Key Reasons Why Social Media Marketing is important for Business.
- Web Traffic: Social media posts help drive traffic to your site as well as boosting its SEO. A solid and consistent presence on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram can greatly assist with directing visitors to your company’s website. The key however is well-place crafted and well-placed content. Engaging posts and calls to action with web links can assist with increasing web stats resulting in higher search engine rankings.
- Connectivity: Not in the technical sense but in the marketing sense. Social media can be a great tool to connect your business to your consumers as well as industry leaders. Interaction with your customers on social media allows businesses to not only put their products or brands directly in front of their audiences but also obtain valuable insights on things like spending habits as well as obtain their feedback. As well, social media ads allow for targeted marketing based on these insights making it far more likely for leads to be converted into sales.
Connecting with complementary and non-competing businesses is also a great use for social media. For example if an industry influencer talks about your product or brand share their information (repost, retweet, etc.) along with your social media links. This will garner further attention and may even result in further online interaction and sharing. Monitoring your social media is a great way to create marketing opportunities.
3. Customer Service: Social media allows for immediate response to customer questions or concerns. By quickly responding to a complaint and taking quick action towards resolution can result in positive customer feedback (studies have shown that consumers appreciate companies that respond to customer complaints).
4. Generating Buzz: The use of social media platforms can really leverage your business presence in social environments. If your business is involved in a fundraiser, media event, trade show etc., share it on your social media channels. This will help you get noticed and could potentially generate media coverage. Creating event hashtags for people to tag and share generates even more attention for your business or brand online.
5. Brand Loyalty: When your business engages and interacts on social media it builds your presence online and puts your brand forward. By being active on social media platforms you add personality to your corporate image making you more likable to your consumers and creating a loyal following.
6. Competitive Advantage: Being active and engaging on a variety of networks can put you at an advantage over your competitors. By creating an overarching presence online (being on multiple social media platforms) your business can get to potential customers first. Gaining those friends and followers online early earns their loyalty.
Merely being present however is not enough, once your business is poised in front it’s important to create clever, attention grabbing, useful and link worthy content. The social media marketing arena, for the most part is a level playing field which means content is king when it comes to getting traffic and increasing sales online.
7. Increased Sales: Social media helps making purchasing decisions. Many customers have been gained via the World Wide Web. Once again, being “social” keeps you in front of your customer base and when your brand is positioned in front of your consumers, they are likely to buy what you are selling. This is particularly true if you are giving them purchasing incentives. The social media network can drive sales through the sharing of things like coupon codes or by using keywords that will bring potential customers to you when they conduct a search.
8. Market and consumer research: Social media can assist with finding customers you may not have even known existed. This is particularly true in the case of Facebook. The site provides insights and analytics on its users allowing companies to target their posts to their specific demographics. Furthermore, by joining groups or pages on Facebook that are related to your products or services you are building an industry and customer base. Posting in these groups and/or answering their specific questions can influence them to visit your site and convert online traffic to sales.
9. ROI: Running a social media marketing campaign can cost virtually nothing. Social media is general is free to use which essentially means that a social networking campaign can cost minimal . If you’re the type of person who is not intimidated by online interaction, and can write well thought out content then your PR budget will be minimal. If you are uncomfortable with using social media on the other hand making an investment in a social media marketing agency can also benefit your bottom line. By outsourcing the work you are putting your digital PR presence in the hands of a qualified and professional team, such as Social Know How which is a time and cost-savings in the long run and will see a return on your investment.
In addition advertising on social media is rather cost-effective. Targeted advertising like Google AdWords or boosted posts on Facebook cost only a few dollars and can earn a large of amount of traffic in a short amount of time.
10. Fun: That’s right, using social media, even for business, is fun. Hosting Twitter parties, creating pop-culture polls on Facebook or photo challenges on Instagram are entertaining and engaging ways to build brand awareness, boost web traffic and build a loyal customer base. These non-traditional marketing strategies (when implemented and executed correctly) are amusing and valuable.
If you’re business isn’t active on social media than these reasons are now your incentive to get online and get social.
