To say that social media networking sites are another breakthrough in modern technology is an understatement. With social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn accessible to over 3.6 billion internet users worldwide, people nowadays can interact with each other in real-time and share their ideas to almost every people connected to the internet around the world.
Today, it is almost impossible to imagine the world without social media. It certainly changed the way our society interacts with itself, and as such, its use does not only extend to the ordinary people but also to businesses as well. From local café to multinational corporation, the use of social media has become a common sight in the business environment these days.
Not utilizing the power of social media is one of the biggest mistakes your company can make, akin to not having a mobile-friendly websiteand effective SEO strategy.
If you think that social media will not affect the bottom line of your business in today’s digital age, then think again. Here is the lowdown on why your business should take advantage of social media to boost sales and brand image today.
- Reach and Interact with Your Targeted Audience Faster
Unlike traditional marketing tools, social media allows you to reach out to your targeted audience and build connection with them almost instantaneously. For instance, using the trending hashtags on Twitter and Instagram can help you find relevant people and influencers and interact with them real-time. You can read their status updates and tweets to see which brands and products they are buying, as well as the social topics they love to share and the websites they always visit.
Using the trending topics can also allow you to showcase your brand’s creativity in newsjacking. The Oreo’s clever tweet in 2013 Super Bowlhave been favorited and retweeted thousands of times in a just a few minutes, allowing them to dominate the social media world and reach more people instantly.
Aside from your target audience, you can also use social media to connect with influencers related to your industry. With just a simple tweet or status update mentioning their name, you can catch their attention and even entice them to work with you on a future project.
- Access Tons and Tons of Information About Your Customers
With billions of users worldwide, there can be no doubt that social media generates a huge volume of data at any given time of the day. On a daily basis, there are over 500 million tweets, 421 million Facebook status updates, and 95 million photos and videos uploaded to Instagram. With this huge amount of information, you can uncover real insights about your customers and their perception of your brand.
Through social listening and daily engagement with your target audience, you can gather information that you can use to create targeted ads and, more importantly, create more sound business judgments.
- Boost Brand Awareness and Loyalty
Having a strong social media presence can be likened to being a “famous” personality in the real world or a “landmark” in a particular place. When you bring your business into the social media sphere, you make it easier for your target audience to find and engage with you. And if you provide a memorable and satisfying social media experience to your audience, then you are more likely to increase brand retention and brand loyalty. In fact, a study by the Social Habit reveals that 53% of Americans who follow brands in social are more loyal to brands than those who don’t.
- It’s Good for SEO
One of the benefits of having an online presence is that it boosts your website traffic and organic search results of your business. The more people start sharing your blog posts from your website on their own network, the more traffic your website will get, causing it to climb much faster in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
According to Marketing Consultant Brian Honigman: “Today, links are mainly achieved through developing original content that is in turn, shared across social media. Links to your content on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube and other social networks help the search engines understand what websites are credible and should be ranked for what keyword phrases.”
Another thing to consider is that social networking sites themselves also search engines. Today, many people are also using social media channels to look up for products and services. Here are the following stats about social search:
- Twitter handled 1 billion search queries per day.
- In 2016, Facebook said it got around 2 billion search queries per day.
- As of March 2010, YouTube got roughly 7 billion search queries per month.
So, having an active social media profiles can certainly improve your brand visibility not only on Google but on social networks as well.
- It is Cost-Effective
Being able to create a social media profile for free is one of the most compelling reasons why you should use it for your business today. If you can run your own social media management, running a social networking campaign can be one of the cheapest marketing tactics at your disposal.
You can consider hiring a social media management or online PR agency that may require significant investment, but it’ll be an investment that will surely pay off in the long run. If your PR and writing skills are not yet honed, then an online PR agency is a way to go. As much as you can reach a wider audience, poorly written content or conveying ideas in a wrong way can inflict serious damage to your digital PR presence.
- Discover Untapped Markets
Using a social media management platform like HootSuite, you can set up groups of keywords to follow on Twitter as well as find people who are looking for the products and services you are trying to sell and entice them to directly visit your website.
You can also join tons of communities on Facebook related to your products, industry, or target market. You can show the genuine interest by asking questions or starting a discussion, then directly posting the links to your products if it fits their situation.
- It Will Improve Your Sales
With consistent social media posting and active engagement, social media enables you to boost your sales and customer retention. More and more businesses see this opportunity, with 84% of CEOs and VPs reporting they use social media to help make purchasing decisions.
Also, in the 2015 Sales Best Practices study from MHI Global, best-in-the-class companies rated social media as the most effective way to identify key decision makers and new business opportunities. Moreover, almost 75% of companies that used social media in their sales efforts reported an increase on their top line 12 months.
- You Can Compete with Much Bigger Brands
By infusing social media in your overall marketing strategy, you not only reach a wider audience but also compete on the same playing field as bigger players in your niche. People usually have higher acceptance on start-ups on social media. And if you provide them with quality content such as clever meme or useful information, they can help your brand go viral even just for a day, allowing you to level your name next to much bigger competitors in your industry.
In today’s digital age, having a strong social media presence can catapult your business into the greater height of success. Not only will it make your business more recognizable online, it also allows you to build better and stronger relationship with your target audience, which contributes to a better bottom line in the long run
If you’re looking for additional help with your landing pages or Business development generally, and are ready to see how we could help you, why not today? Or call 01 5349454